Wind controllers?

[canhoto]

Hi.

I'm thinking about buying a wind controller, probably a Yamaha WX5 (although I consider the Akai option, especially the EWI-USB). But I woludn't like to be forced back to Mac OS or be Wine-dependent.

Does anyone have an exoerience with the Yamaha WX5 in Linux? What about the other wind controllers?

Thanks.

[raboof]

I'm thinking about buying a wind controller, probably a Yamaha WX5 (although I consider the Akai option, especially the EWI-USB). But I woludn't like to be forced back to Mac OS or be Wine-dependent.

Does anyone have an exoerience with the Yamaha WX5 in Linux? What about the other wind controllers?

I have the WX11 with the MIDI converter pack. Technically it works fine out-of-the-box - it's "just a midi device" after all.

Most soundfonts/synths are not designed to be played with a wind controller so they don't react to changes in breath pressure. I've had some reasonably success with some synths by using puredata to convert breath pressure events into volume events.

All things considered I haven't used mine for a while and I'm probably going to put it up on ebay again. acoustic instruments are more my thing I guess .

[GraysonPeddie]

There used to be a Yamaha VL70-m, a sound module that contains nonophonic, physically modeled wind instrument patches in which you can plug in your breath controller and play it. You will need a MIDI to USB controller or an audio interface with MIDI IN for sending MIDI data to your MIDI sequencer, such as Rosegarden or QTractor.

Too bad they don't have it in Amazon.com, zZounds, and American Musical Supply.

According to http://www.indiana.edu/~emusic/cntrlnumb.html, MIDI CC#2 is associated with breath controller, but who uses that controller number these days?

[lem18]

Hi all,

I'm thinking of getting an Akai EWI-USB for use under Linux, and just wondering how those of you with that particular device (or other wind controllers) are going with it these days? It seems ewitool is in a state of transition, and I'm having a hard time finding MIDI files generated from EWI input to test with various synths etc under Linux. But, I do understand it's a class-compliant MIDI device, so as long as a suitable program chain can be set up, it should work fine.

So, two questions,
1. Are there workable setups for using the EWI-USB under Linux these days? Wine+wineasio and running the official software (Aria?) would be an option too.
2. Do any of you have some EWI MIDI files that I could test, and would this be representative of live playing with the instrument? (I assume yes, but I wanted to be specific).

Thanks in advance!

[glowrak guy]

Reaper works very well with 32 bit wineasio, and is one of the best apps for midi mapping
to synth knob modulations. So mapping ewi to tremolo depth, phaser speed,
filter cutoff/resonance etc, should be easy. Reaper also has very flexible routing to achive multiple
modulations on a sound. google ewi reaper some good tips/topics to study, here are a couple:

http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=52620

http://ewiusb.com/sysex_page1

Make sure you are happy with the returns policy/warranty on spendy items!
Discovery Pro and Sampletank run well in reaper/wine,
so I'd guess Aria would too.
Cheers

[GonzoB]

...
So, two questions,
1. Are there workable setups for using the EWI-USB under Linux these days?...

Here's my setup:

http://projects.gonzos.net

Gonzo

[lem18]

Here's my setup:

http://projects.gonzos.net

Gonzo

Thanks for posting that .. awesome! I have put aside my EWI-USB desire for the moment (got into Pianoteq recently and it's taking all of my free music time ). When I get to EWI and Linux though, your work will be extremely useful.

[folderol]

Are there workable setups for using the EWI-USB under Linux these days?

This is plug-and-play for Yoshimi. There have been messages on our list from two users saying so.