Sample Modeling - Saxophones - Anyone Try These?

I have and use The Sax Brothers. IMHO the absolute best sounding saxes. Takes a bit to learn to play them, but the realism blows static sample libraries away.
 

They are very good and rarely go on any really meaningful sale. Dern it!

rtucker55
I'm not even going to listen to the demos. Just don't have the extra cash right now. Well, I might listen to them but I'm not going to buy them...well, I'm not going to buy them but I will have my card out of the wallet....

fixed

They sound Real Good with the EWI but $360+ puts it on my want list for now.... Dern it here too!
 

rtucker55
Bapu has this mind reader capability that is down right spooky sometimes....  

Hahaha!
He sure does!   Wallet out and card in hand, have ya'?  
 
Thanks for the replies Buds.
 
I think they sound really good as well. 
 
The only Sax that I'm happy with so far is the Sensual Sax from Embertone, which I think is excellent in & of itself.
But you know - we never have enough, do we fellas?
 
I'm curious about the Swan engine.
 
Thanks for the input on that Mario.
 
Did it take long to learn the finger placement of the EWI-USB? 
 
I used to play B-flat Coronet in junior high for 3 years, but that was like 200 + years ago now.

Rick, are you one of the few that have the Yamaha BC3a breath controller, that are highly sought after still to this day?
Is that what helped your decision to 'swipe the CC' for the Saxes?

rtucker55
...I rarely use the breath controller so it did kinda help but I really blame it all on Bapu...

Uh-huh! I'll do the same then, if I decide to purchase it. 
 
Meanwhile do you think that you're gonna be tempted to get the EWI eventually?

I will try to answer your questions the best I can.  There are others who frequent these forums who are real wind controller players.  I am still just a hacker on it.  I bought it, as I wanted more realistic MIDI horns in my music and the EWI-USB certainly fit that bill for me.  Note I’ve been playing guitar and bass for 54 years; those are my main instruments.

Jimusic – I played a trumpet way back when.  I purchased the EWI-USB as it has a trumpet/brass like fingering system, see here for the fingering chart: http://www.patchmanmusic....4000sEVIFingering.html
Just scroll down until you see it.  It does take quite a while to figure it out so don’t buy it thinking that you can jump in and play it.  It takes awhile to get use to using the left hand and the fingering techniques.  The biggest problem I have is with those octave controllers.  If I practiced more I would be more efficient at it!  But don’t let this bother you.  With a little practice and X3d’s MIDI editing you can put down some very realistic horn parts. 

You can set up the EWI-USB to fit your playing style.  That is there are adjustments for volume, vibrato,  CC assignments etc.  Be forewarned that the instrument has quite a bit of wind resistance, i.e. it takes some breath power to play it.  Again not a show stopper, at least not for this old timer. 

Rtrucker55- I had absolutely no problem installing and using the EWI-USB on my 64 bit Win 7 Pro system. This is the first time I have ever heard of those kinds of problems however I don’t frequent many wind controller sites.

If you played a sax or clarinet you would be right at home with the fingering.  EWIs have a few different fingering combinations that can be set up.  My guess is that the brass like fingering is the hardest transition, as it appears the woodwind transitions are identical to the actual instrument.  However not having played those instruments I can only go by what I’m told.

As I stated about those octave rollers are a challenge, at least they are to me.  The vibrato is very good.  The pitch bend plates are also very good and you can assign different CCs to them.

You are correct that with practice you will get the hang of it.  I can play it just enough to put down parts and with a little editing come up with some great sounding horns, saxes, oboes etc with it.  Plus the more I play it the less editing I have to do.

You can hear what I am doing with it here: https://soundcloud.com/mario_guitar/tracks

I hope this helps.

rtucker55
I've been researching the EWI USB for a few hours now and I keep seeing complaints that it may not work well with Windows 7 so I'm not sure yet if it is in my future or not. There will always be a few people that have issues with anything but I just keep seeing more than a few. It's really hard to make a judgement based on on-line reviews.
 
