Anyone use the Akai EWI USB
Rick Paul
clarinet (and a little bit of alto sax) a long time ago, I'm this
controller (and wind controllers in general). I had a few startup
issues (e.g. the x64 version of the standalone software doesn't come up
at all on my Win7 SP1 x64 system, the the 32-bit version seems to work
okay). In general, though I think I'm getting the hang of it after
messing around with the configuration files a bit to cut down on false
triggers and adjust what is sent for different instruments.
I am having one significant problem, though, that I have not been able
to resolve. The bite sensor, which would generally be used for vibrato,
doesn't seem to be working at all. It seemed to me like it probably was
at first, but I can't be sure now, because when I bite down on the
mouthpiece it affects the air pressure, and, depending on the sound and
settings, can give similar effects. Whether or not it ever was working,
though, it is not now.
In particular, I have configured it to send CC#1 and CC#19 for use with
Sample Modeling's Mr. Sax T., trying to get it to control vibrato depth
and rate. If I use it in standalone Kontakt 4 Player, the indicators
for those controls show no activity when I bite down. Similarly, if I
try recording it in SONAR, I get no CC#1 or CC#19 values in my recorded
MIDI data.
After discovering this, I tried removing the mouthpiece to see if
anything looked obvious. I see the bite sensor appears to be two metal
strips with a thin clear plastic strip in between, covering most of the
metal areas, but not going all the way to the tips (which are the
farthest apart sections of the two metal strips). That made me wonder
if perhaps the plastic shouldn't be there and maybe the metal strips
were supposed to make contact with one another. This is a new unit,
though, and the mouthpiece was already attached when I got it, so I
would expect it should be setup correctly from the factory, and I didn't
even take the mouthpiece off until discovering the problem, so it's not
like putting it back on incorrectly could have caused an issue.
Anyone have this controller (or another similar Akai controller) and any
ideas on this? I haven't had any luck yet in my searches around the web.
Rick
--
===============================================
Rick Paul
Main Web Site: http://www.RickPaul.info
Studio Page: http://studio.RickPaul.info
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/rickpaulmusic
===============================================
PapaHomer
> resolve. The bite sensor, which would generally be used for vibrato,
> doesn't seem to be working at all. It seemed to me like it probably was
> at first, but I can't be sure now, because when I bite down on the
> mouthpiece it affects the air pressure, and, depending on the sound and
> settings, can give similar effects. Whether or not it ever was working,
> though, it is not now.
Howdy Rick,
I don't have an EWI USB but I do have an EWI 4000s.
Assuming that the bite sensors are similar, it is possible that you have
unknowingly changed the settings.
The default setting on the 4000 has Pitch Bent enabled but if you toggle it
off you will get only Breath Control.
Also there is a small removable cover on my 4000 located between the
mouthpiece and the octave rollers.
Hidden behind the cover are adjustment knobs for the Glide sensitivity and
time; Pitch Bend sensitivity and width; Vibrato depth, and Breath
sensitivity.
Out of curiosity, I checked the AKAI web site but didn't find much
documentation on the EWI USB.
You may find some usefull info on Matt Traum's Web pages
http://www.patchmanmusic.com/ewiusb.html is a good starting point.
Hope you find what you need to know to get it working again.
--
Kindest regards,
Homer Brinlee
...{瑪漂...
EWI, Flute, Alto and Tenor Sax, WX-5
Max Arwood
everything about wind controllers! He has a great web site too. Once you
get the EWI set up the way you like breath, vibrato etc, you'll love it. I
had to do lots of tweaks to make the WX7 fit the way I play. Don't give up
it will be worth the effort. Sorry I couldn't be of more help.
Max Arwood
"Rick Paul" <rick...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:mOOdnYEpYKR6N9DT...@earthlink.com...
Rick Paul
> I don't have an EWI USB but I do have an EWI 4000s.
> Assuming that the bite sensors are similar, it is possible that you have
> unknowingly changed the settings.
> The default setting on the 4000 has Pitch Bent enabled but if you toggle it
> off you will get only Breath Control.
Thanks for the thoughts, Homer.
From what I've read various places on the web, I suspect the actual
bite sensor and mouthpiece hardware are similar between these units.
However, I also get the impression the 4000 used hardware toggles in
areas where the USB uses software settings.
