SWAM VariFlute

What it does

A physically modelled flute rather than a sampled one, so the instrument itself is adjustable: aperture, pipe length, bore diameter and body material from wood through plastic to metal, across three pipe types, an open pipe, a closed pipe with a slide, and a multi pipe pan flute. Presets cover classic, alto and bass flutes, recorders, a tin whistle and a shakuhachi. It opens Audio Modeling’s Discovery series, and the download is 56 MB.

In the demo

Jade plays it from a keyboard with no expression to show how flat that sounds, then MIDI learns a volume pedal to expression, reshapes the response curve and puts flutter tongue on a knob. She also drives it from GeoShred set to MIDI out, as an AUv3 and standalone.

Worth knowing

Without a breath controller, expression pedal or MPE surface it behaves like a static sample, and pushing expression too far overblows into wrong notes, so there is real learning involved. The pan flute is mono and will not hold chords.