News

Internationally renowned pianist, music producer and digital entrepreneur Claudio Passavanti (Doctor Mix) and professional musician, musical producer, developer, programmer and CEO at Audio Modeling, Stefano Lucato, are happy to show you all the potential of SWAM Cello.

A keyboard, a pedal and a musician are the three crucial ingredients to allow SWAM Cello to sound precisely like a real instrument. 

Lucato has previously explained how playing with the bow position, by moving it close to the neck or the bridge, can make a difference in the auditory result of an interpretation. The same principle applies to SWAM Cello as well, where the bow position can be assigned to a knob to always guarantee a constant, flawless control of every little nuance of your interpretation.

Check this out!

Digital entrepreneur, music producer and pianist Claudio Passavanti, also known as Doctor Mix, and Stefano Lucato – CEO at Audio Modeling – ready to introduce you to the potential of SWAM Flutes in this quick video tutorial.

The SWAM Flutes technology delivers a wide spectrum of sound results and hence several different styles, spanning from simple classical sounds to more elaborate and expressive results such as those typical of ethnic music. 

One of the peculiarities of SWAM lies in its absolute simplicity of use. The interpretation and different sound variations don’t need any modifications on an interface level, as they all come from the way the musician plays the keyboard. 

New-generation virtual instruments like SWAM focus completely on the player’s musical skills and taste which, in this case, fully expresses the characters and styles of the flutes.

Stefano Lucato, CEO at Audio Modeling, and digital entrepreneur and music genius Doctor Mix are teaming up again to show you all the potential of SWAM Viola: so much more than a digital instrument!

In less than a minute and a half, and starting from a fascinating intro played by Lucato, you’ll have the chance to explore some of the features of the most evolved virtual viola on the market. 

Close your eyes and listen: It sounds like a real instrument, doesn’t it?

That’s the potential of SWAM: creating a synergy with the musician’s personal interpretation, and not simply reproducing a sound. 

Expression, portamento: by assigning MIDI to a knob, you can have all of that and so much more.

Here’s how a simple keyboard and pedal become all you need to play different styles and genres. 

Westlake Village, CA – March 30, 2020 – ILIO announced today a new distribution partnership with Audio Modeling, global leaders in multi-vector expressive acoustic instrument emulations. Audio Modeling products are now available from ILIO and its vast North American dealer network.

Through this partnership, musicians and composers across the United States, Canada, and Mexico can get local dealer service and support on Audio Modeling’s full line of cutting-edge virtual instruments and performance hosts, namely, their innovative SWAM Instruments and Camelot. In addition, Audio Modeling products are now fully supported by ILIO’s world-class sales and support team, made up of passionate and expert musicians and composers.

“We’ve always focused on quality, innovation and bringing the best virtual instruments, audio processors and plug-in tools to musicians”, says Mark Hiskey, President of ILIO. “We feel it a duty to our customers to provide the essential tools they need to make them great and excel in their careers, and Audio Modeling products definitely surpass that standard.” For over 25 years ILIO has been distributing world-class tools from many successful producers, such as Spectrasonics, Vienna Symphonic Library, Synthogy, Overloud and now, Audio Modeling.

“We are joining a family of successful products and successful brands,” says Simone Capitani, Product Manager and UX Designer at Audio Modeling. “Making great products is not enough, the entire customer experience is important. We are sure that with ILIO we can deliver the best customer experience, supporting our customers in North America with a great team of passionate and expert people.”

Audio Modeling products are available now directly from ILIO.com or from many authorized North American Dealers.

About ILIO

Founded in 1994, ILIO is a leading distributor of virtual instruments and audio processing software for the Pro Audio and MI industries in North America. They represent products used by hundreds of top-shelf recording artists, studio musicians, composers and producers. Their product lines include Spectrasonics, Vienna Symphonic Library, Synthogy, Applied Acoustics Systems, Overloud, Audio Modeling, Sonoma Wire Works, Delta Sound Labs, Deskew Technologies, and Hornberg Research.

Learn more about ILIO and all our partners at www.ILIO.com

Watch an introductory video here:

Can you imagine virtual clarinets that sound just like the real thing? In less than two minutes, Stefano Lucato, CEO at Audio Modeling, and Claudio Passavanti, AKA Doctor Mix, pianist, music producer and digital entrepreneur, show you how to obtain the absolute best by SWAM’s top-notch technology.

This is Doctor Mix reaction and questions about SWAM Clarinets:

“So, the SWAM Clarinet, I mean, this sounds really special. I’ve heard you do this sort of ethnic kind of attitude that you can pull that off with that. It’s amazing!

But listen, this does something that I haven’t heard do on the (SWAM) Saxophone because, of course, the saxophone cannot do it: you can do long portamentos! How do you pull that off? How do you do it?”

