The SWAM Experience Expanded
PolySWAM takes the sound and response Audio Modeling built into its SWAM instruments and finally lets you play them polyphonically, bringing the physical modeling engines of all 37 into a single environment so an entire acoustic ensemble plays from your keyboard. Nothing here triggers fixed recordings. Every instrument's behavior is calculated as you play, giving SWAM its responsiveness and realism. Select a preset, and a complete ensemble loads ready to play, whether that's an intimate chamber group or a full cinematic orchestra. There's no layout to build or configure because the engine handles orchestration and articulation as you play, while Conductor macros let you direct the ensemble in real time. For composers, it means sketching an orchestration with a real acoustic ensemble instead of a placeholder piano. For performers, it means carrying one onstage without a second player. Both start the same way, with a preset and a keyboard, and from there, PolySWAM puts an entire orchestra under your hands.
Related Videos: PolySWAM Polyphonic Ensemble Virtual Instrument Software
Sketch with the real thing
PolySWAM brings a fully expressive acoustic ensemble to the sketching stage, where ideas are usually roughed in on a generic piano or a flat synth pad. Presets span intimate chamber groups, massive symphonic layers, punchy brass sections, funk big bands, and the cinematic combinations modern scoring calls for, so a draft arrives sounding like the piece you're actually writing. Sweetwater composers find this especially valuable early on, when an idea can reach full orchestral scale before the enthusiasm for it wears off.
Carry an ensemble onstage
SWAM instruments built their reputation for live performance with solo violin, saxophone, and woodwinds. PolySWAM extends that to entire groups, allowing a keyboardist to perform complex arrangements in real time with two hands. Since a live set offers no overdubs and no second takes, the engine responds as you play, switching between legato, staccato, and portamento based on how you shift between notes and chords, while Conductor macros shape the ensemble's expression on the fly.
Select a preset and play
There's no layout to build and no configuration to work through. Choosing a preset loads the right instruments, arranges them in a virtual room you can rearrange on-screen, and hands you a playable ensemble right away. Articulations are built into the instruments, so you change technique by changing how you play rather than by triggering a keyswitch or hunting through a list. PolySWAM directs the ensemble as a whole, so for note-by-note editing of a single instrument, Audio Modeling's SWAM Solo instruments remain the tool for that.
Audio Modeling PolySWAM Features:
- Polyphonic ensemble instrument for orchestral sketching and live performance
- Physical modeling engines from all 37 SWAM instruments in one playable environment
- Calculates instrument behavior in real time instead of triggering recorded samples
- Presets load full ensembles, from chamber groups to symphonic and cinematic combinations
- Instruments arrive positioned in a virtual room and can be moved on-screen
- Presets layer instruments or split them across your controller's key ranges
- Intelligent voice allocation spreads chords across players for clean voice leading
- Dynamic polyphonic legato triggers native SWAM transitions on melodic lines
- Analysis window absorbs the natural timing variation of live playing
- Conductor macros and state buttons shape the ensemble in real time
- Human Touch adjusts pitch intonation, timing precision, and dynamic alignment
- Articulations built into the instruments, with no keyswitches or menus