Sylphyo Wind Controller Offers Advanced Blowing Control

put-your-lips-together-and-blow

The Sylphyo –  a new electronic musical instrument with advanced blowing control and wireless MIDI support – is being made available via an IndieGoGo campaign.

The Sylphyo is designed to provide access to the expressive world of wind instrument to any musician. It can also be played silently for training, or used for writing scores.

Here’s a video demo of the Sylphyo in action, illustrating some of its expressive possibilities:

The developers say that, as a standard MIDI controller, Sylphyo integrates into any electronic music setup, from vintage analog synthesizers to virtual based instruments, running on computers, tablets or smartphones.

sylphyo-controller

The Sylphyo is available to project backers starting at 400 Euro, or  for 650 Euro with a built-in synth board. Details are available at the project site.

9 thoughts on “Sylphyo Wind Controller Offers Advanced Blowing Control

  1. Breath pressure only? Bite pressure? Flexible controller mapping? Nature of included synthesizer board (ie: physically modeled)?

    The site has virtually none of the information needed to properly evaluate.

    So it has a ribbon controller on the back and is wireless. Are those the only two novel things to distinguish it from others?

  2. Very hard to understand how this can compete with an Akai EWI, a mature and proven product, currently in its fifth iteration, new built-in 3Gb sample-based synth, wireless operation etc. And cheaper.

    1. As the disappointed owner of an AKAI Ewi I suspect the Sylphyo is probably much better than the Ewi because it seems to make up for the Ewi’s ergonomic flaws. I’m sure good sax players like playing the Ewi, but for the silent majority of potential users (i.e. novices & people who play other, non-wind instruments) the Sylphyo seems to have HUGE advantages over the Ewi. The fingering is more logical, it’s much lighter (I get arm ache from playing the Ewi), it looks much easier to blow (for those of us who don’t play reed instruments) and it’s wireless. As an ergonomist I’ve long wondered why no-one has designed a wind midi controller that’s as easy to play as possible. The fingering and blowing techniques on real wind instruments are dictated by what’s required to produce the sound, so they’re not very ergonomic. MIDI controllers have no such limits so they really could be better designed. And I suspect the Sylphyo may be the first one that is.

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