Watch the full video for the answers by Stefano Lucato.

Discover the best virtual clarinets on the market and find out how a virtual instrument can be as expressive and realistic as is natural counterpart in the video below.

Claudio Passavanti, the British-Italian pianist, music producer and digital entrepreneur known as Doctor Mix, had the chance to test SWAM Saxophones with Stefano Lucato in the video that follows.

In less than three minutes, you will have the chance to learn the tricks to squeeze the best out of the most advanced virtual saxophone ever conceived for musicians, composers and producers. Stefano Lucato explains how SWAM is based on a technology that uses a multi-vector sample morphing into a combination of physical modeling. The virtual instrument allows you to shape and control the sound like you would do with a real instrument. To the point that you can even hear the clicking of the keys – a detail that Doctor Mix notices right away!

After being surprised by the growl, triggered by after-touch, Claudio finds out a breath controller that can be mapped to the expression of SWAM Saxophones. To obtain a result that sounds more than natural: it does sound real in every way that counts.

Check the video below!

Claudio Passavanti, also known as Dr. Mix, is an internationally renowned pianist, music producer and digital entrepreneur. Stefano Lucato is a professional musician, musical producer, developer, programmer and CEO at Audio Modeling. Together, they create the perfect duo to guide you through a full demonstration of the endless potentialities of the SWAM engine and virtual acoustic instruments.

In this video, Claudio and Stefano explore SWAM through an engaging back and forth of questions and answers. They also give you a panoramic view of the most evolved virtual instrument technology on the market and, above all, they do it through practical examples.

Experiencing, testing, playing and jamming are the best strategies to discover the SWAM engine. The duo starts by highlighting the differences between a traditional sample instrument and a modeled instrument. Then they talk about the musician perspective when playing SWAM: a totally different concept that changes the conditions and mindset of sound emission. A perfect mix, between the emotional approach of every single player and scientific research theory by Professor Julius Smith (CCRMA – Stanford University).

Learn how vibrato, legato and portamento work on SWAM through the Camelot host and the difference between a prerecorded sample and a real time algorithm working differently with every single musician, composer or producer, according to their style, taste and personality. SWAM is the first set of virtual instruments that react like real instruments.

[Doctor Mix]: “Are you aware that what you’re doing here is fantastically futuristic?”

[Stefano Lucato]:“Yes, I think that physical modeling is a future technology. I don’t know why it has been abandoned in the past,” replies Lucato.

[Doctor Mix]:“Because it’s hard, but clearly not for you,”.

What do you think? Has the future already become the present when it comes to virtual instruments?

What are the needs of a keyboard player today? Probably one of the most important is being able to take advantage of all the available technology, without reading having to read many manuals or spending hours watching YouTube tutorials. Someone has chosen for setups entirely composed of virtual instruments but complains about the lack of a certain feeling and reliability during the execution. 

Someone prefers to use only “real” hardware keyboards, but the cost is higher and  you miss the undoubted advantages of virtual instruments. Camelot Pro allows to get the best from both worlds, having them all sitting at the same round table, no matter who the manufacturer is or if they are hardware or software!

Camelot and other options

I joined the Camelot Pro beta testing program exactly one year ago. Camelot Pro is a software that already bodes very well from the premises. Last year I published an article about Camelot Pro in SM Strumenti Musicali (a renowned Italian magazine about musical instruments), which was born straight after the first impressions on such collaboration. At that time, I was using NI Kore 2 (now discontinued) on stage and had recommended the most recent Cantabile and Mainstage to many friends. My cover band live performances require many sounds that replicate with accuracy the original records. But having three or four keyboards would have made my setup difficult to carry and inconvenient to use.

Hardware or software?
The eternal dilemma!

Playing only virtual instruments allows to comfortably present oneself on stage or in the rehearsal room with a simple laptop, a couple of master keyboards and a few cables. I can instantly recall all the sounds I want at track change with just one click. However, this solution has never given me the same satisfaction as playing real instruments. Furthermore, acting on a laptop is not the maximum immediacy in case of emergency or tweaking during the live. I had assigned the main parameters to some sliders and potentiometers of my master keyboards, but some operations always required acting on the Host GUI. NI Kore had the convenience of having a hardware interface replicated in software that increased its usability. Returning to “real” keyboards would have meant accepting compromises on the available timbres, weight and losing Total Recall.

The transition to Camelot

One of the first Camelot features that blew my mind is the ability to manage a keyboard like a virtual instrument. Moreover, its native graphic interface for touchscreens is like a big display of a workstation from which I can control everything, including virtual instruments, without a mouse. It’s as easy and intuitive as programming a keyboard. Camelot is so simple that in the beginning you get the impression that it is limited to a few functions. Instead, there is everything you need! So I started reprogramming the whole repertoire of one of my bands on Camelot. The operation was long, but quite simple: with just a few clicks and thanks to the Template feature, layers are created in which to insert virtual instruments or so-called hardware instruments “maps”, which are sort of drivers that command a keyboard or an expander.

