Roland AE-10
Roland has announced a new wind controller, the AE-10:
https://www.roland.com/us/products/aerophone_ae-10/
It has USB MIDI and onboard sounds as well, even a monitor speaker!
Will cost around 800 USD.
It seems they have not taken the opportunity to make a more advanced controller with extra buttons or sliders. This is a disappointment to me, and I wonder if the market really needs another controller with internal sounds even though this one might be a step up from the AKAI controllers soundwise.
I want to see a wind device that can control both the player and the sequencer more in depth.
https://www.roland.com/us/products/aerophone_ae-10/
It has USB MIDI and onboard sounds as well, even a monitor speaker!
Will cost around 800 USD.
It seems they have not taken the opportunity to make a more advanced controller with extra buttons or sliders. This is a disappointment to me, and I wonder if the market really needs another controller with internal sounds even though this one might be a step up from the AKAI controllers soundwise.
I want to see a wind device that can control both the player and the sequencer more in depth.
Comments
To me internal sounds don't make any sense at all.
Wireless Midi would have made great sense !
Regarding the five Demo Videos all but the (very short) last one seem like total crap to me.
-Michael
They say:
"You can connect to your computer via USB to play soft synths and external MIDI sound modules through your DAW, with breath control providing a world of unique expression not possible with keyboard synthesizers. "
To me this would suggests that both expression and bite force are transferred.
On a computer (DAW) mapping controllers should not be a problem and more flexibly doable to do than on the controller itself
-Michael
-Michael
Android phones are just as powerful and a lot cheaper and outnumber iPhone by far.
AFAIK, there is no "USB wireless". The multiple protocols that are transferred via USB (such as Midi) all need their own wireless specification.
I recently learned that there is a new standard "Midi via bluetooth" (le) standard. There are Yamaha devices that use that standard, but the AE-10 uses a different (propriety) protocol.
Bome provides a Midi via WLAN solution "BomeBox".
-Michael
BTW, the reason I struggled so long was that the SWAM engine seems to need me to hit "PLAY" in my host to recognize anything. Other VSTs could be configured at any time. Mostly I am using Band in a Box as a host, but now I guess I'll try and configure Cantabile.
I suppose Band in a box is not a good tool to host VSTs for live playing. Of course Cantabile will be usable.
I myself do have BiaB, but I only use it as fellow-musicians for practicing. As a VST host for live playing (and for recording) I very happily use Reaper. Here I can do really complex programming to tweak the midi data stream before it reaches the VST instrument.
With Reaper I have only one bill (some € 60) and one learning curve for live playing plus recording/mixing/postproduction all in a very versatile and stable way..
-Michael
Some of the sounds introduced with the 2.0 version, such as the harmonica sound pretty good. In fact a handful of the sounds (harmonica, baritone sax, trumpet, pipe organ in Alistair Parnell's video's sound a lot better to my ears, than any of the built in sounds for any other windcontroller such as the EWI-4000s. The fact that the key layout is based on the saxophone (as well as the use of a reed for pitchbend) is a real bonus for sax players. Are these virtual instrument sounds anywhere close to those you can get with samplemodeling ones? Of course not.
Competition by manufacturer/designers (Yamaha, Akai, Roland) is a good thing and is likely to improve these instruments as well as lowering prices.
There are a number of nice features in the Roland AE-10 such as line input for mixing mp3, which is great for practicing with accompaniment even without a computer. Do I like the gimmicky synth sounds? No, but I wouldn't mind having a good harmonica sound, and if the AE-10 will work well with samplemodeling, then that will be really wonderful.
It is disappointing but not surprising that Roland as well as all other companies promote their instruments with music of the lowest common denominator, but that's simply following most fashionable taste promoted these days.
So, I'm eagerly awaiting the feedback from PhillyJazz, as well anyone else, in this forum who has a Roland AE10.
Thanks,
Dan