It would really be interesting to actually play with the EWI just to see how it works/feels as a controller on Win 7 and how the octave switching rollers work and the pitch bend plate, etc... I think if it would function properly on Win 7 a guy would just have to practice some scales and eventually get the hang of it.
 
I wish MarioD could shed a little more light on the subject as it looks like he is using his EWI with Win 7 Pro.

Yup - I've been doing the exact thing same Rick.
We're probably reading many of the same reviews. The main ones that concern me are found on pages 3-4 on Amazon. 
 
My main music store gives a 30 day return window but I'm not totally sure if that would apply in this case - maybe I'd have to take a bit if a hit on the refund and swallow the cost of them putting in a new mouthpiece, which I'd be totally ok with.
 
But then at least I could try it out for a month.
I can call tomorrow & see what they'll say about that.
 
I too am on Win 7 - 64.

I'm definitely not writing it off at this point but I just read a couple more reviews at Sweetwater and both guys that used windows said they had some issues with hung notes and such. I notice the Akai web site specifies XP or vista but I was hoping that was for the Aria software.
 
As long as it is not a Driver problem it should be ok...  Going to download the install/user manual and give it a quick read.
 
This may be an interesting quick read:  http://www.ewiusb.com/howTo_PCSetup

If you will direct me to those page 3 & 4 complaints I will take a look at them.  I looked at Amazon and there are a number of EWI-USB pages.

However two things do come to mind:
1-on other sites a lot of people are having problems with the ASIO4ALL drivers when using other software and/or hardware.  I am using my Roland Octa-Capture's native ASIO drivers and like I said I have had no problems what so ever.

2-I am using the latest Aria player and EWI software.  Maybe those with problems were using the original software and they are not compatible with Win 7 or 8.  I don’t know as I had the upgrades prior to getting Win 7.

I will help in any way that I can.

Good luck.
 
{EDIT}-FYI Patchmanmusic.com forums have a lot of info on the EWI-USB.  You might want to check it out.

You are correct in that the EWI-USB uses class-compliant USB drivers, that you need the Aria software to change the EWI-USB settings and you no longer need said software after the change.

The supplied Aria does contain some decent sounds.  When one mixes a tenor sax with a little Alto flute you get a super late 50’s deep sax sound with a little airy breath with it. There are some others as well so I wouldn’t necessary write it off without trying it first.

It’s been quite a while since I installed that software.  Is there any way I can check to see if I installed in the XP compatibility mode?  When I checked the exe’s compatibility tab is shows that compatibility is unchecked but a grayed out XP SP3 is shown in its window.

I hope this helps!

Ha - great thread !
 
Re: samplemodeling saxes;
- these are Great saxes - have become my GO To Saxes for anything I want any kind of realistic sound to.
 
Also thanks to you others regarding the EWI info ... I've been thinking about getting one of these, but also wondered if it would work properly under Win7/64. Unfortunately the authorized dealer here does not have a good support track record with me, or anyone else I know who deals with them.
 
Thanks for the great info guys.
 
 
Cheers - Cliff

rtucker55
 
Rick
 
...p.s. Just want to Thank jimusic for letting me swamp your original thread. Sorry about the off-topic posts...
 

No Problem Rick.
 
Meanwhile, I found an alternative, guys. It picks up where the Yamaha BC3A left off, and it seems that some are using it with the SampleModeling Saxes.
 
...We have received numerous requests from musicians and composers to develop a replacement for Yamaha's breath controller BC3A...
 
http://www.tecontrol.se/p...midi-breath-controller
 
 

The Tecontrol looks like a great replacement for the BC3 and the fact that it is USB is the icing on the cake.
 
I have an EWI USB coming from Sweetwater Thursday so I will let you know what I find out. It should be, well, interesting at least.
 
I also played trumpet back in the stone ages, still remember the fingerings, so I will try to set it up that way to give it a test. Hmmm, that is a Bb instrument isn't it... midi transpose may come in handy here at first.