Lesson 1 in a series of video tutorials on the Akai EWI. This lesson deals with the basics of setting up and getting your first sounds. Visit www.isax.co.uk Sign up to my mailing list for free content, news and more www.isax.acade...
You're a great person Alistair by sharing your knowledge and explain them so clearly, in February will receive my EWI 4000S and thanks to your lessons I will better understand the instrument. A greeting from Argentina.
Thanks for posting these tutorials. My Akai came from someone who gave up, I'm looking forward to more success with this help. I figured out moving the thumb controls (after only a couple of HOURS!). Looking forward to learning - cheers
Very intelligent and UNPATRONISING (Thank God!) demo. I love your presentation and 'matter of factness'. Eloquent too. NICE JOB!! Ever thought of making a demo FOR EWI? I think you'd be in with a shout.
Thanks for taking the time. I'm firing mine up now. Can't wait to start your other lessons. I have not had much luck in finding books or other lesson materials anywhere. I think you are filling a real need here.
Was worth watching the video for the embouchure hint alone. I've owned a EWI USB (pretty similar except fewer octaves) for a couple of years now and always had problems with timing pad touches. I have seriously been looking at a WX5 to get away from the touch pads. I'd also been using a standard clarinet with a fairly small amount in my mouth. Going to double teeth and well down the stability change alone seems to have done a lot to tame the touch pad timing issues.
Very good of you to make these Alistair, I have owned both Akai wind controllers , the standard model and the USB, both came with virtually nothing of instruction and the website was hopeless also. Horrible way to treat customers, they simply could not care less. They just wanted the money, the actual units are a fast profit for them, I took one apart once and it is laughable, there is nothing inside but a long skinny piece of silicon , it wasnt even held in place vert well. The in built sounds are all very sinth like while the other did not sound real. All in all they where both a bad experience for me. I got rib of both out of frustration after about 6 months each. I bought the best sample player and even the Samplemoddeling Mr Sax {all of them} , they where fantastic but I could not find anyone to help me set them up, this was about 10 years ago but Akai are just the same today.
Great intro! I'm a sax player and just got the Ewi USB. Trying to figure out pitch bending, usually done with the mouth, but the bite sensor only seems to handle a very basic vibrato after some configuration. I turned off the pitch bending by the thumb for now...
I'm confused on which wind instrument to purchase. I saw your video about the new Roland Aerophone AE 10 and the EWI 4000, which now has a EWI 5000. So which one would you recommend?
Hello Alistair, I just bought an Akai EWI USB but the sax sound is terrible.I use the standard aria software on a windows 7 platform.Can you help me out? must I change the settings? Greetings,JP
What computer do I need? Looking for the system requirements. I have a cheap new computer but it only has 16 g memory. I also have an iPad with 128 gig but it is 2 years old. Are either of these adequate ?
+Warren Colegrove Hi. This is hard to tell without more info and ultimately you don’t know until you try. I would have thought your iPad should be fine. Possibly consider an external sound card for it. The computer is much harder to judge. I have a MacBook Pro woth 16GB ram and it works very well. Again an external sound card is always better.
Hi Alistar. i switched from a yamaha because i felt the keys were to cumbersome. I have the 5000. i cant seem to shut off the sluring of notes. i have to tongue each note to get clear sound is there a setting to turn this off?
The EWI-4000s has a midi output so you can plug into a hardware synth with midi inputs, no need for PC. The EWI-USB on the other hand has a USB connector for output and requires a PC to function.
The latencies with all software & hardware synhs are generally not too good (they are slow). The most responsive I have ever used are the virtual instruments made by samplemodeling.
hey guys have a question i am a half step of on my ewi4000 when i play a c on the ewi4000 its a eflat concert but here is the problem to be in the the same key with the key board i have to play a csharp can someone help me i think its something in my setting i have a gig with a lot of lines and i need to be ready please help
To Art van Klaveren : I have an EWI 4000S but I think it's the same with a EWI 5000. To resume : You want to connect your EWI in midi mode (to control your VL1m) and also hear the internal sounds of your EWI ?