I was playing around with the software settings, trying to change the
CC#127 (Pitch Up/Down) and Off settings of the two bite sensor control
sends to CC#1 (Mod Wheel, which Mr. Sax T. uses for vibrato depth) and
CC#19 (which Mr. Sax T. uses for vibrato rate), respectively. However,
neither Kontakt nor SONAR was coming up with any values from these. I
also tried the bite sensor in its default mode, but didn't seem to get
anything there, either. (Of course, how any instrument responds to the
data it puts out by default will vary by instrument, but MIDI data
should still get recorded, even if the instrument doesn't know what to
do with it.)
> Also there is a small removable cover on my 4000 located between the
> mouthpiece and the octave rollers.
> Hidden behind the cover are adjustment knobs for the Glide sensitivity and
> time; Pitch Bend sensitivity and width; Vibrato depth, and Breath
> sensitivity.
I'm pretty sure these are software settings on the EWI USB, and I did
play around with those to get a feel for how they might affect this, if
at all. While it's easy to hear the difference in breath sensitivity
from the default setting of 64 to a setting of 127, messing around with
the bite and bite AC settings did not seem to make any difference at all.
> Out of curiosity, I checked the AKAI web site but didn't find much
> documentation on the EWI USB.
The hardware documentation is extremely limited, but I think that is
because most of the meaningful controls are on the software side. Thus,
most of the tweaking happens in the standalone Aria Player, which has an
EWI Controls window for setting the three categories of settings, those
being the sensitivity settings, basic performance settings (e.g. key
mappings, transposition, etc.), and CC assignments.
> You may find some usefull info on Matt Traum's Web pages
> http://www.patchmanmusic.com/ewiusb.html is a good starting point.
Yeah, I found that in my searching around the web, but, unfortunately,
didn't find anything that helped here, despite their having a fair bit
of info on the bite sensors in their general wind controller FAQs.
I also found an Akai EWI list on Yahoo Groups and posted a question
there similar to what I posted here after searching through their
archives and coming up dry. The group doesn't seem to be very active in
general, though, and I haven't received any responses thus far.
> Hope you find what you need to know to get it working again.
Yeah, me, too. The controller is working in general, just not the bite
sensor. I may have to figure out how to contact Akai's tech support on
this. It's conceivable it could just be defective or something.
Rick
Rick Paul
I've been spending a good deal of time messing around with tweaks. Some
of that is necessary to customize what gets sent for different software
instruments that respond to different things. Some of it has just been
trying to see which fingering patterns work best -- I'd probably have
been most comfortable with clarinet, but they don't have that, and I've
mostly been going back and forth between the native EWI pattern and
saxophone, both of which seem to have pros and cons. (They also have
oboe and flute, as well as two flavors of EVI, which are patterned after
trumpet fingering, but they're pretty awkward in that you have to use
the octave rollers and a left hand finger on/off toggle to get around
its not switching registers based on wind pressure.) Then there are
also the sensitivity settings, one of which made a big difference in
getting past a lot of false triggering due to the ultra-sensitivity to
finger movements with the default setting, and I'm also feeling like I
may want to tweak the breath control sensitivity after experimenting
with that a bit, though it's possible I might want to do it differently
for different software instruments.
In general, I like it a lot thus far, with the exception of this bite
sensor not working problem. (The x64 standalone software also doesn't
work on my system, but the 32-bit version of the standalone program,
which is needed for dealing with the settings, does work on Win7 x64, so
there is at least a workaround.)
Rick
===============================================
Rick Paul
Main Web Site: http://www.RickPaul.info
Studio Page: http://studio.RickPaul.info
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/rickpaulmusic
===============================================
Papa Homer
>...The controller is working in general, just not the bite sensor. I may
>conceivable it could just be defective or something.
>
> Rick
> ===============================================
> Rick Paul
> Main Web Site: http://www.RickPaul.info
> Studio Page: http://studio.RickPaul.info
> Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/rickpaulmusic
> ===============================================
I saw your post on the Yahoo Group earlier this afternoon.
I almost bought the USB model, as the 4000 was so much more money, but after
trying them at a friendly Sam Ash store (they aren't all friendly BTW but
that is another story...) I had to have the extended Range of the 4000.
Shortly after that I found one on e-Bay that had been set up by Matt and
carried his patches for it. When I received the instrument I saw that the
patches were only licensed for the original purchaser, and having bought his
patches in the past for my Synths, I called him up and ordered my own CD for
the EWI. He makes some great sounding patches.
I was tired this morning when I replied to your post on the usenet so I
forgot to share with you how delicate the Bite Sensor is.
