New Akai EWI5000 announced at NAMM
A new EWI-5000 is introduced at NAMM and subsequently pricing on current EWI's are at an all time low (I've seen EWI-USB $218, $ EWI-4000s $510 in the US).
This new model has 8 octave keys, MIDI & USB connection, built-in rechargeable lithium battery, as well as wireless (including receiver which hooks into computer's USB port) all in one package plus built in sounds from Sonivox. I heard a youtube demo, and the 2 built in sound samples were what I would best describe as "kazoo" class.
The list price is $999, and pre-order pricing is $799 with shipping from here:
http://www.patchmanmusic.com/ewi5000
I would assume that for live stage performance the wireless feature is really great, and given how much add-on external wireless capability costs, the $799 sounds like a very good deal even without the additional new features. This new model is expected to ship sometime this spring (2014).
HUGE CORRECTION:
MarioD pointed out on a pgmusic post that:
"Wireless audio for on-stage freedom (includes receiver)"
Which means that wireless is not designed to transmit MIDI output, contrary to what I had assumed. I figured that there was a USB port on the back end of the wireless receiver (which was never shown in any of the photos).
This means that wireless is good only for the built in sounds. Totally useless for those of us who want wireless MIDI transmission for using samplemodeling virtual instruments. I find this design incredibly shortsighted and dumb. I don't think much of Akai's engineers and musical consultants, they should have designed the wireless system to work with MIDI as well as for audio.
This new model has 8 octave keys, MIDI & USB connection, built-in rechargeable lithium battery, as well as wireless (including receiver which hooks into computer's USB port) all in one package plus built in sounds from Sonivox. I heard a youtube demo, and the 2 built in sound samples were what I would best describe as "kazoo" class.
The list price is $999, and pre-order pricing is $799 with shipping from here:
http://www.patchmanmusic.com/ewi5000
I would assume that for live stage performance the wireless feature is really great, and given how much add-on external wireless capability costs, the $799 sounds like a very good deal even without the additional new features. This new model is expected to ship sometime this spring (2014).
HUGE CORRECTION:
MarioD pointed out on a pgmusic post that:
"Wireless audio for on-stage freedom (includes receiver)"
Which means that wireless is not designed to transmit MIDI output, contrary to what I had assumed. I figured that there was a USB port on the back end of the wireless receiver (which was never shown in any of the photos).
This means that wireless is good only for the built in sounds. Totally useless for those of us who want wireless MIDI transmission for using samplemodeling virtual instruments. I find this design incredibly shortsighted and dumb. I don't think much of Akai's engineers and musical consultants, they should have designed the wireless system to work with MIDI as well as for audio.
Comments
I suspect that CPU power needed to create the samplemodeling sounds are currently insufficient to do the job, although storage capacity should not be a problem simply by having SDXC flash memory card option. A new SWAM player would have to be written for another operating system, possibly some version of Linux. This new SWAM would also have to accommodate the Brass instruments which currently use the Kontakt player. Finally we would need some extra buttons to select the sounds quickly and easily.
An altogether different approach to portability beyond current laptops, would be to use the new EWI5000 (or even EWI-USB) and connect via the built in USB to one of the more powerful (Quad Core ) tablets which, if powerful enough, could run with an Android version of SWAM. This would not require any co-development from Akai and still result in an ultra portable windcontroller.
Eventually when a 5-7" android smart phones became sufficiently powerful they could replace larger tablets, so that the smart phone could be directly mounted on the windcontroller itself for ultimate portability.
Just daydreaming.
from http://www.akaipro.com/tradeshows/wnamm2014
Wireless MIDI is a long-awaited feature for many of us, actually I‘ve started an experimental APP project a few monthes ago which allows my phone to transmit wireless MIDI data(compatible with Apple Network-MIDI) via WIFI / Bluetooth from USB-MIDI input.
Let's see what the new EWI would bring.
Wireless MIDI is a long-awaited feature for many of us
what about
http://www.musicstore.de/de_DE/EUR/-/art-PCM0005898-000
A wireless midi interface for a Wind instrument should be
1) battery powered Midi -> Wireless box
2) grid powered Wireless -> USB box
(I am a computer engineer and in fact I do know that doing such a device is rather easy to do by using a small microprocessor and plugging together some out-of-the-box hardware and software elements.)
