sax brothers and EWI

[kensuguro]

Short test run for studying the sax brothers sounds, EWI playing, and general 5 part arranging for sax.

It gets a bit harsh in the 2nd repeat where I'm trying to push all the instruments to see how much tension I can build up. It's great since I can do strong chord stabs (always good) and also smoothly slurred legato phrases quite intuitively. I can't wait 'till I get the horns cuz I can push over the top with just the sax ensemble. The horns will make it even more blazing.

Berry sax is a tough one to fit in. Boring when just playing roots, but when working downwards from the melody, the chord is pretty saturated by the time I get to berry, and I just revert to doubling the melody. Seems to be traditional technique, but gets a little mundane.

[MCCY]

Cool! This is such a great place for expanding knowledge.
Sounds like "I want it too" The EWI USB is so cheap! And the fun factor seems amazing! I bought a broke Casio Horn just a few weeks ago and repaired it with that typical kondensator thing. I guess EWI is even more fun. I studied Flute, so it must be great to have that fingerings...

Through my laptop speakers it sounds great for artificial Horns!

[MCCY]

Which MIDI - Values uses the EWI? My Casio Horn just uses Aftertouch for modulation...

[astroman]

Short test run for studying the sax brothers sounds, EWI playing, and general 5 part arranging for sax.
It gets a bit harsh in the 2nd repeat where I'm trying to push all the instruments to see how much tension I can build up. ...

do you think it's the processing of the samples ?
but then (if it's predictable) you could easily smooth that out with a sidechained filter/comp
good job on a first try - you've convinced me fully this time
and those clarinet studies you mentioned have really paid off now...

@MCCY that horn is VERY responsive in velocity and aftertouch, it's not a toy at all imho.
use a midi-preprocessor that allows you to map those 2 controllers to different destinations with different rates
can't remember the native plugin I used for that atm, sorry. (but will look if you have no clue on your own)
the Wavelength synths have nice setting possibilities for it...

cheers, Tom

[MCCY]

You're talking about the Casio, Tom? I did a first test with synthmaker after I got the horn working & just controlled a lp filter with aftertouch to a synthesizer sound. That was big fun.

From reading about the EWI I guess only thing which it has more is the bite sensor. But that's quite much regarding articulation-possibilities.
So if it sends those values as standard MIDI one could build fantastic vitality-devices which just control some filtering, EQing, enhancing, room...

[kensuguro]

The EWI sends CC2 (breath) and aftertouch at the same time, based on breath. There's also a thing on the right thum (above and below it) that senses pitch bend. The distance from the thumb is user configurable with a screw, and I haven't done it yet so I can't reach for it. The vibrato is supposed to come from the bite sensor in the silicon mouthpiece, but it's actually pitch bend. (bend to make it a vibrato) For me, it seems like just using breath tremolo is enough to create a nice tone. I do wish I could use embouchure to control pitch, which EWI doesn't support.

The second section is harsh simply because all parts are playing full force. I guess you wouldn't do that in an actual arrangement (melody pushes ff, everyone at mf to f) to keep good melody separation. I think the end result you hear is owes more to sax bros behaving sensibly to EWI's input. There's a lot of behavioral things that sax bros does automatically. Particularly the tonging attack. Seems to switch from a whispering "tee" to a bark (almost a growl) very naturally. Overall though, it's a surprisingly good combo.. for me, probably one of the bigger finds in the past decade.

Since sax bro's input is very configurable (it has a remapper built in), it's highly likely that your casio sax will work very well with it.

[astroman]

You're talking about the Casio, Tom?

right, my favourite setup was a pure channel of it's native tone plus one fed through the CD100 chorus delay and midi triggering of various synth sources parallel, mostly Wavelength OP8 or Solaris, often with long attack values to fake a 'different' player.
That CD thingy really CAN blow people's mind about ...LOL a Casio...

you could easily build your own sensor for the mouthpiece from a pressure sensitive resistor (Dehnungsmesstreifen) which exist in various forms for industrial purpose. If you have an inexpensive Midi controller, check the pot for modulation for it's value and then wire it to that resistor instead. If you bite on it, the device will emit the modulation controller. Shouldn't be too difficult... except for size... maybe

the sax bros are a no brainer at that price (I really got confused by their pathetic homepage, expecting 480 and up Euros...)

cheers, Tom

[MCCY]

Hm. Fantastic. It (the Casio) really reacts with "Flatterzunge" and I was able to build a tiny device which switche the Aftertouch to any desired MIDI CC...
I guess I'll spend some time adjusting its mechanics
And yes, why not adding other modulation possibilities - there MUST be many DIY projects out there. So far I did not try anything in that direction.
Anyway breathcontrol is most important thing, as I don't need it for live playing.

Thanks, such a helpfull topic here !!!!