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Any good woodwind app out there?
Hi folks!
I've been using Crudebite's Heavy Brass for a while, and getting quite impressive results with it. Is there any similar app in iOS, but of a woodwind ensemble instead of brass?
Dimitri.
Comments
ThumbJam has some pretty nice woodwind sounds in it.
As Sampletank has, specially for individual winds, but I am hoping for something like Heavy Brass: a dedicated woodwind machine, plenty of typical articulations and ensemble combinations.
Miroslav in app purchase in Sampletank
Is it as flexible as Heavy Brass? Sampletant instruments are good, but their articulation range is rather limited: is it different with Miroslav? Will it allow me to chose, e.g.: different combinations of woodwind instruments?
Thank you both for the comments, @rickwaugh and @RedSkyLullaby btw: I much appreciate it!
Talking of Crudebites, nothing in the isymphonic that suits? Imagine that GB's choices are not up to your snuff....
The vento pack should fit no ?
@pierre Certainly more there than I can make educated use of...
Is it safe to get out from under the kitchen table yet?
iFretless Sax?
Thank you, @Brain! I was thinking more of something in the lines of Heavy Brass, but focusing on woodwind ensembles, kind of a "woodwind ensemble machine"; iFretless is a solo instrument, and most symphonic libraries offer mostly single instruement samples and often only one or two wood ensemble samples, with little to zero control of articulations, choice of instruments to be played together etc.
P.S.: besides, Heavy Brass includes a sax in the ensemble, as most "brass" or "horn" ensembles used in pop, funk, sould etc also do.
P.P.S.: @pierre, nice tip. Perhaps it's exactly what I want. The downside is it's part of iSymphonic, not a standalone app. But it deserves a closer look.
The SSO Soundfont has some nice sounding woodwind instruments - easy enough to find online and play in something like Bismarck's b16i, or, if you have MusicStudio, it comes with the SSO orchestral sounds baked in.
The woodwinds are nice and you can layer them up using 4 parts in sample tank
Have you tried MidiPipes? Makes no sound, but might help give you a certain pipe like playing quality to some sounds.
Living in the iPhone backwoods I don't have access to all the fine (I hear) music app offerings the iPad city-slickers are graced with. Hence I can only opine what I know. Any of the iFretless apps are on my faves list!
Old thread. Rediscovering it while searching for ways to integrate woodier sounds in my musicking, especially while playing with my WX-11 Wind Controller.
Didn’t know about Heavy Brass. Might give it a listen.
Apart from cost, an issue with all these romplers is that they up a lot of space. And many of them are iPad-only.
Wonder if there’s any woodwind app based on physical modelling. You can get some pretty interesting results with the Synthesis ToolKit on desktop and there are ways to create iOS apps out of it. AFAICT, Ge Wang’s Smule apps are built on something which includes the STK. Wish he’d create some AB-compatible apps...
Hey Enkerli,
EWI USB player here. Sampletank has been a good source of woodwinds for me using the Miroslav library, but it lacks aftertouch. Alina string ensemble responds to aftertouch really nicely and sounds like old Pink Floyd organ/strings sounds, but is not an acoustic emulation. I tend to use individual instruments as opposed to sections too.
WIVI Band uses physical modelling and sounds really good. No AB, though.
GarageBand has some options. I'm an iSymphonic user and like a few of the woodwinds in there too and would recommend, but with cost and app size being a concern I thought that a SoundFont player like Bismarck bs-16i might work for you.
Nice! Do you like it? Heard a lot about the EWI 4000S and 5000, but not about the USB model.
That’s a bummer! No way to route CC to affect the sound in an appropriate way? And it does support breath control? That, to me, is the major difference between sounds which work with my WX-11 and those sounds which don’t, regardless of the actual timbre.
That sounds really interesting! Don’t necessarily need acoustic emulation to have fun. In fact, been having a blast with very synthy sounds through MainStage. Might give it a try. Thanks for the suggestion! Would probably never have heard of it, otherwise.
Talk about a blast from the past!
You got a point, of course. Just wish that sound engine were used for something more “modern”. Surprised Apple hasn’t killed this app.
True. And it’s already on my devices, so no extra space needed.
Will probably give this a try. There are some decent soundfonts out there and it’s possible to cut down on size by only loading one at a time. My key problem with anything sample-based is that you need lots of layers to get much expressiveness from velocity and breath control. But it’s worth a try.
Come to think of it, my wishlist has two main dimensions. One is about getting “woodier” sounds than what is typically done in straight synthesis (virtual analog or FM). In this case, sample-based methods can work well. The other, is to have softsynths which respond well to my windcontroller. And that’s covered by many apps with a few tweaks in MIDI Learn. One app which should cover both is iWavestation, but haven’t tweaked the controls enough to get the best results.
I feel like Zed Synth with its physical modelling aspects might play well with a wind controller but I can't personally attest to it.
Yeah, a shame, that and the desktop development just seemed to fizzle out. Still sounds good, though.
Interesting! Hadn’t heard of it. And the fact that it can be used to process another app’s audio makes it even more intriguing.
Wonder if AB3 will motivate the developer to update the app. Not that it’s so old, but there’s too much abandonware on the App Store not to be careful.
Thanks for the suggestion!