-Michael
http://www.midi-store.com/CME-WIDI-X8-Wireless-Midi-Single-p-16144.html
Also the midiBEAM, from Pandamidi, looks quite small (in the photos) and only costs 99 Euros (about $136) for both the RX02 + TX02 at the special intro price, plus 15 Euros for shipping.
http://pandamidi.com/midibeam
And finally we have the MidiJet Pro which is more expensive for $449 plus 25 shipping in the US from
http://www.patchmanmusic.com/MidiJetPro.html
I too was hoping that the USB "B" port on the receiver of the EWI 5000 would be a "wireless replica" of the USB "B" port on the bottom of the instrument. I am still hoping that is going to be the case before they release the instrument. So far, I have heard various reports like "it's only for power" (that would be totally weird, to have a USB B port for power only), or, "it is for USB audio" (a bit more believable, but, WHY? There are so many usb audio interfaces available very cheap, why build it into the receiver?).
Let's hope for the best. It would be totally absurd for Akai to release a Pro level product without the wireless MIDI, but, manufacturers do absurd things sometimes.
Hello,
Thank you for your interest in this new product! It's going to be Wireless 2 channel stereo audio. It will not transmit midi wirelessly.
Best Regards,
Brian Davitt
Technical Support & Return Authorizations Specialist
What a shame.
Dan
This is unbelievable. How can they lock their product like that, with cheap sounds. I heard a demo of the built-in trumpet sound on youtube.
A joke. Vibrato pitchbend style. Sample style runs. Yeay.
Come on, that's not acceptable. Not in 2014. Samplemodeling has been in existence for years now.
How can they not notice they are making fools of themselves ?
What's the point of all this ? Don't they want to sell it ?
SampleModeling should stand up and create their own Soprano-Sax-like controller ! (Most of WX7 hardware seems to be a good starting point.)
If help on embedded Microprocessor (and wireless) -technology and -firmware is needed, I can do that.
-Michael
If interested, I've got some tests showing data resolution comparison between WX5 ands EWI-4000 here. http://www-acad.sheridanc.on.ca/~degazio/AboutMeFolder/MusicPages/EWI-WX5.html)
It's a shame that Yamaha has never undertaken to improve the WX5 since the first release. The EWI, for all its unreliability, at least has had several software updates that fixed bugs and added improvements.
Regarding the EWI-5000, I'm also disappointed and even a bit shocked that it won't have wireless MIDI. What were they thinking? Did they really believe that including some decade-old (I'm guessing) samples was going to satisfy professional musicians? Clueless. Of course, we can still use it in wired mode, but since that seems to be the main feature of this new version, what would be the point of buying it if it can't be used?
I never tried one. Here in the forum and in other locations in the Internet there were harsh complains about the uneven curve of the lip pressure sensor.
Obviously there really is a strong demand for a decent Wind controller (reliable and "state of the art" sensor function plus wireless MIDI.)
In fact I feel that the optimum "hardware" is the WX7 (I own a WX7 and I'm not familiar with WX5 and WX11, but I prefer the look of the 7
(I don't think that velocity sensing for the keys - as with the 5000 - does make much sense.)
-Michael
https://www.flickr.com/photos/122810368@N03/sets/72157643709166575/
-Michael
Fri Apr 11, 2014 1:34 pm (PDT) . Posted by: "Chris Graham" midiwind@ymail.com
About the embouchure sensor and ease of learning:
The "reed" is an optical sensor that measures the position the back of you
lower lip while the front of your lower lip is steadily supported by a
"ledge" about 5 mm back from the front on the bottom of the mouthpiece. In
one style you can play it with exactly the same embouchure as a sax or
clarinet with the teeth on the lower lip. The range of motion is much
larger than the WX5 reed, and the front of your lower lip is steady on the
ledge, so the back of your lip moves with respect to that steady reference.
It's analogous to the steadiness of the motion of a mouse resting on a
supporting surface vs the jittery motion of one's finger held up in the air.
This makes it very accurate and gives a huge dynamic range. There are no
moving parts except the back of your lip and the photons of optical sensor.
In effect your lip is the spring of the reed, and you can adjust the
stiffness of this virtual reed by how far forward or back you position your
lip on the ledge. It might sound unconventional but I think anyone who can
play a reed instrument will take to it instantly.
With a different positioning of your lips on the mouthpiece the same
sensing system supports a very brass-like feel of play and a flute like
feel. You can also adjust the "stiffness" of the virtual reed and range of
motion and store the settings in patches in the mouthpiece. When you are
learning you can set the sensitivity lower and turn it up as you get used
to it. With the patches you could even store different calibrations of the
embouchure for different uses.
