EWI Users

turtle

Just received an ewi usb for my birthday and it works great, with the exception that I cannot find a firmware update anywhere for it. I have scoured the akaipro website and indeed the rest of the internet and cannot find a firmware update anywhere. Does anyone know anything to help.
Thanks in advance.

boomer

@bigcatrik said:
iOS synths have been somewhat of a disappointment for me and my EWI4000s since I like to control filter cutoff with breath CC (CC#2) and almost all of them alias/crackle, especially on higher notes (most are okay below middle C). The one bright exception is GMS synth in FL Mobile 3 (IAP, but you can try it out without purchasing the IAP), which is odd since the other filters on its other synths crackle with breath control.

I have been doing wind synthesis at first professionally and now for enjoyment since the first wx7 arrived. I am now doing everything (or trying to) in iPad. Here are some of the things I have learned:

• There are 2 aspects to any synth’s usefulness to a wind controller. First and by far the most important is how it responds to cc and/or aftertouch. More on this below. Second is what synth parameters you are able to control with cc and/or aftertouch, and how much you want it to affect each parameter. Your comment goes the second and the answer is lots of synths, probably most, can map to filter cuttoff and varying numbers of other parameters. And there are many workarounds to the ones that do not. I can elaborate on this you want.
• But the thing you want to focus on is the synths responsiveness to breath. It does not matter which cc’s it responds to or even if it just responds to AT. There are easy ways to convert cc#2 to anything else. The real showstopper is zipper noise. This is the crackling sound you mention. It’s caused by the synth immediately changing the audio output values when there is a change in midi value. The controller will skip midi values if breath pressure changes too quickly and if the synths audio (volume, filter etc) faithfully follows that you will hear each discreet midi step. Many synths now seem deal with this by “smoothing” the audio so that it does not sound in discreet steps. The downside to smoothing is that it slows down attacks. It is smoothing the distance between a zero midi value and the much higher value the controller is sending. This is like setting the A in ADSRs to a higher value for every patch. There are a couple of synths that strike an acceptable balance and work quite well. 2 that come to mind are Thor and Obsidian (the synth built in to nanostudio 2). Obsidian is probably the best currently available synth for a wind controller on iOS. It covers both aspects stated above. In fact it’s the holy grail for wind controllers on iOS. In real time it sounds fantastic and you can map cc2 to literally anything in any amount. Unfortunately midi recording of the performance in ns2 introduces zipper noise on playback for some reason.
• To any synth devs that would charitably like to accommodate the very small number of us wind players, here is a simple algorithm that works: Always smooth audio response except when the assigned cc’s value is zero. The assigned audio parameter then responds immediately to whatever the next cc value is. I know it works because 25 years ago I had someone custom build a device that controlled just audio volume with cc2 to allow me to play the hardware synths and samplers available at the time. Smooth as silk and all attack transients intact.

If the last sounds like pleading, it’s because I am

bigcatrik

-> @boomer said:

Obsidian is probably the best currently available synth for a wind controller on iOS. It covers both aspects stated above. In fact it’s the holy grail for wind controllers on iOS. In real time it sounds fantastic and you can map cc2 to literally anything in any amount. Unfortunately midi recording of the performance in ns2 introduces zipper noise on playback for some reason.

I only have Nanostudio, not NS2, but the recording problem with FLM3 I reported on page one disappeared in an update so FLM3's GMS (no longer an IAP, IIRC) and its smooth filter response is still my iOS wind synth of choice (though I haven't picked up my EWI in some time). Have you tried it?

But if "map cc2 to literally anything in any amount" means each control mapped in Obsidian can be scaled individually, GMS can't do that. GMS can map one CC to as many MIDI destinations as you want, but always at full power. But you can stack as many synths and effects in one FLM3 channel as your iPad's power allows and control them all so there are interesting possibilities.

Skyblazer

@boomer I'd love to hear some more recommendations on which iOS synths to use with an EWI, or tips on how to design presets for them. Mozaic could be used for the functionality you describe. I'm wondering if you have any other ideas for a program that translates MIDI from the EWI to the synth.

There are some obvious ones, like:
-Limiting the rate of MIDI messages
-Re-assigning breath to modwheel
-Adjusting the "legato time"

I've noticed that some smoothing would be nice when the the filter is 90% open; that must be the "zippering" you're referring to.

So far, I've found these AUv3 synths to be pretty good for creating EWI patches. I just map breath to the modwheel, I don't use any of the other sensors.
-Aparillo
-id700
-Zeeon
-Mela Synth

boomer

@bigcatrik

But if "map cc2 to literally anything in any amount" means each control mapped in Obsidian can be scaled individually, GMS can't do that. GMS can map one CC to as many MIDI destinations as you want, but always at full power. But you can stack as many synths and effects in one FLM3 channel as your iPad's power allows and control them all so there are interesting possibilities.

