SwarShala is without a doubt the most developed Indian music software available at the moment. It's divided in 3 separate sections for learning about (with multimedia tutorials), practicing and composing Indian music. Both North (Hindusthani) and South (Carnatic) Indian traditions are covered, along with over 100 instruments.
It is appreciated by both lovers of Indian classical music and composers alike.
SwarShala is a wonderful tool for anyone interested in Indian classical music, whether beginner or advanced, by providing means of learning, practicing and composing this style of music. Such a user will be able to create fully customized practice sessions with the required instruments, cycles, pitch, tempo, acceleration, etc... and select them to be played at wish.
World music composers will also acknowledge SwarShala as an awesome tool to create tracks of most Indian instruments for their compositions. SwarShala 4 includes its own, very developped DAW, but any individual melody or rhythm created or customized can also be exported as an audio or MIDI file, to be imported into any music composing software.
| Editions | Hindusthani Light | Carnatic Light | All India Light | Hindusthani | Carnatic | All India |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hindusthani Tutorial | ✔ | - | ✔ | ✔ | - | ✔ |
| Carnatic Tutorial | - | ✔ | ✔ | - | ✔ | ✔ |
| North India instruments 1 | ✔ | - | ✔ | ✔ | - | ✔ |
| South India instruments 2 | - | ✔ | ✔ | - | ✔ | ✔ |
| Tracks pane 3 | - | - | - | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Supports ML Packs 4 | - | - | - | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Pitch Analysis Pane 5 | - | - | - | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Record Practice Session 5 | - | - | - | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Practice with MIDI keyboard 5 | - | - | - | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Price (USD) | 99 | 99 | 129 | 189 | 189 | 309 |
| Order | Order | Order | Order | Order | Order |
North India instruments: Aahs, Algozay, Banjo, Bansuri, Bansuri High, Bansuri Sharp, Been, Bells, Bihu Dhol, Bols, Chimta, Daphli, Dhol, Dholak, Dimdi, Duff, Duggis, Ektara, Ghunghroo, Guitar, Halgi, Harmonium, Harmonium 2, Harmonium 3, Israj, Khartaal, Khol, Khuang, Mandolin, Manipuri Dhol, Manjeera, Naal, Nagara, Nishan, Pakhawaj, Pepa, Pung, Rabab, Santoor, Sarangi, Sargam, Sarod, Shehnai, Sitar, Surbahar, Surnaii, Swarmandal, Swarmandal Soft, Tabla, Tabla Low, Tambourines, Tanpura 1, Tanpura 2, Tanpura 3, Tanpura 4, Tanpura High, Tanpura Low, Tanpura Mid, Tenor Banjo, Tudd, Tumbak Nari, Tumbi, Tutari, Violin
South India instruments: Aahs, Banjo, Bansuri, Bansuri High, Bansuri Sharp, Bells, Chende, Dollu, Eddaka, Ghat Singhari, Ghatam, Guitar, Harmonium, Harmonium 2, Harmonium 3, Kanjeera, Kappi Mridangam, Konnakol, Mandolin, Manjeera, Morsing, Mridangam, Nadaswaram, Ravanhattha, Sargam, Swarmandal, Swarmandal Soft, Tambourines, Tamte, Tanpura 1, Tanpura 2, Tanpura 3, Tanpura 4, Tanpura High, Tanpura Low, Tanpura Mid, Tavil, Tenor Banjo, Udukke, Veena, Violin
Complete Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) functionality to create professional-sounding songs.
Newly resampled sound packs (MLP1 to MLP8). Not included.
For SwarShala 4 users, an upgrade is required to avail these new functionalities.
The software has now been translated to Hindi. You can toggle between English and Hindi in the Tools > Options > Other Settings pane.
SwarShala now fully supports the latest ML Pack 7 (Veena, Ghatams, Kanjeeras, Morsing). We also added lots of Carnatic ragas for Veena, with beautiful melodies.
We have also improved the experience for Carnatic music lovers. Apart from the new Carnatic ragas, we also added a new Notes Notation field. If Carnatic is selected, notes will be displayed in the Carnatic form (S, R1, R2, etc...) as long as a Melakartha is set for the selected raga.
You can now choose the nomenclature with which you are most comfortable. For instance, Indian choice will show pitches as "White One", "Black One", etc... instead of "C" or "C#".
You can now choose a different font to be used in the whole software, instead of the default one. Of course, you can choose one for English and one for Hindi separately.
It's now much easier to define specific shrutis (pitch adjustments on notes) for your ragas, as the sliders are now expressed in cents and you can also modify them by typing the exact value of your choice.
With the amazing power of the SwarPlug 4 sampler behind it, and functionality like cross-legato portamento, vibrato, modulations and so on, SwarShala is now able to offer a quality of sound never experienced before. Moreover, you are no longer limited to legacy SwarShala instruments, but can enjoy the vibrancy of all newly released ML (multi-layered) sample packs!
SwarShala 4 was completely rewritten in pure C++, abandoning technologies that were either becoming deprecated or required additional libraries to be installed. This makes the installation of SwarShala 4 a very easy process, both on Windows as on Mac OS X.
SwarShala 4 includes all the functionality of Swar Studio within its Compose > Tracks pane. This complete Digital Audio Workstation will allow you to create fully professional songs using the virtual instruments built in SwarShala 4, as well as your own recorded tracks.
Plug your mic, your MIDI controller, and the possibilities are endless.
Honing your musical skills is even easier with SwarShala 4. Its Practice pane has been fully enhanced to provide a perfect environment for Riyaaz. Just select the rhythmic and/or melodic instrument you want, the best tanpuras out of 10 different choices, select raga, pitch, tempo, acceleration and so on. Then just practice...
All sessions can be saved under a specific name to make them easily available when needed.
Raga means "Colour" or "Passion". In Indian Classical music, they are the melodic scales based on the seven notes and provide the foundation for a musical composition. SwarShala 4 now includes a specific Raga view that lets you see and customize a large set of built-in Ragas, or add the ones you miss. Each raga can be fine-tuned to the micro-tonal (Shruti) level.
You can now generate detailed PDFs of your rhythms and melodies, describing each stroke/note played to the detail. These documents can then be printed or shared freely.
All actions in the software can now be undone (and then redone) up to any level. This ensures you can play around with the software and return to a safe version when you make mistakes.
Though uncommon, rhythmic cycles with a fractional number of beats are a very exciting part of the Indian classical music. SwarShala 4 now allows you to create sequences with any number of beats, including fractions.
All captions/texts in SwarShala 4 have been externalized to simplify translations. You can expect a Hindi version of the sofware real soon, with more to be added.
The user guide in SwarShala 4 has now been ported to a Wiki platform. This makes it a browser and system independent interface with the capability of being edited and updated periodically to reflect all the changes in the software without a major overhaul.
