Customer Reviews

Akai EWI USB Wind Instrument Sythesizer Controller

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

After seeing an extremely negative review on the Akai EWI USB I had to chime in. I've been composing for years with a Yamaha WX5 and have grown accustomed to scoring with wind controllers - there's nothing like the performance you can get from them. After dealing with waning support on older wind controllers and specialized accessories and dead batteries all the time I finally jumped onto the Akai mainly to simplify things via USB and up to date software support. I don't regret it one bit. The keys lack action which takes a little getting used to, but this is now my go to instrument. For the price I completely recommend it for anyone with wind instrument experience looking to get a more natural sounding performance out of their digital work.

And of note - I primarily work in Cubase and have never had any software issues with this. It's treated as a standard USB keyboard with the wind data simply sending extra controller information.

I have used the Yamaha WX7, WX5, EWI-3020, EWI-4000s and this newest instrument, the EWI-USB. Not only is this instrument an incredible bargain at under $300 but it is much simpler to setup and use than all of the other wind controllers.

You do not have to mess around with 6 or 7 little knobs or screw adjusted controls in order to get this instrument set up to play properly.

In my opinion the EWI-USB has better dynamic range than the other wind controllers, plus it does not require an additional cable to connect with an optional power supply nor, because it gets its power via the USB connection, does it need batteries.

It includes a very nice selection of acoustic intrument samples (software synthesizer sounds) from the Garritan "Jazz and Big Band", and the Garritan Personal Orchestra package (it has a subset of sounds from these packages).

Some people prefer the Yamaha WX5 wind controller because it has mechanical keys which move, unlike the EWI-USB (or 4000s) whose keys do not move but work simply through touch (capacitive sensing). I would certainly agree that it takes a bit more time get used to the static touch action of the EWI-USB than for the mechanical keys of the Yamaha, especially if you are a student of the clarinet or saxophone. The action of the EWI-USB is more like playing the alto recorder -there is no key movement. My experience of having played recorder, flute,saxophone and then a Yamaha WX7 (mechanical keys) before moving to the static touch action of the EWI instruments was quite positive. I adjusted fairly rapidly and found that I much preferred the responsiveness of the EWI instrument, but people's experience varies.

I can think of only one negative aspect of the EWI-USB and that is the cramped spacing of the upper and lower end of the octave controllers (4 rollers). The roller at the upper and lower end are not free to rotate and the walls of the instrument are spaced too close to the up-most and bottom-most rollers making it sometimes more difficult to play very, very high and very, very low notes. Akai really ought to have designed this part better. The much more expensive EWI-4000s has 8 rollers so you are never cramped at either end.

If you are interested in playing lots of instruments including the trumpet, trombone, tuba, french horn, flute, oboe, bassoon, saxophone, clarinet, and even violin, viola or cello without having the time, money or sufficient talent to learn all of these, then this is the way to do it. Once you learn the fingering (much like the flute, recorder or saxophone), you can play any of the instruments listed above, provided you get good samples (synthesizer samples).

Not all synthesizers have really good samples of acoustic instruments (as opposed to poor imitations of acoustic instruments sounds or merely "electronic sounds"), and not all that do, are made to work especially well with wind controllers.

After many years of searching and re-searching I can recommend the "Ketron SD2 Orchestral Wizard" as the best hardware synthesizer for really good acoustic sounds. It's also one of the least expensive.

However if you want the absolute best trumpet sound then you need to get the "samplemodeling Mr. Trumpet". It's totally incredible. Sounds just like a real trumpet with all of the complex tonal variations that change with loudness and attack and virtually all of the subtlety of the real instrument. It is the most responsive of any virtual instrument and has been especially designed to work with wind controllers. If you already play flute, oboe, saxophone, or clarinet, then you will find it quite easy to learn to play a wind controller. In fact the EWI-USB has a trumpet valve fingering mode for brass players (which I have not tested), so it's even more versatile.

If you would like to hear some audio samples find 2010Jazz on the kara-moon website where I've uploaded lots of songs.

