Akai EWI USB
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Filed under: Controllerism, Electronic Instruments, MIDI Controllers, Music Videos
audioMIDI.com’s Tom Luer demos Akai’s new EWI USB wind controller.
Akai Professional’s EWI USB is a wind controller that features a plug-and-play USB interface for use with the included Aria software with Garritan and Akai Professional samples as a sound source. EWI USB is Mac and PC compatible.
Professional players will find EWI USB fully capable of performance for stage and studio with a five-octave range, breath modulation with adjustable threshold, pitch bend, adjustable vibrato, transposing and octave shifting, and fingering modes to emulate various electronic and acoustic instruments.
Multiple fingering modes make EWI USB model saxophone, flute and oboe, as well as traditional EWI and EVI trumpet for intuitive performance, even for players who have never picked up an electronic instrument.
Resources:
- Akai’s EWI USB Wind Controller page
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Tags: Akai, demo videos, electronic wind instrument, EWI, MIDI Controllers, strange music instruments
I like how they’ve updated this for USB. It seems to be a rare market. I wish there was a breath controller, successor to the Yamaha BC-3, which was at a more affordable price w/breath control interface. The tools in this area seem to be rather old, if still usable. But such a novel approach (oddly enough, since the principle of it is so simple to understand) demands more attention, as I wish more alternative controllers garnered.
Unfortunately, most players use EWI’s to imitate traditional instruments, and this can sound a little cheesy.
If you hear a talented player use an EWI, though, the results are pretty amazing.
I met a guy recently who was pretty adept with the EWI – I was rather impressed with his technical skill. But he was using a wacky Akai sound module from like the early ’90s, which I found odd. Good to see that they are trying to bring it up to date.