A Setlist is a list of Songs that can be ordered as you like

Maps

Through a hardware instrument map I can browse preset lists of my keyboards. Clicking on it, Camelot recalls that preset. In the past, I had to take the manual, read the commands to send and enter them manually. Which I’ve never done, because it was faster to type in the preset number on my keyboard. This is definitely not the best choice, especially if you have three or more keyboards and if you need to change sounds quickly during a medley. A Map can also change the mode of the machine from Performance / Combi to Program / Preset. For those who know the Kronos Set List Mode or the Montage / MODX Live Set, this is practically the same thing, but extended to all our machines, virtual and “real” ones.

The list of maps is constantly expanding. For models not yet supported, custom maps can be created

The Refresh (dynamic maps)

What if I have saved User sounds on my keyboard or have I uploaded personal libraries? No problem: Camelot is able to connect to the keyboard and download the names of personal sounds via the exclusive system. Inside the maps there are also some faders that allow you to modify the parameters, such as the volumes of the parts of a performance, or some summary parameters via Control Change. Parameters that vary from instrument to instrument. Because in Camelot every tool has its own dedicated map.

Opening a Layer, you enter the modification of some parameters, in this case of a Montage Part

PDF

Camelot features a very simple function, essential in my opinion: you can upload scores or personal notes in PDF format. Before using Camelot, my notes were written on paper or in Kore’s Notes window. Both solutions were not perfect, so I began to use an iPad on which I displayed scores or scans of my notes. Camelot allows you to import standard PDF documents and match them with a Song or a Scene, also selecting which part of the PDF to show. In this way, the focus on the PDF changes as you play your piece, Scene after Scene. If necessary, you can add annotations to highlight difficult passages or mark notes to apply corrections to  the PDF file when you get home.

Camelot allows you to import standardPDF documents and match them with a Song or a Scene, also selecting which part of the PDF to show

Archive, Song and Scene

All the created songs are stored in the archive. There, you can build the setlist or the repertoires. Playing with different bands, for example, I created various playlists with the entire repertoire. Based on performance, you can create specific setlist very quickly and easily. Once the Songs are added to a setlist, I use a normal pedal switch to move from one another. If necessary, you can also use a double pedal, to move backwards in a setlist. And what about the Scenes? I personally use them for two purposes. The first is to differentiate the setting of the instruments within the structure of the piece: e.g. activating and deactivating instruments, modifying the relative level between verse and chorus, acting on the split points, transpose and other parameters. The second use is to quickly change between tracks in a medley. The change is immediate and uses, for those who have them, the technologies of transition from one sound to another without interruption.

A complex medley with several scenes

An integrated Master Keyboard

In Camelot, each Layer and each Item have a section that we could call “masterkeyboard”. Here you can filter certain MIDI commands, create layers, split, set semitone or octave transpose, connect MIDI IN and OUT as desired and perform routing of MIDI channels. Let’s better explain this feature with some examples.

MIDI filtering

Did you ever layer a piano with a pad? I guess millions of times. How annoying is the fact that sustain pedal also acts on the pad, mixing the sound? The (elementary!) solution is to enable the Control Change filter 64 within the item that contains the pad sound. I can filter any MIDI message, to satisfy every need. Obviously there is also transpose by semitones and octaves, global or for each Layer or Item.

I can filter any MIDI message, to satisfy every need

MIDI routing

All keyboards can communicate with Camelot by connecting via USB or via traditional 5-pole DIN ports or virtual ports. Camelot sorts all the messages generated by our keyboards or controllers, and can send them to a virtual instrument, or to the hardware tool we are playing, maybe after filtering or transposing a tone. Alternatively, you can send them to another keyboard instrument, because – this is my case – you have a weighted Master controller to control and play the piano sound generated by a synth, and you want to use the latter  (equipped with synth action keys), to play a virtual instrument or a connected expander.

MIDI Patchbay 

Layer and split

We can create as many layers as we want and assign a different sound generator to each one, to enrich a sound. Or we can open as many Items as we want within a layer and assign them to as many generators as our CPU can feed. In the Items, we can load maps of hardware and software instruments. Just use the “handles” on the keyboard, shown at the bottom of the window, to create split points. It is possible to layer more sounds at different Velocity levels, as well. This is a useful option for having Hammond and Mellotron in layers, enabling the latter to play only when the Velocity is above 100. This way, I can add it or not, by simply…playing.

An example of a layer with three sounds splitted by range and velocity

Only for keyboardists?

