# The Audio Modeling SWAM String Orchestra



## rohandelivera (Jan 23, 2018)

Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings, Op. 48, Mvt 1

16 SWAM First Violins in 4 stage positions
14 SWAM Second Violins in 2 stage positions
12 SWAM Violas in 3 stage positions 
10 SWAM Violoncello in 2 stage positions
7 SWAM Basses in 1 stage position

Midi CC Performance with Tec Midi Breath Control, and Leap Motion VR controller.


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## ghandizilla (Jan 23, 2018)

How many months did you spend on this utterly insane project?! Really impressive.


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## LHall (Jan 23, 2018)

Wow - very nice!!
Did you perform each track separately? Or did you copy/paste tracks? Playing the Vi I part 16 times would be a chore, but always worth the trouble I would think.


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## Sunshy (Jan 23, 2018)

Nice. Back when music had melody.


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## givemenoughrope (Jan 23, 2018)

Wow! 
ok...
Curious what Mac can handle all these instances of SWAM, what reverb or spatializer (and if SPAT might help?), how you proceeded (just solo lines first and if so which ones first?) and how long it took. 

Very nice!


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## Garry (Jan 23, 2018)

Incredible! SWAM are my favourite orchestral instruments, but never heard them as an ensemble, and never imagined they could sound this good. To my ears at least, this is indistinguishable from the real thing. Congratulations.


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## TGV (Jan 23, 2018)

Sounds really good. The dynamics are somewhat exaggerated in comparison to my favorite performance (e.g., the high strings are rather soft when the celli play the melody), but it's very convincing as a performance.


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## Silence-is-Golden (Jan 23, 2018)

impressive accomplishment and a brave idea! This project won't be a quicky to get set up.

lovely piece from Tchaikovsky ...... has been some time since I heard it


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## Casiquire (Jan 23, 2018)

This is truly impressive, is it something you can set up a template for and get going pretty quickly or does it take a lot of lines being played in? Great work.

I do agree that the soft dynamics are far too soft, maybe a bit of compression. Otherwise it's quite convincing.


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## I like music (Jan 23, 2018)

rohandelivera said:


> Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings, Op. 48, Mvt 1
> 
> 16 SWAM First Violins in 4 stage positions
> 14 SWAM Second Violins in 2 stage positions
> ...




I _need_ to know how to did this. I'm assuming that for each stage position, you used one of the different presets that come with the SWAM instruments e.g. Instrument A, B, C, D? Or did you tweak each performance so that each line sounded slightly different?

Very impressive. Would love to here a very quick line done too, but given the potential effort required, I won't ask you to do this


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## StefanoLucato (Jan 23, 2018)

Amazing Job Rohan !
Sounds impressively good. 

Stefano Lucato
CEO
Audio Modeling


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## aaronventure (Jan 23, 2018)

omiroad said:


> Tell us your secrets O_O
> 
> Specifically: which parameters do you modulate?



You can see in the video. The shot on the thumbnail. 

All of them.


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## Saxer (Jan 23, 2018)

Great work @aaronventure!

Looks like all tracks was freezed after recording to set the CPU free again.

I experimented with SWAM string sections and the TEControl too.
My biggest SWAM section is 9/7/6/5/- up to now and is divided in tracks á
5 Vl1-a
4 Vl1-b
4 Vl2-a
3 Vl2-b
3 Vla-a
3 Vla-b
3 Vlc-a
2 Vlc-b.
So I have to play 4 tracks and copy midi from a to b (or play divisi).
I can play it in realtime without freezing using a slave PC but I still have crackles on full tutti.

Your mix and performance sounds great!

What I miss in the SWAM section (not in your track) is the pp-behavior. It doesn't sound as noisy and whispering as a real section when the tonal part of the note disappears in a decrescendo but you still can hear the bow noise. It sounds more like a mf-section with less volume. That's why I mostly add some samples on top.


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## pmcrockett (Jan 23, 2018)

The holy grail for a workflow on something like this would be a script that takes a single track as an input and generates an arbitrary number of additional tracks that flesh out the section with enough parameter variation for acceptable layering.


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## maestro2be (Jan 23, 2018)

That's definitely impressive what you did there. But it looks extremely painful to produce lol.


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## devonmyles (Jan 23, 2018)

Wow, seriously great work...
Top stuff.


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## germancomponist (Jan 24, 2018)

This is exactly how it works in nature.: Many solo-strings together are a section. In the past I did so many experiments with sampled string instruments, but now we have such good virtual instruments. Bravo @aaronventure!


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## rohandelivera (Jan 24, 2018)

ghandizilla said:


> How many months did you spend on this utterly insane project?! Really impressive.



 surprising, but not long. A couple of hours for tracking and mix.
My orchestral template it now all SWAM / SM so everything is set up, ready to go.

That said It took me a while to get my mix and figure out how to get the staging. My template was tweaked over the course of many projects over the last year and is a work in progress.

Appreciate the props.


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## rohandelivera (Jan 24, 2018)

givemenoughrope said:


> Wow!
> ok...
> Curious what Mac can handle all these instances of SWAM, what reverb or spatializer (and if SPAT might help?), how you proceeded (just solo lines first and if so which ones first?) and how long it took.
> 
> Very nice!



