EWI vibrato
since there are several (3) ways to create a vibrato, let us discuss our preferred methods.
So here I make the beginning. I'm an amateur player, but I have the EWI since some years.
I use mostly breath for vibrato. It is a bit difficult, it may sound unnatural at times, so it's not the easiest method. With some focus on the piece I want to play, and with training, it does however work quite well.
A special note is necessary for the lip position: unlike most EWI players, I play it like a recorder. I slightly press the top of the mouthpiece to my lips. It appears to me that this lip position gives me better control over the breath parameter, and better vibrato control. Maybe it's just that I come frome recorders (sopran, sopranino, alto), I don't know.
As a side note, we've discussed this matter in the forum some time ago, whether it's a tremolo or really a vibrato. I think it is a bit of both, but quite natural sounding at the end of a note.
The second method is to hold the thumb close to the pitch bend plate, and shake the EWI. This is a good method when you are standing, with the EWI attached to a neck strap. Like the previous method, it can also sound unnatural, especially when you bend too far, or not in the right rhythm. There is also a downside. With certain finger positions it is no more possible to perform, and the player has to switch quickly to another method.
The third method is the 'default' biting the mouthpiece. That never appealed to me, and I never really used it. But I may learn it some day.
So here I make the beginning. I'm an amateur player, but I have the EWI since some years.
I use mostly breath for vibrato. It is a bit difficult, it may sound unnatural at times, so it's not the easiest method. With some focus on the piece I want to play, and with training, it does however work quite well.
A special note is necessary for the lip position: unlike most EWI players, I play it like a recorder. I slightly press the top of the mouthpiece to my lips. It appears to me that this lip position gives me better control over the breath parameter, and better vibrato control. Maybe it's just that I come frome recorders (sopran, sopranino, alto), I don't know.
As a side note, we've discussed this matter in the forum some time ago, whether it's a tremolo or really a vibrato. I think it is a bit of both, but quite natural sounding at the end of a note.
The second method is to hold the thumb close to the pitch bend plate, and shake the EWI. This is a good method when you are standing, with the EWI attached to a neck strap. Like the previous method, it can also sound unnatural, especially when you bend too far, or not in the right rhythm. There is also a downside. With certain finger positions it is no more possible to perform, and the player has to switch quickly to another method.
The third method is the 'default' biting the mouthpiece. That never appealed to me, and I never really used it. But I may learn it some day.
Comments
Not sure you can really have a precise control while shaking your instrument.
Personaly, i use the bite, and i'm pretty amaze of how well it works. It took me some time, though, since it's really sensitive. But once you get it, it's much more realistic than the one with the breath, IMO. The main thing is not to overdo it, which is quite tricky. I also have unscrewed the bitesensor a little bit, but i don't really know if it makes any differences. And my bite sensibility is set to something like 30.
You should also pay attention where you bite the mouthpiece. The sensor is made of two thin metal strip moving apart, so you don't want to bite too far.
I think the trick is to bite quickly, but not strongly. But it's actually easier than doing it with the breath.
That's, of course, only my personal opinion.
I also think that biting changes the airflow a little, creating a small volume change. But it may just be the instrument reacting in a proper way. Anyway, on swam instruments, when i bite, i clearly see that the dynamic is altered by the bite.
I've to disagree about the "machine" statement
As i'm not a clarinetist (only an amateur sax player), my knowledge in that domain is mostly theorical, so if i'm wrong, anyone who knows better can feel free to correct me
As mentioned in the first post, airflow variation sounds like a vibrato, but it is still open to the discussion if it is a real vibrato or not.
I still think that for them, the bite is the better choice for a slight pitch modulation, since the main way to do a vibrato on a real instrument remains changing the pressure of the bottom lip on the reed. A better choice theorically, i mean, since it's closer to the most common way of doing it on a real instrument.
Maybe some samplemodeling guys could help us here. Since they have deeply studied how these instruments work, i'm pretty sure they could tell us what parameters are mostly used, and in what proportions.
We'll always be able to argue on how to modulate these parameters afterwards
Maybe the main problem is that "vibrato" is not something clear. It's supposed to be a pitch modulation, but it's also a dynamic one, and its nature strongly depends on the nature of the instrument.
from an analytical standpoint, vibrato is a modulation of pitch, dynamics, timbre, noise, with some additional components like periodic flutter, more or less evident, depending on the instrument. Dynamics oscillations are for example prevalent in flute vibrato (almost a tremolo).
Vibrato is also characterized by the phase relationship between pitch and dynamics. In Brass instruments, they are almost out of phase.
All our virtual instruments are programmed in such a way to reproduce these features. WC users may create their own vibrato by a suitable combination of bite or flow changes. Our instruments are generally optimized for the bite technique, but may work reasonably well even with diaphragm vibrato.
Hope it helps,
Giorgio
When several friends recommended that I use CC2, I followed the advice and increased the sensitivity on the EWI-4000s (using the little analog knob on the isntrument), the difference was just amazing -a huge improvement.
Having played the Saxophone, the bite vibrato was second nature and it works extremely well now with the EWI-4000s and the SWAM Saxes.
When I tried to do the same for the Clarinet I found that it did not work as well. If anything I was getting way too much vibrato with the CC2 used for vibrato. I haven't played with it enough to find the best setting, because the Saxes were so good I played them whenever I had time to play. In any case I'm not at this point satisfied with my Clarinet vibrato configuration.
If you are using the EWI-USB, you may need to increase the vibrato parameters of your instrument with the configuration software, to get a good CC2 vibrato with biting.
The Saxophones and Clarinets are basically based on the same physical lows, we implemented both accordingly.
So there is no reason that vibrato acts in different ways on Saxophones and Clarinets.
Vibrato is influenced by the Dyn.Pitch parameter, as the variations of dynamic and pitch are strongly related; you can change that parameter to see if the vibrato performs as you need.
Could you please send to info@swamengine.com :
- a MIDI track of the recorded MIDI events from your EWI
- the preset you used for the Clarinet (save it from the main gui)
Cheers!
Emanuele