The above is all in addition to the tongue sensor - actually not just
tongue but a continuous controller that changes continually as the tongue
is moved from almost touching the mouthpiece all the way to where the
tongue is flat against the bottom of the mouth and the last few steps of
the controller are changed by opening and closing the throat. It's a
remarkably easy precise and expressive controller. Even for non-wind
patches it's interesting to set breath to CC Volume, lip to bend and tongue
to mod wheel. This often leads to fascinating and fun results. For course
any kinds of mappings are possible.
There's another combined control source that blends lip and tongue into one
super precise controller. I effect the tongue acts as a fine tuning of the
pitch set by the lip. In the past I've used this to play a brass style
finger unit with just three keys and the mouthpiece controlling the notes,
with the just the embouchure selecting the overtones. I think this may
allow a trombone style wind controller with notes selected just by
embouchure and slide, however this is take more experimentation to perfect.
Maybe by a software savvy trombone player.
There will be an opportunity for a patch development expert to create
patches that take full advantage of the embouchure sensing although it
works well with existing wind patches.
As (on the photos) it does not seem to have a "body" with "covers" and supposedly is to be used in combination with a keyboard, it sounds like a perfect tool for me when starting to use swam as a usual keyboard player and future would-be sax player.
But what about you as a well trained sax player ?
Can you exchange the mouthpiece of your WX5 ?
-Michael
Maybe you could try to direct him here, as I suppose the most knowledgeable potential users for his device would be found where the best software sound engine to use it with is at home.
I in fact would be interested in modifying my old WX7 for use with the "Multiwind".
If the thingy features a wireless Midi transport, it easily could have a midi input for the finger unit, which of course could be a WX5, WX11 or WX7. A problem might be the power supply, as the "old" hardware unit will use up a lot more power than necessary and would be doable with modern electronics.
I easily could design the electronics (hard- and software) for such a finger unit with midi (or whatever) output port. But the mechanics would need a decent designer and supposedly would need to be produced in a not too small quantity to allow for creating means to form the plastic parts. Maybe 3D printing would help on that behalf, but I am not knowledgeable in this area and too old to start learning in that direction (yet as well).
-Michael
Primarily the mouthpiece is the main feature, but he also has other plans to be able to add modular units for fingering and whatnot.
I think still have some old mockup pics somewhere for his various finger units.
The best wireless midi system i've ever had is the kenton ...
After testing all products on the market, only this one give good results : distance, latency, autonomy ....
i plan to buy the ewi 5000 ... just because my 4000 S are all out after touring hard ...
We don't have an idea of the onboard sounds, except the akai namm officials video ... just it could be available in the beginning of july ...
This is unbelievable. How can they lock their product like that, with cheap sounds. I heard a demo of the built-in trumpet sound on youtube.
A joke. Vibrato pitchbend style. Sample style runs. Yeay.
Come on, that's not acceptable. Not in 2014. Samplemodeling has been in existence for years now.
How can they not notice they are making fools of themselves ?
What's the point of all this ? Don't they want to sell it ?
I agree totally. Whatever group is in charge of the EWI line must be pretty much deaf musically speaking. Those who love the built in sounds would have nothing to lose by adding this additional capability, hence there is nothing to lose really. Cost wise, it could not possibly amount to much, and certainly most people would be willing to pay a bit more to have this capability.
If interested, I've got some tests showing data resolution comparison between WX5 ands EWI-4000 here.
http://www-acad.sheridanc.on.ca/~degazio/AboutMeFolder/MusicPages/EWI-WX5.html)
bgdgz,
I found your comparison between the WX7 and EWI-4000s extremely interesting. I have played almost all Yamaha and all EWI models (except the newest EWI5000) and found the sound output of the EWI, much more effective (more like playing the actual instrument in my hands), and had no idea why - perhaps it was because of what you have shown.
Opinions are of interest but laboratory test data is a lot harder to find and adds so much more to the discussion.
If you have access to an EWI-USB, lots of people I'm certain, would be tremendously interested in a similar test comparison of EWI-USB vs the EWI-4000s. It would be especially valuable to those who are trying to decide which of these two instruments they should purchase.
Thanks very much for sharing your test results.
Dan
PS The Leap Controller sells for $63 on Amazon.