I found it necessary to explore this rather under-documented feature in an expression map for SWAM solo strings. While the strings are quite good in general, the Bartok pizz is far too polite. I found a fair snap pizz in another library, so I put it into a separate channel, then modified my expression map to route just the Bartok pizz over to that library.
I’m hosting all of the instruments in VEPro. The SWAM basses are in Channel 1 and 3, with the substitute Bartok Pizzes in Channel 2 and 4. The expression map sets up a Base Switch for Bartok/Snap Pizz to use a relative channel Switch of +1. I can see all this working in the plugin windows for the instruments. It appears that CC11 (which that Base Switch declares as the primary volume dynamic is sent over to the relative channel, even for other articulations. This keeps expression up-to-date and is a good thing. But I want to make sure that’s the intended behavior. For the Base Switch, I set the Off event to be a relative switch of 0, but I don’t know if that’s necessary or not.
This is almost everything I need to do in this case. The only problem is that my substitute pizz doesn’t have quite the tessitura of the SWAM instrument. It would be lovely to have a pitch-related condition that I could add to this Base Switch. This would let me route over the note values when the substitute can play the note and keep it in SWAM when I’m outside of that range. But as it stands now, note-length is the only available condition.
Back to the “under documented” aspect of the Channel Switch. I assume–perhaps wrongly–that any keyswitches or CCs before the Channel Switch will go to the basic channel of the instrument. By the same token, would keyswitches/CCs after the channel switch go to the alternate channel?
Maybe this is not what you want to do but to reach your goal of having a second library play you snap pizz you can simply allocate all sections with that articulation a separate voice. You do this with shift+v with the first section with the snap pizz highlighted and just pressing v with the other snap pizz sections highlighted. Next you activate independent voice playback and last you keep your Swarm for the main voice and allocate the snap pizz library with it own expression map to the second voice.
All this also works when both libraries are in VEP.
Thanks mavros. I’ve tried a few things with the independent playback for each voice. For some reason, I find that to be one of the things I dislike about Dorico. I’m certainly not averse to using multiple voices, but for me that’s just for clarity in performance. The whole up-stem/down-stem philosophy (laid on top of multiple voices) has really been a pain. I actually tried to do that with SWAM strings because of the dubious way that double-stops are implemented in SWAM. But the combination of uglies is just a little too much for me at present.
Hi Michael,
I use SWAM with my Akai EWI. Perhaps there is a setting in the SWAM instrument setup that would achieve what you want? (I’m not sure what you’ve tried or exactly what you’re after. I’m also not adept at Strings!) I have spent a lot of time adapting the SWAM profiles to suit my playing style and setup so maybe I can help point you toward a solution. I know there are others who use SWAM with Dorico and may have some ideas as well.
— Jim
Hi Jim and thanks for your response (by the way, I think the EWI is pretty neat). I’ve got my own presets with a number of controllers tied to expression maps in Dorico. Overall I’m pretty happy with what I’m getting.
The problem I’m trying to get around now is fundamental to the SWAM strings. The underlying model is quite good, but it doesn’t really get the combination of string, fingerboard and body that give a satisfying Bartok pizz. There’s an additional bit of strangeness in that getting the effect is based on velocity of a regular pizz. That’s awkward. My expression maps and presets are cognizant of that, so I can get whatever SWAM offers in that regard. Problem is that the effect is barely noticeable. It also sounds very close to the col legno battuto sound that’s in SWAM. Bartok pizz is a pretty aggressive and impolite sound and SWAM simply doesn’t go there. That’s why I have to pull that out of a different library.
But while I’ve got your attention, I assume you’ve had more experience with SWAM woodwinds. I use them and am also largely satisfied with what I’m getting in conjunction with Dorico. One thing that seems to be missing is a good honest keyslap sound. There are keyclicks of course, which can be helpful in imparting a bit of naturalness–especially in pianissimo work. But I can’t seem to get a real keyslap. I’m talking about the sound a woodwind player can get with a hard slap of the key, combined with a little spit of breath. It’s a percussive sound and can be fairly loud. Flute and saxophones can make particularly good use of this sound. Brass can also do their own version of this. Perhaps that’s not part of your particularly musical vocabulary, but I wonder if you’ve been able to get that with SWAM.
Thanks again!
I personally try to minimize that with my preferred settings but I’ll try to tinker with it later. I know I left a little with my sax settings; some of the factory templates are more pronounced than others IIRC. Maybe not today, tho. 
No worries. I understanding minimizing the slap and “usually” do that. But the world I live in (modernist chamber music that has an unfortunately small audience), slaps are often used as a compositional, quasi-percussion element. Sometimes it’s just gratuitous, but I’ve also heard it applied very effectively.
I just took a quick look at the “Key Noise” parameter. It seems to be much diminished from what I remember but I can’t find anything about it in the AM SWAM release histories. The EWI is a little challenging sometimes – especially when dealing with how it handles velocity parameters. I’ll take another look later and see if the Hi-Res settings make any difference.