SWAM Soprano Sax

What it does

The highest of the four SWAM saxophones, physically modelled instead of sampled, so tone comes from expression, velocity, vibrato and growl while the note sounds. An expressivity page exposes vibrato depth and rate, growl and overblow for finer editing, a timbre page steps through warmer and brighter versions of the horn, and a compressor, EQ and reverb section is built in. It runs standalone and as an AUv3.

In the demo

Jade takes it last of the saxes, steps through its variations, then digs into the expressivity page to pull the vibrato rate down and hear how extreme it gets at the edges. She settles on a warmer variation where the breath carries, adds effects and plays over an Afro jazz backing.

Worth knowing

The upper register is exposed and the expression pedal does most of the work, so this is not one to judge from a keyboard alone. Each SWAM woodwind sells separately, with a Saxophones bundle covering the set of four.