I was apprehensive about buying a wind controller, as I've played good old fashioned woodwinds and brass all my life. However, I was shocked to find how expressive and emotive one could be using an electronic controller like this. The EWI comes with a nice library of sounds out of the box, some are better and more natural than others. My experience with the setup and software was great, it worked flawlessly on my MacBook (2.5 Intel Core 2 Duo). I installed the software and plugged in the EWI, restarted and was up and playing in minutes.

The hardest aspect for me to adjust to was the octave scroller. If you go to the Akai site and look at the images, you'll see metal rollers that allow you to switch between multiple octaves. It took a few days to be able to run through material without accidentally shifting octaves, and at times was extremely frustrating. But now, it's no longer an issue.

The other issue, is that the EWI's mouthpiece has a very restrictive airflow. By allowing air to escape as I play, I was able to attain a breathing pattern that works well.

I don't want to mislead anyone, as I have not tried the other wind controllers on the market. But, given the price point, this was the right purchase for me. Do you're homework, there is a lot of great information and opinionated pieces (like this one) on the web. I really enjoy this instrument alongside all my lacquered ones and hope you have as much fun as I'm having.

Side note: When paired with 'Sample Modeling Mr.Sax or Sample Modeling Trumpet' the results are truly fantastic in my opinion.

I couldn't be more pleased with the EWI USB!! It does exactly what it is supposed to do.

I've seen some reviews that complained about the airflow through the instrument. I find it quite easy to blow. In fact, if it were not easy to blow, I wouldn't be able to play it. I have had Bell's Palsy for 14 months and it is impossible for me to develop enough pressure to play my clarinet and my saxophones. Yet I have no trouble with the EWI. Akai recommends that you let some air escape around the mouthpiece because it requires such a small amount of airflow. I didn't find that necessary at all.

One problem that a lot of people have and that I had too, is with latency, which is the delay between touching a key or sttacking a note and the sound coming out. I found that this is caused by the sound card. Akai recommends a sound card with ASIO drivers. I found on the internet a free driver called Asio4all and it solved the latency problem perfectly. It works with most sound cards. Mine is just the built in sound module in my laptop so it isn't a very good card, but with asio4all, it works fine. I plan to try getting a better sound card so see if the sound quality improves, but if it doesn't, I am very satisfied with what I am getting.

The sound banks in the Garritan Aria software are quite good. My favorites so far are the clarinet and the strings. The flutes are pretty good too. Tweaking the settings apparently helps, but I haven;t dona a lot of tweaking yet, so I may end up with more favorites.

One thing I don;t like in the Aria software is the round knobs for adjusting the various settings. They are hard to adjust. Fortunately, I found the site [...] (not affiliated with Akai at all) and they have a free replacement "skin" to substitutes linear slides for the knobs. Mush easier! That is also where I learned about the Asio4all driver.

So, the only problems I had were easily fixed and I am now able to play again! Couldn't be happier!!

Mike

Just an update now that I have been playing my EWI for several months.... I am playing mostly clarinet in performances, but have also played oboe cues and english horn cues. I needed a quick way to switch between voices to play the cues and I found the Reaper digital mixer/ recorder/ editor. With it, I can set up multiple channels with different instruments and enable and mute them separately or in combination as well as adjust the settings such as volume. I bought an add-on touch screen for my laptop so now I can switch between different instrument voices quickly and easily... just like using a mixer board.

My EWI-USB arrived early today and I spent a good portion of my afternoon and evening tinkering with it. I'm giving 2 stars and I'm also giving some thoughts to returning it. My only other wind controller experience is with my Yamaha WT-11. So I'll be using that for comparisons. Coincidentally, I bought 2 Akai products this week and both for the same reason: a midi input tool to use with Band in a Box on my laptop. The other is the Akai Pro LPK25 Laptop Performance Keyboard which I really like, but the problem is that I'm NOT a keyboard player. I do brass, woodwind and guitar/bass (and I'm actually a decent violist, but admitting that is like admitting you're a bed-wetter). So let's get to details.