+Xavier-Joseph PEREZ : you are correct I want to connect my 5000 to my VL1m and want to mix both sounds in the mixer, for now I just need to know wich controllers'(numbers) I can connect to my VL1m and hear a difference....
I’m so glad you have this. I bought one 6 years ago but have gotten discouraged in how to play. I am a flutist. They were supposed to fix the vibrato but it doesn’t seem to work. Is there a way to turn it on?
There are controls for the vibrato which are explained in my videos. The other thing to check is that your bite sensor has not been bent. If you remove the mouthpiece the two metal prongs should be just apart a little way. Some people have managed to bend them and the vibrato won't work.
@@isax.academy I will check that. I actually sent the first one back because the vi Rayo worked a little while but then stopped and I didn’t bend them. But this one is having the same problem. I will check this. Also I am a flutist and when I bought it they said I could program it to flutist fingerings but it looks like I need to learn some new things because it isn’t completely flute fingering any suggestions
What is the best fingering style for the ewi (not taking in to consideration of player beeing used to other fingering styles on other instruments)? And could you show how to use that fingering style? I am now using EWI standard but I am worried that I am learning how to "finger" in a not ideal way. Thanks a million :)!
Thanks Alistair your videos got me going on the Ewi last year. Can you help me out again? My Ewi has developed some faults. Do you know where I can get it fixed in the UK? Best Regards. Paul
Hi, Ive been inspired to buy an EWI 5000 since watching your videos. I'm new to Sax (in my mind its a Sax of sorts) but I have been playing Bass and Drums for some time. I've also bought an XV5050 and the Patchman patches as you suggest later in your vids. However, I still can't find out how to get my EWI talking to the XV5050. Everyone either says its the CC (but there are a lot of parameters in that section ad nothing to say what each need to be set to) or they refer me to the book. I have the manual from Akai plus an enhanced one from Amazon. I'm sure the answer is in the 2500 pages but I cant find it. Any help would be appreciated.
Hello, I wonder if he could enlighten me about the 4000 is only transpose.My Akai tapering Bb.When I the one I play Bb select my G sonds F, more in the position I play Eb also sounds G and F. I think I messed something .If you can help me, I appreciate it.
When I had an EWI (yeah, I'm one of those who didn't like it, so got rid of it), the mouthpiece was a mystery and it left a horrible taste in my mouth. It was harder to play than my alto saxophone, but, alas, I couldn't keep the sax because I had neighbors and thin walls. I don't recall the bit about the position of the thumbs, and that may be why I couldn't get anything out of the EWI.
I have a question about the EWIs. I have played regular saxophone for over 10 years, and recently I just went into dentures. Sadly, the pressure on the teeth is too much, and I was wondering if an EWI would be a good alternative. Does the mouthpiece contact the teeth at all, or is it held just between the lips?
Rutger MacDonald Roland has now a model (ae 10) that really uses a sax fingersetting. Maybe you can check that one out too. The owner of this channel has some videos about the roland too.
I just got my new ewi today but every time i turn it on its just making a really loud constant horrible sounding noise when i press the keys it changes the note but I cant seem to play it at all it makes no difference when i blow into the mouthpiece or anything is this supposed to happen? what am I doing wrong?
Hi Austin, do you or have you played the Yamaha WX5? I love it and the sounds that the VL70M play but the keys slow me down. I'm interested in buying the Akai. Any suggestions or advice either way? Warmest Regards, Stephen
I would like to know if any GM sound module can be used as a tone source with any Yamaha WX series ( i own a WX7 ) and any Akai EWI wind electronic controller ? I am new to this and have a gig this Saturday. Also i own a Roland G-1000 Arranger but i cant see the patch names with the corresponding MIDI channel ! The pdf manual says this G-1000 also can be use as a GM/GS tone module because its base on the Roland SC-880 module! PDF also says it Rx the CC02, CC07, and CC11 for vol & Expres messages
Alistair Parnell , daar Alistar. Thanks for your reply. Since my Ewi was rather new, I just sent iT back and a week later I received a new Ewi. The mouthpeice is much better Now. So there was really something wrong with the other one. May thanks for your lessons, allthough a Ewi 5000 is different, IT still helps a lot. Greetings Marc
@HayleyHellRaiser Just wanted to mention I had that problem at first with my EWI (the older model though but I guess its the same). There should be two knobs, "breath sensitivity", and "offset" that you simply adjusted till it didn't sound by itself. Perhaps this helps.