>

Yes that’s what it means. E.g you could map cc2 to say volume, both filters, pcm and any knob with extremely fine control of scaling to each one individually. You can tweak patches to make it feel like you are playing a real instrument. You can do that in Thor too but you can’t buy it anymore and it’s not as intuitive as Obsidian. And within ns2 you can stack instances of Obsidian to your hearts content and not strain cpu. If you playing live and don’t mind getting your hands dirty programming patches, it’s worth getting ns2 just for obsidian. And it’s fantastic sequencer overall with that one major downside of zipper noise on playback. Another app that responds gain-wise pretty well is AUM. Map and scale cc2 to AUMs volume fader and to the auv3 parameters of the hosted synth in that channel. But there are no auv3 sequencers that record cc data with acceptable resolution.

I dont have FL so I’d be curious if the smoothness of GMS comes at the expense of clean attacks. I may take a look at it.

mrufino1

@u0421793 said:
I got rid of my VL-70m last year, which was a very nice mono physical yodelling synth.

So I know this is an old post and probably a typo or autocorrect type thing- but did you actually have a yodelling synth?!

michael_m

@mrufino1 said:

@u0421793 said:
I got rid of my VL-70m last year, which was a very nice mono physical yodelling synth.

So I know this is an old post and probably a typo or autocorrect type thing- but did you actually have a yodelling synth?!

I would love to hear that!

NeuM

@michael_m said:

@mrufino1 said:

@u0421793 said:
I got rid of my VL-70m last year, which was a very nice mono physical yodelling synth.

So I know this is an old post and probably a typo or autocorrect type thing- but did you actually have a yodelling synth?!

I would love to hear that!

Now THAT’S a synth.

jollyDodger

6 years later. Can peeps recommend synths that work well with breath control?

boomer

@jollyDodger said:
6 years later. Can peeps recommend synths that work well with breath control?

For IOS:
Obsidian in NS2, Thor, and Korg M1 (don’t have M1 but I know it’s good). These are the best that I know about IMO. There are many others that work with various issues that may not matter to you. On this list is DRC, Kauldron, Magellan1 (not 2, zipper noise in that one), LayR, Mood, AUM with any synth, more. See my posts above for what I find important.

Alfred

Have a look at Respiro. A free ios player version of this vst instrument has just been released.
When you own the vst license, you can import all your favorite sounds.

Skyblazer

@boomer said:

@jollyDodger said:
6 years later. Can peeps recommend synths that work well with breath control?

For IOS:
Obsidian in NS2, Thor, and Korg M1 (don’t have M1 but I know it’s good). These are the best that I know about IMO. There are many others that work with various issues that may not matter to you. On this list is DRC, Kauldron, Magellan1 (not 2, zipper noise in that one), LayR, Mood, AUM with any synth, more. See my posts above for what I find important.

I just tried Magellan 1 and Magellan 2 with my EWI Solo, and I couldn't hear a difference. I think I'd have to hear an audio demo with the zipper noise to understand it.

boomer

@Skyblazer said:

I just tried Magellan 1 and Magellan 2 with my EWI Solo, and I couldn't hear a difference. I think I'd have to hear an audio demo with the zipper noise to understand it.

Hmmm. Not every patch will expose it. To know what it is use a simple sine or triangle wave with no reverb or delay which can hide it. Need to do fast crescendo with breath. It is sometimes described as “steppy” or “clicky”. Thick layered chorusy sounds are usually ok so if those are kinds of sounds you usualy use then that’s great. If Magellan 2 is good for you, I recommend also trying AUM to control the volume of any midi synth with breath. Opens up a whole world of synths.

Skyblazer

@boomer Oh, I see what you're saying.

So EWI --> Drambo's slew rate limiter --> MIDI Out would allow you to throttle the CC value's speed by some imperceptible amount if you approach zippering speeds, which could be useful.

But it's still ideal to use a synth that has the "slew rate limiter" built in, because it will be able to send finer increments to the sound generator, more rapidly. So Drambo qualifies, Zeeon doesn't. And if you add an envelope to the position of the slew rate limiter, you could also have it activate after __ms.

The EWI Solo software does have two settings for how many CC messages it sends per second, Default and Hgh Resolution, so that probably helps.

Alfred

That is great that the ewi solo can send high resolution breath.
Does the ewi 4000 also have that possibility to send 14 bit breath?
And wich synths would be able to use that high resolution?

boomer

@Skyblazer said:
@boomer Oh, I see what you're saying.

So EWI --> Drambo's slew rate limiter --> MIDI Out would allow you to throttle the CC value's speed by some imperceptible amount if you approach zippering speeds, which could be useful.

But it's still ideal to use a synth that has the "slew rate limiter" built in, because it will be able to send finer increments to the sound generator, more rapidly. So Drambo qualifies, Zeeon doesn't. And if you add an envelope to the position of the slew rate limiter, you could also have it activate after __ms.

The EWI Solo software does have two settings for how many CC messages it sends per second, Default and Hgh Resolution, so that probably helps.

