The Ultimate Wind Synth Rundown

IMHO, why play these instruments in a “synth” mode and not in a sax mode? I wanted to hear them play and compare their sound. By playing different sounds I get no point of reference. Thank you

Makes me wondered is there any wind synthesiser in a kind of Trumpet or Trombone ?

Bludy oboe☝️🥸

Any of these have the capacity for microtonality? It must be feasible to make an EWI which allows you to alter which fingerings sound which notes. There are plenty of fingerings I don't use which I'd like to employ for playing quarter tones.

I'm hearing a lot about onboard sounds, but the real strength of all these instruments is that they are MIDI wind controllers, capable of playing any instruments on a PC, Mac, iPad, etc, which is what any serious musician would use it for.

Great rundown. I suppose I would like something like the EMEO.

My life... so full of instruments... 1) piano, 2) French horn, 3) acoustic guitar, 4) electric guitar, 5) synth keys, 6) organ, 7) electric bass, 8) drum kit, 9) theremin, 8) bass-baritone vocals, 9) trumpet... Coming soon: 10) viola.
O.K. So yeah, 53 years on piano, now. Yeah, I played a lot of pro gigs. Decades on French horn - yeah, major symphony pro stuff, etc. A. Gtr/ E. guitar/ E. Bass: hack. Synth keys: c'mon - if you can play Rachmaninoff's 2nd Piano Concerto, you can work some pitch-bending/modulation wheels and completely copy the best. Organ: give me the pedal coupler, or I will only play the first note of the measure on the pedals!! LOL!!! E. Bass - Yeah, I can do it - forget fretless, for now. Drum kit: give me another life to be worthy. Theremin: I'm a natural. Bass-baritone vocals: Great voice, but allergies take it away. Trumpet: playing very well, long way to go, striving (3.5 years, now). VIOLA: Yeah, I'm in love with the viola, so I'm saving to buy a good one and start from scratch. Why not?!!!

Nevertheless, I am very interested in clarinet/saxophone/flute/recorder/etc. techniques. ESPECIALLY saxes. What a BOSS instrument.

Would have been nice to hear some actual sax sounds coming out of these. Not trying to be mean but this video kind of dissuade me from considering one.

My career was made playing the lyricuon and the yamaha’s WX7 with people like Bob James, Suzanne Ciani, Vangelis, and Stanley Jordan.
I never liked controllers that didn’t have lip control over pitch and vibrato

I’m torn between the Roland A-E10 and the Yamaha 😢. Both have particular features I would love to use that the other doesn’t have. I would love to be able to find a Music Store near me that supplies these and allows me to test run both of them

Hey guys, I have a question if by chance you read this post : is the air speed of the EWIs a volume or a velocity control ? Imagine I build a sound on a synthesizer that has velocity sensitivity (for example the more velocity the higher the cutoff of a filter). If I begin to blow slowly in the EWI and then I increase my airspeed, will this affect the velocity or the volume ? Or even both ?
Thanks!

Will they review the WX5? Also, those devices with tiny OLED screens: do they come with reading glasses?

somehow i have zero trust to this review)

Don't uave these anywhere near cops.. they WILL pull a gun on you...

I'm not a saxophone player i play flute can i still go with these

Would have been nice if you had included MSRP.

why do none of these allow changing octaves through breath control like on a flute?

The emeo is marketed als a practice tool not a full performance ready windinstrument. It has no breath sensor , midi messaging is more limited compared to the Roland AE 30

Your presentation is helpful, but incompetent. And that's now endemic in the culture. Very sad to say.

Great video - thank you for creating and posting! I currently play a Roland AE-10 which, as you mentioned, is now a few years old. I more recently bought a Yamaha RDS-150. I have been in "garage bands" since High School - playing drums, guitar, keyboards, bass and singing - all self taught - so (in my opinion) I was adequate but never great at any of them. I am a schooled engineer, so music has always been a "hobby" not a profession. Sometime in my mid 30's I added saxophone to my list of instruments - my first instrument to actually take lessons. I played for about 4 years, then set it down as life/kids/etc. got in the way. Fast forward and the kids are grown and I am back in a working club cover band as a singer and bass player... with the desire to fold in a bit of sax. I still have my old saxophones (Tenor, Alto, C-Melody (!), and curved soprano) so I got them out and started practicing on them and got good enough to play on a few songs. A sad truth suddenly jumped out: Sax's don't like being "left alone and busted out on one or two songs"... between my ~weak embouchure and the dry/cold reeds, the sounds was not good. The solution is now to play a wind synth... I can ignore it all night then pick it up and with limited embouchure developement - still play perfectly in tune and without any squeals and squeeks! So unlike "real sax players", the wind synth for me is 100% a PERFORMING instrument... and I use it to sound like a SAX - which honestly the Roland doesn't do very well. Surprisingly it actually does very well as a violin, flute, French Horn, and a few other instruments that I use it for. So I bought the Yamaha hoping for a better SAX emulation... So far - its is better at sounding like a sax (not perfect of course!), but it has other limitations that make it obvious that it was designed to be a Practice instrument (as you mention), and not so much of a "performance instrument"... Since I no longer play a "real sax" I don't really care that the Yamaha keys feel more like a real sax, but wish the Yamaha had more octave keys (up and down), better on-board display, and better choices for interface to a PA mixer (currently only a 1/8" stereo cord that comes out the side instead of pointing "down"... I am still waiting for a wind synth to get a small "microphone" in the mouthpiece so it can detect your humming and growl the same way a sax growls, rather than an awkward "joystick"... I am an engineer and know that these kinds of transducers are not very expensive nor should they be particularly difficult to incorporate... really - is this too much to ask?? Oh well, I will just work with what I have and wait until improved models come out.. they are getting better all the time! Thank you again!

