SWAM Tuba Eb

What it does

The E flat tuba in Audio Modeling’s SWAM brass line, modelled rather than sampled, so the note keeps responding to the controller as it sounds. Expression, velocity, vibrato, growl, flutter tongue, tongue attack and breath noise are on the panel, and nearly all of them take MIDI learn. Pipe gestures step between half valve, normal valve and half trans valve, mutes cover straight, cup and hand, and the timbre page reaches bell resonance and micro tuning.

In the demo

Jade plays it from an Arturia KeyStep 37 with an iRig Stomp IO on the floor supplying expression. She puts it against the bass tuba and says the difference sits in the timbre, clearest when the keyboard is transposed across octaves, then plays one note through both tubas and the horns in turn.

Worth knowing

Sold on its own and inside a Horns and Tubas bundle alongside the bass tuba, the euphonium and the two French horns. The panel matches the other four apps.