Hi Alistair,I have just purchase my EWI, it is the latest and I am badly in need of help. Any word on when you will have some tutorials on the EWI 5000?
+Dougald Hendrick As I understand it they control two different parameters. The breath zero controls how much air it takes before the sound will start to play. If you move this to a very low setting it will even play without any breath going through at all. The other controls how hard you have to blow to get to the loudest volume.
@@isax.academy I don’t really use it much so but maybe the last time I played it that’s what happened I don’t know I’m usually playing my EVI‘s MDT‘s and aerophone 30 but I’ve got my every 5000 here at my studio today and all the other controllers are at home so I thought I’d pick it up and run over some stuff but it’s bizarre everything‘s opposite I thought maybe it was a setting I could see how somebody might want to do that to call John Coltrane or something lol but I guess there’s not some setting or something I can do to get it to reverse that you know of?
Hi Alistair, I was wondering if you need to have experience with wind instruments in order to play an EWI. Should a beginner dare himself to an EWI, and just discover the instrument by himself? Or does that sounds like a fools plan? You got me really curious with your videos, and I am thinking of buying one. I hope you will answer my questions! Thanks for the videos!
Very noble and generous of you to share your hard earned knowledge with total strangers ! I play the Recorder, Fife, Chalameu and Indian transverse flutes but with the hands (and fingers) in the wrong order, ie my Right hand is closer to the mouthpiece. Will I be able to play this instrument ?
+Vasu I didn’t realise some instruments played with the hands the other way round. That might be difficult to adapt to the Aerophone or any other wind synth. I guess with practice it’s possible.
@jimmyss75 Yeah that was the problem with mine id thought id broke it or something I e-mailed the place that I bought it and they told me what to do which was the same as you just said :) Thanx for the help
Alistair, I love the information you present. I wish I had found this years ago. I am just picking up my EWI 4000s after ignoring it for several years in order to justify whether or not I should buy the Aerophone AE-20, which has clarinet keys and assignable fingerings. I bought the Roland AE-01 after watching your videos, and I like it a lot because of the size and playability, so the AE-20 looks tempting. My question is this re the Akai 4000s clarinet fingerings: I notice that all of my trills are fine except D to E. I have to arrange my D finger awkwardly to get this trill to work, and it is still lousy. Is there a way to fix this?
Hi Alistair thank you for your excellent video tutorials. I have just bought an Ewi 5000 could I ask you if the setup you describe is the same f or the Ewi 5000 as the Ewi 4000. Do you have any plans for Ewi 5000 tutorials.
+Jack Roberts Hi. Set up will be similar on both. You can find some info online. Just Google EWI 5000 set up. My problem at the moment is my 5000 is not working and I can’t seem to find anyone who will fix it. I also have a few more Aerophone videos I want to do before anymore EWI stuff. Hope you get on ok.
Thank you, sir! I was going to buy the ewi professional usb. Does that tell you a bit more? It’s about $269 US dollars. Thanks so much for your help! I’m a sax player and I’ve played an ewi before, but know absolutely nothing about the systems required and such. It was property of FSU music school.
Indian fipple flute has similar mouth piece but made of wood. You can browse it on you tube fipplle flute and transverse flute and hear Indian classical rags.
Oops.. "He began prototyping the concept in the early 1970s and in 1975 Nyle completed his first playable electric valve instrument- the 'Steiner Horn'. "