keren sekali ! matur suksma

Travelsax2?

Programmability is important for a synth, I'd rather not be limited to just the presets. I know EWIs have programmability and can be used as a midi controller for Vital and have good community patches, but know nothing else about the other wind synths. But why are you playing simple keyboard melodies in the demo? Doesn't seem like you actually know what you're talking about when you don't really play anything that leverages the wind controller.

I come from a Trumpet background and prefer the EWI fingering to the AE-10, which I own both. But I will say that the fingering is the only thing I prefer over the AE-10. On every other point, the Roland AE-10 is far superior to the AKAI EWI. Anxiously awaiting the EWI-6000 lol.

Do EWI's vibrate the teeth like a reed?

I'm interested in the MIDI latency.

You might have added the bassline....WX5, which remains in very wide use today.

I was able to get an EWI Solo for Christmas and everything about it I love. The EWI was a bit of a learning curve but a few days of messing with it and playing some tunes, it wasn't hard at all to get used to after playing tenor sax for almost 8 years now. I would highly recommend the EWI's

As a whistle and flute player some of the faster folk tunes were always difficult on fast octave transitions. That was until I found the WARBL which does the octave change by overblowing just like a normal whistle and has a comprehensive app to refine the set-up. Of my various midi-controllers it is the one I tend to use most as it plays and feels just like a normal whistle. For anyone who enjoys playing folk music I can highly recommend it.

oh wow, WOW. the emeo looks like a freaking DREAM. I'm an sax/oboe player so it's been difficult to find a good wind synth..I also have small hands which makes it even more difficult. I have an ewi usb but man i wish I could afford n emeo- legit looks like the perfect fit for me.

I often enjoy playing my Emeo more than my real horns!

I bought a ae-05 for practicing saxophone fingerings at night

What type of Ewi is that?

I had to stop watching this video -- you missed the basics. You're playing ANYTHING BUT wind sounds. WTF. Of course you can make beepy beeps, but STOP WASTING MY FUCKING TIME.

The current state of the art wind controller is from Berglund instruments, the NU Rad. There are other custom made controllers on the market. Nice video production, poor content.

Very salesy and superficial. The point of view seems to be how "instrument like" they are. For anyone that's looking to purchase a wind-controller, I highly recommend connecting with one of the many fine wind-synth players. There are multiple social media groups with thousands of players who have deep background and vast experience on how different controllers work from a practical perspective.
Wind synth players use breath control to shape and articulate the sound. There's no demonstration of this. Wind-controlled synthesizer is essentially playing synthesizer with a different type of MIDI controller. The breath response, expressive controls, ability to fine tune and calibrate the controller to suit one's playing style are critical. The playing examples in the video could have been achieved with any velocity sensitive keyboard.

rapport qualité/prix le YDS 150 est le meilleur .... for me ! 😉

I think you missed mentioning that the EWI 5000 that it can play its built-in sounds wirelessly. (Not that they’re that good, mind you). Also, you can’t put more sounds on it.

Really excellent summary! Thanks.

One thing you didn’t say much about is octave keys. One thing I like I like about my ancient WX-11 is having an almost-pianistic range, with three octave-up and two octave-down keys.

I still have my WX-7! And I love it!!!

Prices would have been nice.

Yamaha wX7 I think. 30 years ago more or less had a mouthpiece with fake reed that moved when you bit on it. What I recall is that as you bit on it the pitch went up I think . I liked it. But many of the newer one don’t have that. What’s the story with that? I

The best Wind synth is the Synthophone, but it is not inexpensive. No plastic. A real Saxophone with electronics built-in.

Can you tell me which would render the most authentic tenor sax sounds when plugged into a PA? Would the same Wind Synth catch the nuances of the player as well? Looking for one for live performances in a small venue where a real sax is just too loud.

Wow, the "ultimate" wind synth rundow with no mention of the Yamaha WX7??

Hey ! I am from India . Is it advisable to buy EMEO ? I am worried about service

I think the one thing that I found missing was what you think provides the best sound or bang for the buck. The EMEO clearly wins for Saxophone appearance/feel, but how does it sound? Does it have the movement feature that the Roland AE-30 has? Can it emulate other instruments?

Superb, really helpful. But why oh why that awful background music.Great, terrible background music.

Please, anyone used EMEO for a gig?