I have a Yamaha WX-5 that I let my grandaughter play. She is 5 years old and
has a lot of fun with it.
She asked why the mouth pieces were different on her's (WX-5) and Mine
(EWI), so I told her that was because her's was like her Saxophone
and that mine was different because you have to bite it sometimes.
(She has bitten a few sax reeds back when she was 3 years old but knows
better now)
She did so well that I let her try blowing through the EWI.
Well, she thought she had to bite it to get sound.
She bit through it and bent the sensors, first time out.
I called Matt on the phone and talked to him about it and got another MP
from his web store for $50
After straightening the sensors as Matt suggested on his FAQ page my EWI
works OK now, but granddaughter sticks to the WX-5 ;-)
He is very friendly and helpful on the phone so you might want to give him a
call,
the number is on the FAQ page. he is near Cincinatti OH and they are on
Eastern time.
http://www.patchmanmusic.com/WindControllerFAQ.html
"...make sure the bite sensor is not bent out of proper shape. Remove the
Akai EWI mouthpiece and look at the shape of the bite sensor plates. They
should gradually arc outwards from each other ending up at a distance of
about 1/8" to 3/16" at the tip. If they are not shaped like this you can try
bending them back into shape carefully. If this does not improve the bend
response, contact Patchman Music for a repair within the USA. Always protect
the mouthpiece with the mouthpiece cap when not using the EWI to protect the
delicate bite sensor in the Akai EWI. "
--
Kindest regards,
Papa Homer Brinlee
Rick Paul
is the main reason I took the mouthpiece off my EWI USB. I wish they
showed a photo of what they should look like (and perhaps some
circumstances where they look wrong), but mine (assuming I was looking
at the right thing) seemed to correspond to the description of what they
should look like. But that is also where I noticed the plastic strip
between the two metal strips (I would have a hard time calling them
plates as they looked long and thin) and wondered if that was supposed
to be there as it would seem to me that would prevent it from conducting.
One thing I also wasn't clear about, and which had me wondering if this
could be user error at a few points was the exact techniques needed for
engaging the bite sensor. I started out just using lip pressure, but
then saw something (perhaps on the same page or perhaps elsewhere) that
mentioned people having actually bitten through it, which you obviously
couldn't do by just using lip pressure, so I tried actually using my
teeth, but it made no difference in the behavior. This is again
somewhere I wish there were some photos or diagrams showing what should
be done to definitively rule out user error.
In any event, I'll need to look more into this in the near future as I'd
really like to get it resolved. For today, though, I wanted to get a
recording done using it, so I just ended up overdubbing mod wheel for
vibrato from a keyboard, and that at least did the trick. I'll post a
link to the song shortly.
Rick
===============================================
Rick Paul
Main Web Site: http://www.RickPaul.info
Studio Page: http://studio.RickPaul.info
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/rickpaulmusic
===============================================
Rick Paul
I'm not 100% sure on what went wrong, though I have one main theory,
which is that it may have been working initially, but I didn't know how
to use it correctly, and then, when I took the mouthpiece off to look at
the innards of the thing, I may not have positioned the bite sensor
correctly when replacing the mouthpiece, which then made it not actually
work (in addition to my learning curve issues on how to use it). I took
my mouthpiece off again today, taking a close look at how I should put
it back on to make sure the bite sensor went where it was supposed to
go, then, after trying different things on settings and techniques
discovered it sort of worked, then I messed around with settings and
techniques more to finally get to the point where I seem to be able to
consistently work it.
One of the key things I learned is that there are two very different
modes of operation based on the settings you choose for the bite
sensor's configuration. In the default, which is described as being
CC#127 pitchbend down-up, it doesn't actually send CC data, but rather
does a short manipulation of the pitch wheel data. That pitchbend data
also peters out quickly unless you maintain pressure on the bite sensor
and jaw up and down to keep the data flowing. By contrast, if you set
it to send CC#1 and CC#19, which is what I was trying to do for some
specific instruments, you need to bite strongly on it, but you can
maintain vibrato through that, with no jawing needed (unless you want to
affect the intensity/rate, where those are the mappings used in the
specific instrument).
Also, one key I hadn't gotten before is that you do need to use the
teeth, not just lip pressure. I'd tried that before, too, but that may
have only been after the first time I'd taken the mouthpiece off and put
it back on.
I am now looking forward to getting back to making music with it.
Enough troubleshooting already! ;-)
Rick