Introduction

The Super Shawm by Suonopuro is a very expressive and realistic virtual instrument emulating some instruments ancestors of the Oboe: the ancient Shawm and Bombard and the Arabic Zurna, counterpart of the Chinese Suona.

What these instruments have in common is the presence of a double reed, which consists of two reed blades that vibrate against each other. Double-reed instruments, ancestors of both the oboe and its innumerable similar ethnic instruments, still widespread throughout the world, were already present, thousands of years ago, in ancient Egypt, as well as in Greece, China and Arabia.

The Super Shawm by Suonopuro, using the most advanced technological solutions, allows emulating the sounds of this kind of instruments, even in legato, staccato and in the tonal variations that are obtained at different dynamic.

The Super Shawm also has a wide range of effects, which transform its sound: distortion, chorus, wha-wha, etc. Moreover, its numerous functions make it very versatile and playable live. It can be used both in monophonic mode, for greater realism, and in polyphonic mode. It can also perform up to two parallel secondary voices simultaneously, in the style of the great EWI player Michael Brecker.

It does not require complicated settings or intricate ways of playing: just play normally on your MIDI instrument to get legato and staccato, crescendo and diminuendo, piano and forte, vibrato, glissando, etc.

The Super Shawm is designed to get the best, in terms of expression and control, from any kind of MIDI instrument:

 • Electronic Wind Instruments (Akai EWI, Yamaha WX5, YDS150, Casio Zanzithophone, Roland Ae10g, Morrison Digital Trumpet, etc.);

 • MIDI strings (Cantini MIDI violin, Zeta MIDI violin, etc.);

 • MIDI converters, like the Sonuus i2M;

 • MIDI keyboards (NI Komplete control, M-Audio Oxygen, etc.); • MIDI controllers (TEC breath controller, MIDI expression pedal, Yamaha BC3, etc.).

 

Audio demos

Shawm solo

Bombarda solo

Interface Images

 

 

Features

 • Perfect Crossfade: transition from piano to forte and vice versa on 3 levels + 2 additional, without hear overlapping notes.
 • Editable Dynamic Controller and Range.
 • Two monophonic modes with real time automatic recognizing of legato and staccato: by dynamic controller and by keys.
 • Play on release mode: when you release a note, the software plays the previous note still pressed.
 • Configurable legato time, also automatic, and real time controlled portamento.
 • Four round robin staccato attacks with multiple and gradual gradients from soft to marcato.
 • Two parallel voices at configurable intervals, as used by Michael Brecker.
 • Polyphonic mode for polyphonic instruments and sustain or hold 1st note modes for monophonic instruments.
 • Bending technique.
 • Editable sound color by 2 functions: the BOMBARD button, which makes the sound harsher and therefore similar to this ancient instrument, and the ZURNA button, which adds the typical high harmonics of this instrument. These two buttons can also be used simultaneously, for a harsh and powerful sound.
 • Simulation of the internal resonance of the Shawm tube.
 • Automatic vibrato and flutter-tonguing both configurable and controllable live.
 • Chorus, Compressor, Three-band equalizer, Convolution reverb, easy to use Distortion and Delay effects.
 • Keyswitches that can be disabled; live options activator.
 • 4 and a half octaves of range.
 • Splitter by Suonopuro, to split and layer many sounds across your keyboard or your MIDI instrument.

 

System requirments  

NI KONTAKT 5.8.1 or higher FULL retail version. It is NOT compatible with Kontakt Player. You can open and run the Super Shawm in Kontakt player just for 15 minutes. After that the demo period of the player times out and you have to re-start and reload the library.

PC: Windows 7, 8 or higher, Intel i3 or AMD A4, 4 GB RAM, low latency audio driver.

Mac: OS X 10.8 or higher, Intel i3, 4 GB RAM

MIDI controller

 

Controllers  

The Super Shawm is highly customizable and allows you to use any MIDI controller, not only to manage the dynamic, from pp to ff, but also to control all the other characteristics of the sound.

Here are some examples of classic MIDI keyboard controllers:

It is also possible to use the Super Shawm without any MIDI controller, with any common MIDI keyboard.

  

How to obtain "SUONOPURO SUPER SHAWM"

The Super Shawm is part of a private collection that I'm going to give to everyone who supports my site www.suonopuro.net with a donation of at least € 80,00.

To use it you need a FULL retail version of NI Kontakt 5.8.1 or higher.

 

Instructions:

1. Make a donation of at least 80,00 euros using Paypal (payment is automatically converted to your desired currency):
   
   
   

2. Send an E-MAIL with your name, your e-mail and details of the payment made, to:

            

Within a few days you will receive an e-mail notification, containing the download link and the instructions.

If you want a different method of payment, or are having problems with the Paypal link, you can write an email to the address above.

 

How to use

Download the instruction manual

 

Versione Italiana