Thank you. Just a stock Mac Pro. 32G RAM, and SSDs. The Magic freeze button takes care of everything.


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## rohandelivera (Jan 24, 2018)

Garry said:


> Incredible! SWAM are my favourite orchestral instruments, but never heard them as an ensemble, and never imagined they could sound this good. To my ears at least, this is indistinguishable from the real thing. Congratulations.




Thanks mate.


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## rohandelivera (Jan 24, 2018)

StefanoLucato said:


> Amazing Job Rohan !
> Sounds impressively good.
> 
> Stefano Lucato
> ...


 
Grazie Stefano


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## Rob (Jan 24, 2018)

Great job, I’ve done something similar for quite a while, including my experiments with the yamaha vl synth... this sounds so much better, and very expressive, though it still retains some of the synthetic quality, especially in the f attacks...


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## rohandelivera (Jan 24, 2018)

pmcrockett said:


> The holy grail for a workflow on something like this would be a script that takes a single track as an input and generates an arbitrary number of additional tracks that flesh out the section with enough parameter variation for acceptable layering.



Good point - I suspect the genius types at SWAM are already thinking about this.

There's one big hurdle though, an AU would need to post process a midi performanceand I'm not sure this is possible (Yet). I could be wrong. 

What I mean is, for example: a real ensemble doesn't act like a single player, everyone starts and ends a note differently, sometimes late, sometimes early; this blurring is an important part of an ensemble sound. A script would need to analyze a midi performance first and then create new tracks with variances. 

Also the performance parameters of an instrument cannot be varied randomly, it all needs to be in a musical context.


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## rohandelivera (Jan 24, 2018)

Just for some context. Here is the real thing. Just realizing my interpretation is a tad de-caff.

Again, thanks for listening. Appreciate all the comments


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## Lee Blaske (Jan 24, 2018)

Fantastic job. Really sounds convincing. If I hadn't known it was virtual, the only thing that would have made me question it was the short note from the entire orchestra at :48. Did you use an actual performance as the base, conductor track?


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## Phillip (Jan 24, 2018)

Rohand, congratulations on great work. On the First Violins did you roll off hi end with the EQ? Thank you.


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## sherief83 (Jan 24, 2018)

Amazing effort Rohan. i'm also sold on the Swam engine. I'm loving my sample modeling brass and can't wait to get my hands on this string package!


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## Straight2Vinyl (Feb 14, 2018)

I have the string section and am attempting to get a decent small ensemble sound for pop recordings. I can't imagine how long it would take me to pull of something like this though!


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## YarKirGen (Apr 22, 2018)

rohandelivera said:


> Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings, Op. 48, Mvt 1
> 
> 16 SWAM First Violins in 4 stage positions
> 14 SWAM Second Violins in 2 stage positions
> ...



Great work! Can you please answer some questions:
1) All the same parts (I mean 16 first violins part for example) recorded individually or copied with special template, that do parts "human-like" (e.g. little changes of velocity, expression, note lenghts etc)?
2) Can you please share your EQ settings?


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## rohandelivera (May 23, 2018)

YarKirGen said:


> Great work! Can you please answer some questions:
> 1) All the same parts (I mean 16 first violins part for example) recorded individually or copied with special template, that do parts "human-like" (e.g. little changes of velocity, expression, note lenghts etc)?
> 2) Can you please share your EQ settings?



This post will help https://vi-control.net/community/th...h-swam-and-sample-modeling-instruments.69970/


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## pipedr (Jun 18, 2018)

Superb work!

I wonder—Chris Hein promises a similar approach building up an orchestra from individual solo instruments, but with samples. 

What do you think are the pluses and minuses of working with samples a la Chris Hein vs with modeled SWAM instruments?


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## Casiquire (Jun 18, 2018)

pipedr said:


> Superb work!
> 
> I wonder—Chris Hein promises a similar approach building up an orchestra from individual solo instruments, but with samples.
> 
> What do you think are the pluses and minuses of working with samples a la Chris Hein vs with modeled SWAM instruments?



More control over vibrato, individual instrument control would be my main two


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## rohandelivera (Jun 19, 2018)

pipedr said:


> Superb work!
> 
> I wonder—Chris Hein promises a similar approach building up an orchestra from individual solo instruments, but with samples.
> 
> What do you think are the pluses and minuses of working with samples a la Chris Hein vs with modeled SWAM instruments?



Thanks

With sampled instruments, layering several solo instruments is not a particularly successful way to make a convincing ensemble. At most you’re varying intonation, staggering envelopes and dynamic layers... Which is why you have sampled ensembles. The major plus of a which is convenience. And in the hands of a good orchestral programmer all you need.

The major plus of a modelled instrument is its infinite timbre and articulation. When executed in a musical context, correctly staged and mixed you can make a much better section than any sampled equivalent.

Alas the cost is convenience. (for now at least)


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## Rilla (Apr 9, 2019)

That was absolutely beautiful. As good as the libraries sound, I've never heard any sound this human.


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