Swing More Multis

Project Sam clearly had fun putting together the Swing! libraries. If they hadn't I suppose we wouldn't be looking at Swing More! would we? Part of that was creating a collection of 16 multis. Lets take a quick look at each of the multis and how they sound. Note this is made easier since Project Sam has included a description of each Multi at the top of the Multi itself.

One quirk with all the multis is that the lowest blue keys always stretch to the bottom of the keyboard even though the bottom octave or two has no notes. This confused me a bit at first.Also note that at least off regular non-SSD hard drives these do take a while to load up. Doing as Save Multi As... may help it load faster in the future. It does on my machine.

All Together Now is about that Saxy thang along with some Bass Guitar. The Bass is at the bottom with the Vibrato articulation of the Baritone, Tenor, Alto and Soprano Sax working their way up the scale. This isn't one of the best multis out of the box as the Alto Sax is way to hot and the Soprano Sax isn't playing the long vibrato at all but instead the fairly short Marcato. Pull the Alto Sax down by about 10 db and ignore the top octave and you have a nice little sax trio with bass guitar.

Alleyway is one of the quirkier Multis. It is the first one where pressing hard or in this case soft will start up a drum groove. to the far left is the Fretless Bass and Piano, move up a bit and a pitch shifted Jazz Guitar kicks in while when you hit the yellow a pitch shifted Vibraphone completes the lower ensemble. The upper side belongs to my favorite Sax, the Alto.  Soft velocity is soft, medium velocity is loud and hard velocity triggers a crescendo. Yeah definitely quirky.

Am I Dreaming is a question I ask myself every time a beautiful woman smiles at me. Sadly the answer is almost always Yes! The squeaking of a screen-door opening to another dimension that is the Bass Trombone's low end starts us off. At high velocity it does the start a note then quick fade and rebuild the volume thing. The Baritone Sax and then the Tenor Trombone kick in as we move up the yellow keys. Trumpet Legato joins in as we hit the upper blue keys and then shortly after that the Women's Ooh ensemble. A bit higher and both the Chimes and the Trumpet Shake kick in at the highest velocity layers. Overall quite a complex Multi.

Unfortunately the Bass Trombone is giving me two problems. On some notes it makes an audible and sometimes fairly loud popping sound as the SFZ Long samples come to an end. Also sometimes the release samples triggers fairly loudly after the note is released. I'm writing this review backwards, so when I look at the Bass Trombone separately I'll keep and eye out for this problem. I should note that some of this might be from using regular 7200 RPM hard drives and Studio One 2 which can be a resource hog.

Ambient Mandolin is a fairly simple Multi with a dreamy sort of Mandolin joining a Vibraphone for an ethereal effect.

Ballad is about the Guitars along with a Soft Piano that plays across the entire Multi. At the bottom we start with the Bass Guitar which is joined by the Jazz guitar and high velocity slides as we move on up. On the middle blue keys we get the Ukulele on the left and the Mandolin on the right before it all faded to the soft piano. This is basically an All the Guitars patch.

Breaking the Pattern certainly is well named.the bottom half is the Celli and Basses modwheel sustain while the top is the Violins modwheel sustain with a very loud piano arpeggio. I had to crank the piano down about 8 db to even hear the violins with the modwheel cranked. I'm sure someone can put this to use, but it just seemed odd to me.

Catch Me is a big Staccato stack with all the woodwinds, strings and vibraphone all contributing their staccato articulations to the Multi. It is good for quick stabs, but the integrity of the Multi is betrayed by the odd Clarinet choice of having the Bend Up articulation at the top velocity layer. Also the mix is a bit off.

Cinematic Vivaldi is a Tremolo Multi that works nicely in the middle of the keyboard with the Violins and Mandolin Tremolo. There is also an Ambient Piano and the Celli and Basses Legato. This is a creative Multi that feels nothing like a Swing collection.

Hurry has the Bass Guitar Staccato and the Kick Drum low joined by the Baritone Sax Staccato a little ways up the keyboard. The upper half is devoted to Banjo Strums. The Drums are supposed to kick in at high velocity with the Banjos, but they never do. I have no idea what the purpose of this Multi is.

Incognito is Jazz Guitar Phrases backed by very soft Vibraphone Tremolo and Drum Hits and Phrases. I can't see ever using this.

Solitude is the Strings on the bottom and a Soft Clarinet on top. Only the soft clarinet is much to loud. Crank it down and you have a nice little split keyboard patch.

Stuck In Time is another creative non-Swing type Multi. In this case the Clarinet and at the softer velocity layers the Women's Chorus provide a low key pad.

Sunny Morning Drive is a Multi that is all about the Guitars. The Jazz Guitar, Mandolin and Banjo all give us chords at the bottom. Soft velocity yields Arpeggios, middle velocity short chord strums and upper velocity long strums. On the upper half of the Keyboard the Uke takes the lead while the Mandolin Tremolo kicks in at high velocity layers. A nice little lead with the right hand and chords on the left patch. Note the arps don't work so well as the guitar is at about half speed.

The Improbables is stacks and stacks of staccato sax and horns. Bass Trombone and Baritone Sax, then Tenor Trombone and Trumpets kick in. The Alto and Soprano Sax join as the Bass fades. The upper velocity has a good kick to it while the lower velocity has a sweeter swing. Definitely a good Swing Multi for those time when you want a bunch of brass and sax playing the same note. There are enough round robins to avoid the machine gun effect even on quick stabs on the same note.

Undercover brings to mind a panther of reddish hue, a light reddish hue... could it be pink? Plucked Celli and Bass on the bottom with Shaker and if you go high velocity Cowbell. I didn't even know Swing More! had a cowbell. High are the Staccato violins. This one is fun.

Welcome to Broadway extends its invitation with Staccato Bass Trombone and Baritone Sax, an electric Bass Guitar and throbbing Toms. The Clarinet Legato is on the high side. Well sort of legato, the top velocity bends and the upper midish is staccato.

Thus endeth the Multis. I suspect that live players will get more out of these than the more composer types. There is a little something for most everyone and some of them are quite creative. Not really my cup of tea, but still a nice bit of added content.