Drambo. Yes. Now I will get it. Thanks! I thought about Drambo but I have grown tired of buying synths just to find out it does not work well with the ewi. And thanks for the “slew rate” vocabulary. That sounds exactly like what would cause, or not cause, the audio stepping that sounds like a zipper at high speeds. How do you find out what the slew rate is of a synth? I think the usb ewi puts out plenty of resolution. Recording into cubasis3 shows lots of values.

Skyblazer

@Alfred said:
That is great that the ewi solo can send high resolution breath.
Does the ewi 4000 also have that possibility to send 14 bit breath?
And wich synths would be able to use that high resolution?

The software utility for each model is where one might find the "high resolution" checkbox.
I would have to enable the bite, glide, and bend plate sensors to properly stress test synths for MIDI messages, but I haven't found one that is overloaded by just the breath CCs at high resolution.

@boomer said:

@Skyblazer said:
@boomer Oh, I see what you're saying.

So EWI --> Drambo's slew rate limiter --> MIDI Out would allow you to throttle the CC value's speed by some imperceptible amount if you approach zippering speeds, which could be useful.

But it's still ideal to use a synth that has the "slew rate limiter" built in, because it will be able to send finer increments to the sound generator, more rapidly. So Drambo qualifies, Zeeon doesn't. And if you add an envelope to the position of the slew rate limiter, you could also have it activate after __ms.

The EWI Solo software does have two settings for how many CC messages it sends per second, Default and Hgh Resolution, so that probably helps.

Drambo. Yes. Now I will get it. Thanks! I thought about Drambo but I have grown tired of buying synths just to find out it does not work well with the ewi. And thanks for the “slew rate” vocabulary. That sounds exactly like what would cause, or not cause, the audio stepping that sounds like a zipper at high speeds. How do you find out what the slew rate is of a synth? I think the usb ewi puts out plenty of resolution. Recording into cubasis3 shows lots of values.

I suppose you could hit record, play a note, send the synth's low pass filter a MIDI CC with a value of 0, followed by a value of 127, and look at the recorded waveform to measure how long it takes for the filter to open. Record a few synths at the same time, and you can compare the times, referencing one that snaps instantly as your "control".

boomer

@Skyblazer said:
I suppose you could hit record, play a note, send the synth's low pass filter a MIDI CC with a value of 0, followed by a value of 127, and look at the recorded waveform to measure how long it takes for the filter to open. Record a few synths at the same time, and you can compare the times, referencing one that snaps instantly as your "control".

Great idea except I still have to buy the app to find out
I had done something similar awhile back in NS2 sequencer with Obsidian to demonstrate zipper noise there. Exported audio file is attached. A note is played twice. First time is short slopes from 0 to 127 and back. The second is instantaneous 0 to 127 and slope down to zero. In the first you hear the zipper noise up and down. In the second you hear sharp attack and zipper down.
In the app breath is assigned 100% to both volume and filter cutoff. Audio was exported as a mixdown in NS2. The sequencer has manually entered cc2 in straight lines. Interesting things to note:
I am told that mixdown always uses lowest buffer latency setting. The recording is indeed what the sequence sounds like when played back manually at lowest latency But if I playback manually at highest latency, the zippering is much less but still there. Monitoring it live has no zipper noise that I can hear at all - smooth volume changes but still fast attack response. Could these differences be caused by different slew rates tied to latency buffer?

Skyblazer

@boomer said:

@Skyblazer said:
I suppose you could hit record, play a note, send the synth's low pass filter a MIDI CC with a value of 0, followed by a value of 127, and look at the recorded waveform to measure how long it takes for the filter to open. Record a few synths at the same time, and you can compare the times, referencing one that snaps instantly as your "control".

Great idea except I still have to buy the app to find out
I had done something similar awhile back in NS2 sequencer with Obsidian to demonstrate zipper noise there. Exported audio file is attached. A note is played twice. First time is short slopes from 0 to 127 and back. The second is instantaneous 0 to 127 and slope down to zero. In the first you hear the zipper noise up and down. In the second you hear sharp attack and zipper down.
In the app breath is assigned 100% to both volume and filter cutoff. Audio was exported as a mixdown in NS2. The sequencer has manually entered cc2 in straight lines. Interesting things to note:
I am told that mixdown always uses lowest buffer latency setting. The recording is indeed what the sequence sounds like when played back manually at lowest latency But if I playback manually at highest latency, the zippering is much less but still there. Monitoring it live has no zipper noise that I can hear at all - smooth volume changes but still fast attack response. Could these differences be caused by different slew rates tied to latency buffer?

That's interesting. I don't know, your guess is as good as mine. Maybe a developer would have more insight. I suppose it could have something to do with the buffer size, the synth, NS2, or iPadOS. You could try sending the MIDI from an external program, then sending the MIDI from desktop, etc. to narrow that down. Either way, thanks for the tip about latency, good to know.

bigcatrik

@Skyblazer said:
I just tried Magellan 1 and Magellan 2 with my EWI Solo, and I couldn't hear a difference. I think I'd have to hear an audio demo with the zipper noise to understand it.

High notes are the biggest offenders if zipper is present. It's most evident when controlling only the filter. Volume tends to be more forgiving.