Pros:
* The EWI can be configured for its default fingering system (sax subset), sax fingering, flute fingering, oboe fingering, or brass fingering. I DID try the brass fingering. There are cons to it and I'll address that below.
* You can configure latency/response on the fingerings. One of the reasons I ceased using my WT-11 for composing/arranging electronically was its tendency to glitch. When moving from C5 to B4 requires lifting the middle finger and placing the index finger. On a RL sax, your mouth and basic physics gives some tolerance in the shift. Not so the WT-11. You get either a C# or A grace note before you land on B. The EWI let's you set a deliberate lag on the transition so those glitches are reduced.
* In regard to things like setting sensitivity, it's way easier to do that with a control panel on your computer versus trying to tweak with a screwdriver on the WT-11
* The EWI is a solid bit of instrument. It does not feel like a toy and exhibits a good bit of good engineerig consideration

Cons:
* The worst thing is catastrophic failure. While testing today, the EWI would emit a note start and then just sieze up. The reset feature on the device did nothing to cure the problem. Further, it wasn't related to the software. I tested with Aria (supplied with the EWI), Band in a Box and Finale. In all cases, under no circumstances I could establish, the EWI just switched off. If I re-selected the MIDI device the problem cleared. While this is an aggravation that you can push past in the studio, there's no way I'm going to do a live performance with an instrument that shuts off without provocation.
* It's way too honking big. It's easily double the size and weight of the WT-11. I can't think of a technical reason for it to be quite so big.
* Crossing octive breaks are awful. The WT-11 had it perfect. If you're playing C5 and need to briefly move above that note to D5 to F#5 all you had to do was hold the C (actually, it worked wiht B/Bb/A) and then play D through F# on the right hand and the octave above was assumed. I tinkered with finger combinations on the EWI but got nothing other than expected half-steps.

A bit more smart was needed for this poduct. I won't give it at a 1-star becuse there ARE some redeening features.
* The brass fingering was innovative. However, no brass players are really going to wrap their minds around it. Trumpet was my first instrument and I stuck with it for years. I enabled the brass fingering mode and toyed with that for some time. It's a great example of cognitive dissonance. The right hand does the valve work for the instrument. But replacing lip and breath with and index finger on or off combined with the octave rollers is... well... I lack a proper word. I'm a very flexible person, but I just couldn't adapt to this.

I've been playing my EWI USB for about four months now. I'm an alto player who wanted to be able to play well without having to maintain my chops. ;)

Things I like:
1. Price
2. USB MIDI (vs regular MIDI)
3. Quality

Things I don't care for:
1. The touch sensitive keys - I find myself accidentally brushing some of the trill keys, which causes the note to change momentarily. Pain in the rear! (Also, the keys don't move)
2. USB...cable. It would really be nice if they could make it wireless and have a USB dongle that plugs into the computer. I find myself constantly stepping on the USB cable while on stage. I realize this would make it cost more, but I'd pay more!)
3. The small amount of air it allows through the mouthpiece. It would be really nice if you could blow a little more air through it.

If you want some good sounding virtual instruments, I recommend checking out Sample Modeling's Mr. Sax and The Trumpet. They are pricey, but sound like real instruments.

This instrument is absolutely amazing! I am a percussionist with a small wind-playing background and I thought I'd pick the instrument up just to keep my woodwind fingerings in tact, and to help with recording some electronic music that I do. The EWI is amazing.

Since the instrument is a MIDI controller above all else, it works not only with the included Garritan Aria software, but also with Garageband, Sibelius, Reason, etc. It takes a bit of a roundabout way to get the other programs to detect the wind control, but it does work. The fingerings are second-nature, and the amount of precision it has with the wind control and other sensitivity spots (pitch bend, vibrato sensor, etc.) is great.

Don't purchase this product thinking you're going to get a flawless saxophone or flute sound recreation. They do a really, really good job of getting close to the real thing, but the true fun lies in playing with synthesizer sound banks and affecting them from there.

It does take a little while to get used to the fact that the keys are touch-activated (they don't actually move or cover any real holes) but you can adjust the response and latency in the software if it's not to your liking with the factory presets.

