The Swarminet

A 10-layer bendy clarinet instrument inspired by the Dewanatron Swarmatron.

ByPaul Koch

The story

A 10-layer bendy clarinet instrument inspired by the Dewanatron Swarmatron.

I’ve made a bunch of versions of this bendy swarmy Swarmatron-inspired instrument over the years in Kontakt and Omnisphere with various sound sources like strings, horns, and synths for my work on shows like Scandal and the film, The Block Island Sound (out now on Netflix!)

As a follow-up to the SWARMITAR, the SWARMINET is made up of 10 clarinets that can bend in and out of tune with one another using a MIDI CC control.

I don’t know how to play the clarinet, but somehow I have two of them, so I did what I normally do when I have an instrument I don’t know how to play (which is most of them) – make it sound weird and sample it. So two beginner clarinets were sampled by a beginner clarinetist in minor thirds as high as I could go. The first set of five as straight as I could play them (not very), and the second set with some blips and noises (ah, much easier).

They were recorded with a Line CM-3 microphone, a fantastic and inexpensive small-diaphragm condenser out of a one-man shop in Sweden.

So go out and transition into or out of tension, ride the mod wheel and play it like a rich, beautiful, detuned (or not) synth pad, use it as an interesting modulating bed underneath a solo instrument, run it through mountains of delays and reverbs to get a filtered Blade Runner horn, maybe even use it like you would use clarinets, but mostly I encourage you to pave your own path and share your experiments with me!

BYOS (Bring Your Own Splosh – you already have your favorite reverbs and don’t need Kontakt’s!) (…unless you really want it and then I’ll add it in)

*Includes a little bonus patch: “The Swarminet – Solo Swarmless”

-Without the strength in numbers (or me knowing how to play the clarinet), this solo patch is unstable and vulnerable in a lovely way. It uses only one layer of the black clarinet, with a slight panning modulation for width. On this patch, the swarm knob does not swarm, it only adds a slight amount of brightness.

Please enjoy, and I look forward to hearing how you use it!

See how it was made: https://youtu.be/0ONNLHX3HF8

(Requires the FULL version of Kontakt 5.6.8 or later)

Thank you!
Paul

Interface

Reviews

  • Incredibly inspiring and professionally done!

    This near-perfect instrument is hard to think it's out there for free. The only negative thing I found is that there is some white noise, but if you don't prefer that you can easily tweaking it by turning the modwheel a little down or simply engaging the LFO filter. Other than that, everything is very, very well made. Thank you!

    Alex Raptakis on 16 October 2021
  • Very eerie and chaotic, fun to play

    Five stars all around. I like that the samples are not too pristine, nor too chaotic starting out, which makes for a wide range of textures. If you haven't yet, grab Paul's Swarmitar on PB and also the acoustic Swarmitar on his website. All top notch instruments, but the Swarminet is the standout in my opinion. One tweak I suggest is mapping the mod wheel to the swarm knob. By default it's mapped to the filter knob.

    ChesterGwazdaCreator on 13 October 2021
  • Amazing flute!!

    Wow, this is such a really nicely recorded library!! I love the sound of this flute. Amazing warmth with a beautiful sound of flute. I will be using this definitely in the future!

    Asuka Amane on 25 October 2021
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