The Camelot community is continuously expanding thanks to the timely technical support of the AudioModeling team. Camelot begins to appear also on important stages: among these, the one of Vasco Rossi (one of the most loved Italian pop/rock artists), where all the setup by Alberto Rocchetti (Vasco’s historic keyboardist) was managed by Camelot, expertly programmed by Fabio Nuti (his keyboard tech). Not to mention Jordan Rudess, who took part to the early stages of Camelot Design supporting it personally. So far, we only talked about keyboard players. Nevertheless, other musicians can also rely on Camelot for the selection of presets, management of scores, singer’s multi-effect and in future also Backing Tracks. Even my drummer is interested, because Camelot allows him to manage the metronome tempo changes within the medleys! That has been my experience so far, I warmly recommend to everyone to download the free version for Mac and Windows and sit down at the Camelot round table!

We can associate a metronome tempo to each Song and Scene, set it with Tap Tempo, synchronize it to an external application and send the audio click to a separate output dedicated to the drummer

Article written by Stefano Airoldi and published on the magazine SM Strumenti Musicali (a renowned Italian magazine about musical instruments)

Have you ever wondered what does it mean to play expressively with the Viola?

We asked Danilo Rossi, Principal Viola at Teatro alla Scala in Milano.

According to Danilo Rossi, to play in an expressive manner we need to keep in mind 2 things: a technical clear idea (of what we’re doing to be expressive) and a clear musical idea about the phrasing, the tension, the direction: all the components that make a phrase really expressive.

The requirement is that the expressive idea has to be generated by a need, as far as the technical part is concerned, according to Danilo Rossi, there are some fundamental techniques to be taken into consideration, first of all the creation of a phrase “line” that never stops.

Any strings instrument player has a great chance to play a phrase “melody” like a lead vocal singer: the most natural line that teaches us better what’s the phrase, what’s the expression. However, singing has a limit: the breath ends!

Acoustic strings players have the same limit, because the bow actually ends! Trained players have developed a skill to compensate and hide the “bow change” action on the sound…without any audible interruption. So in this way, the bow becomes infinite, and it’s a great result! Said that, the melody, should be considered as an imaginary “line” that never ends and it is so strong that never breaks.

The bow management it’s fundamental for the expression, with important additions: the bow weight, the bow speed and how the players balance and modulate them.

The bow speed is closely related to the amount: if we use more bow, it is because we are using it faster, given a unit of time measurement. Even if we use the bow slower, given a unit of measure of time, we will use less bow. So speed and quantity are related.

Another bow factor is the point of contact (bow position): playing closer to the keyboard is different from playing closer to the bridge, but the player always makes the choice before playing.  

According to Danilo Rossi, playing in expressive way is the same thing to act a poem. There is a substantial difference in performance by an ordinary person or by a great actor. The words, or in the case of music: the notes, will always remain the same, but what makes the result completely different is the expressiveness (given by the actor or the musician).

To play with expressiveness we need to consider another important variable: the vibrato. For Danilo Rossi the vibrato is the best and the most important sound accessory and it allows to characterize even more a melody. But it has not so much sense reasoning about vibrato, without first considering the basics, the fundamentals of how we can create the sound.

This is the reason why – Rossi says – the most important technical things are: practice the gesture, with the long duration notes, so the long and slow gesture of the right harm in relation with the string strength. 

Regarding the Viola there is a very important details which is an essential key point: when we play closer to the bow frog we naturally are heavier because the arm is bent, so the more we move closer to the tip, the bow gets lighter, so our weight is reduced.

A second Viola’s crucial aspect, is that each string has a different sound emission and behaviour: to get the same kind of sound, the violists must know that in the G string needs a certain weight and a certain speed, and the more the player goes towards the first string, the weight decreases and the speed increases; so it is inversely proportional to get the same type of sound.

What does it mean? It means that in reality, each string has its technique. On the basis of these fundamentals we are going to create a tension and then we go to choose what kind of expression we want. At the end we can say that without the basics (we just spoke about) the results are almost limited, or probably random.

Do you know how Audio Modeling adventure began?

You won’t believe it, but everything started with just an email!

Stefano Lucato has always been thinking of a new sound technology and he needed a software engineer who could help him setting up his idea. He was looking for a smart and dynamic professional with skills in programming and audio processing.

It was September 12, 2009 when Stefano Lucato googled “Sviluppatore VST” (that means “VST Developer” in Italian) and he found Emanuele Parravicini (Lele) as the first result. 

Stefano emailed Lele and he replied in less than 24 hours. Few days later they were in the same room talking about innovative sound technologies, and it was the “Big Bang” of what we now call “SWAM”.

Audio Modeling was born later in 2017, after several years of collaboration with the same passion, more experience and new challenges. But everything started with a click of a (Send) button on September 2009.