If you're a little interested in buying this instrument, take the plunge and get it while they're still at a great price. You'll love it.

Disclaimer: I've been bashed in comments before as an Apple fan. So sue me for not wanting to spend half my life trying to fix my computer. I've got better things to do.

I've had the EWI USB for about two weeks now. I am using it with a MacBook, and have been using it with GarageBand, SampleModeling's "Mr. Sax T" and IK Multimedia SampleTank 2.5 XL Sample Workstation Virtual Instrument (they have a free version of SampleTank that I am using) (both sampling programs are hosted inside GarageBand). If you're using Windows, you're BEGGING for trouble, as evidenced by half of the reviews here, where people who don't know MIDI (and I'm one of them) and don't know sound cards seem to be trying to run an extremely processor- and memory-intense device on netbooks. Don't do it. If you do, though, I guess you need some sort of ASIO4ALL driver? Google it.

If you're not familiar with this sort of item, what you need to know is that it is a MIDI controller, and the sounds you hear are created by a separate program, whether it be a synthesizer or a sample-based program such as "The Sax Brothers" available from SampleModeling. As with many products, the included sounds are pretty lame. The instruments that are intended to emulate real instruments sound nothing like real instruments, and the synthesizers are limp. Configuration didn't make sense at first until I read a forum post that noted that the Garritan Aria software selects the EWI as a MIDI OUT device by default. Since it's a MIDI input, this doesn't make sense. Uncheck the box and, save your configuration, and ditch the supplied software ASAP.

Other reviews accurately note that the octave rollers are weird as hell. Even after a few days of playing, I glitch into the wrong octave a fair amount, but it's a LOT less than the first time I played it. There are four left-thumb rollers. The top and bottom are fixed, and, as another reviewer noted, it's hard to stay in the highest or lowest octave since there's no room for your thumb above and below the roller setup. I'd be wary if I had really large fingers.

The right thumb is a mess for me still. Above and below the capacitor plate are two additional controls. I found myself constantly activating the upper one since I'm used to the thumb rest of the sax, clarinet, oboe, etc. I had to disable it for the time being, but I imagine I'll get used to making better use of the neckstrap to avoid activating this button accidentally.

I've chosen to go with the "EWI" fingering mode ... the only thing that I don't like is having only one F# fingering ... no "G plus right ring finger" F# which means I've got some work to do with improving my fingering technique. Octave breaks are still a pain for me (i.e., going from A to C above ... if I'm still going up, I'll have to plan to use the right pinky finger instead of the left middle finger, because I'll probably do some sort of octave glitch if I go from left middle finger C to six-finger D, blah blah blah), but are very slowly becoming more seamless.

It does take a LOT less wind than a real instrument ... I find myself having to "phew" a lot of air out just to take a breath of fresh air at the end of a phrase.

It looks like I've focussed on the cons, so let's go to the pros:

It's very nice that I can sit next to my wife while she's watching TV and practice ... really practice. I put on headphones and can crank the volume to whatever I want, and I'm really playing full-bore. If I lived in a thin-walled apartment or something, this would really be nifty. It's also a first for me as a woodwind player that I can play along with music and have the music and my playing be heard in the same place, whether it be headphones or a PA (even if you're playing along with a stereo in a room, it's not quite the same as the EWI experience).

Powered via USB cable, which is easy. As a side note, you CAN hook this thing up to your iPad2 using the 2 in 1 Camera Connection Kit for Apple iPad - USB Adapter & SD Card Reader and play through GarageBand on the iPad, which I have done, but you need a separate powered USB hub, since the iPad doesn't provide enough power for the EWI through its USB port. Drawbacks are that you can pretty much only get keyboard sounds at this time from GarageBand on iOS and, even with a powered USB hub, it is DRAINING on the batteries. I'd say about a percent per minute or two when I played with it the other day. So, probably not a viable gigging option. I think there might be a couple of other synth programs that respond to MIDI input via USB, but I have no experience with them.

