SWAM Viola

What it does

The solo viola in Audio Modeling’s SWAM line, physically modelled rather than sampled. Tremolo, bow direction, bow lift, bow pressure, bow position, harmonics, vibrato, alternative fingering and polyphony modes including a chord hold all take MIDI learn, arrows step through viola timbres including an electronic one, and reverb and EQ are built in. On a device with face unlock the front camera can drive a parameter, and it loads standalone or as an AUv3.

In the demo

Jade works inside GarageBand over a two chord string backing with the viola part removed. She turns on the camera control and moves vibrato by opening her mouth, plays from a keyboard and a nanoPAD, then assigns the Y axis of the plugin’s own keys to vibrato depth, harmonics and bow pressure, her point being that the app ships a way to play it expressively with no controller at all.

Worth knowing

This is the solo viola, not SWAM Viola Section, which layers several players and carries its own listing and price. MIDI mapping is left to the next show in the run.