Suppose you want to play EWI. But you don’t want to play the Studebaker one. And you don’t particularly need nor want to visit the 70s and early 80s with the Analogue synth found in the EWI4000S.
Fear not, Akai has heard your pleas.
” Akai Professional, the name synonymous with music production, announces EWI USB, its latest wind controller, is now shipping.
EWI USB enables anyone, regardless of wind instrument-playing experience, to perform with the expressive capabilities of the wind instrument of their choice. The wind controller features a plug-and-play USB interface for use with the included Aria software with Garritan and Akai Professional samples as a sound source. EWI USB is Mac and PC compatible.”
They also have more detailed information on their website now. People who want to pretend they play Cello, or Oboe, or whatever will be delighted with the Garritan Aria player that comes with the EWI USB. List price is $299. Not a bad deal.
I somehow think Akai has good humor in announcing this on Halloween.
299, huh? Looks like I’ll be getting one of these in the future.
However, I have been hearing things that the bundled Aria player isn’t all that great……….so…….
I still think the EWI4000S is a lot better. The internal synth is expressive, and generally sounds great.
I own a EWI4000s and I doped the internal sounds with sounds bought Patchman Music soundbanks…try this and give me your appreciation, this is really GREAT , absolutely nothing to do with internal Akai sounds…and more if you use it with the VL70m doped with the Turbo VL…waiting for your comments at “mariol@intnet.mu” thanks
Mario
It would be nice if comments were in coherent English…….*sigh*
The default sounds on the EWI4000S are ok. Nothing great. There are a couple that sound good, such as I think 53 which is sort of a Breckerish sound. Most of the others aren’t to my liking. The Patchman banks are quite a bit better sounding I would agree. However, I still haven’t gotten around to doing a custom patchbank yet that has “the best of” from the default patches and Patchman’s patches. The Akai editor is kind of………messed up.
The VL70m + the turbo chip, for about what you can get another EWI 4000S for, has some nice sounds as well. If you are into trying to convince people that the EWI is a clarinet, flute, trumpet, or something else. That isn’t really what I’d want my EWI to do.
Hi guys, I’m new to this forum and I just got a EWI USB recently. I am really not happy with the Aria Sounds. A friend of mine told me about XPression which is a harware instrument and is supposed to have great sampled wind instrument sounds. There are some awsome demos on the website. He said he tried it with the EWI USB and loved it. Check it out here:
http://www.dynasample.com
Has anyone else seen or played this module?
bass69
Hmm, well, since that doesn’t seem to be shipping yet……and has no price…..I dunno.
I’ve used my 4000s with Reason, Logic, Digital performer using software synths. That is probably the way to go.
What I think would be very very cool is if someone could come up with an iPod/iPad app that used the USB adapter that you could use with the EWI USB. That would be very hip. I’m currently thinking about getting the Amplitude App for iPad along with the adapter hardware to add Guitar amps and effects to my EWI. I really like using it with MainStage in Logic.
But anyhow, I kinda think going with a software synth on a laptop or netbook would be a lot better, more expandable, and offer more choices (and maybe cheaper) than this vaporous piece of hardware.
Looks like XPression is shipping now. It says 1749 EUR on their online shop at ebay.
That’s kind of a cool thing….