Cool: I can gig with a laptop and a single instrument case, and, if I buy nice samples, sound like the real deal. I'm not a high-level player, but even with the limited gigs I perform with alto sax, bari sax, percussion instruments (which are not replaced by the EWI), hauling all that crap around is rough. This GREATLY reduces the load, and, even if band members think that they would NEVER stoop to synthesizing instruments, in most places the audience just wants to hear some music; they don't care if it's a $7000 Mark VI bari or a $150 "Mr. Sax B." Multiply that by Alto Sax, Tenor Sax, Trumpet, Trombone, Flute .... and on top of that you can do a lot of cool synths, too! SampleTank has a free version that could keep me busy for hours.

To sum it up, this controller is what you make of it. If you try to plonk out the stock sounds on your $300 Dell netbook and be sad that you're not awesome the first day you have it, it's not a good purchase for you. If you're trying to gig out and sound professional, then if you attach it to some decent hardware and put some effort into learning the instrument, you can sound every bit as good as you want to.

I wouldn't call this thing "easy," though.

In terms of a case, I got a soprano sax case on eBay ... it's the one that has two straps so you can wear it like a backpack (versus the Protec Soprano Sax Pro Pac soprano sax case, and half the price to boot!). The EWI fits perfectly length-wise, but has a bit of extra room ... which I filled with a Wii Remote Controller (Google "Darwiin") that I use to jump between pre-configured tracks in GarageBand without having to stoop down to the laptop or mess with the trackpad (I also configured the WiiMote so that I can hit the A or B buttons to sound a note to do a basic test of my configuration without having to put the EWI to my mouth nine times during setup). There are more sophisticated programs that actually send MIDI data from the WiiMote to programs like Ableton Live, but I'm not there yet.

Good luck!

This takes the place of my trumpet or flugal horn. It fingers nearly the same except for octaves one has to run the thumb across 4 rollers for the different octaves. It takes a little playing around to get the hang of it all, but really is not difficult. My main complaint is the documentation which comes with it. Some more can be learned from YouTube or internet searches. The sounds that came with it are ok, but if you are going to play professionally other horn sounds are available for a price and they sound really great.

One thing I worried about when buying an EWI USB was whether or not my little netbook would be able to run the software adequately. As long as I don't turn on any of the effects, IT DOES. However the onboard sound is not up to the task and I had to add a USB sound dongle (Turtle Beach Amigo II) and use the ASIO4ALL driver.

One complaint (which is probably common to the non-USB EWI as well) is that the unit allows for very little airflow through it. I know I'm supposed to allow air to leak from the corners of my mouth, but I wasn't having any of that and cut a hole in the rubber part of the mouthpiece to do the venting for me. NOTE: There are two channels in the mouthpiece -- the one on the right goes to the pressure sensor and the one on the left goes to the bypass tube running the length of the instrument. You can pretty well do anything you want to the left side without affecting response, and articulation is a bit snappier if you aim your tongue to the right rather than the center.

If you are the type to tinker with things, this unit is fairly amenable to modification. The inner construction is simple and you should be able to dismantle it without breaking anything. The circuit boards are just two layers (no invisible inner layers), so if you wish to alter the routing you should be able to do so pretty easily. The octave rollers on the top and bottom do not roll, but this also can be changed pretty easily if you so desire. Also once you get it open you will find that much of the weight comes from otherwise non-functional metal slabs. These can be removed or relocated to make the balance more to your liking, and washers or coins can be added to empty spaces. The pitch bend thumb sensors can be moved without opening the unit -- just loosen the screw on either one and it will slide, and lock it in place by tightening the screw back up.

My gripe would be with the included software synth. It frankly isn't all that good, and is limited to woodwind and brass sounds. You'll probably want to upgrade this.

If you are thinking of using this live, be aware that you will have to drag a laptop around with you. Even a 9 inch Atom netbook will be adequate, and I am fortunate enough to have a soprano sax case that fits the EWI perfectly AND has a zipper pouch that holds the netbook (including power supply). It goes without saying that you will need an amplifier/sound system of some sort, and the cables to go with it.