Virus TI Snow + Akai EWI USB

[Axis Mundi]

Hello everyone. I'm an "electronic musician" and proud owner of the Virus TI keyboard for a few years now.

I have always been interested in experimentation with electronic music and how to bring more of a "live" aspect of the art to the stage.

I don't know how I had missed it until now, but recently I have discovered the Akai EWI series, and am especially interested in the EWI USB and what potential it could possibly have as a controller for the Snow in an Ableton Live environment. (I have been playing a recorder since school as well.)

Until recently I have been considering upgrading my knob box to the soon-to-be-released Akai APC 40. However, after having researched the EWI and talked to a few of my colleagues about it, I have started questioning this original decision.

While the APC 40 combined with the TI would give me a plethora of knobs and buttons, I am beginning to consider the practicality of touring with all of this equipment. On top of this, I only have so many hands so theoretically I could only use a few of the array of features available to me. I am currently touring Europe now through the end of 2009 and I have already learned how much fun it is to carry a 61 key synth in a flight case through airports, train stations, and the like. Not to mention the space needed for setup as well as the lackluster "push play" aspect of a live setup such as this. There is also the limited use of the APC 40 in that it is designed specifically for Ableton use.

I have a good friend who works as the chief of the synth department at a music store here in Germany. We have worked out that for the amount of money that I would spend on this controller (APC 40), I could trade in my used TI keyboard to the store in exchange for a new Snow as well as purchase the EWI USB controller.

This would radically change my setup both in the studio and onstage. However, the idea of controlling the Snow using an electronic wind instrument seems intriguing and out-of-the-ordinary, as well as bringing a new twist to a live electronic performance, and I would still be able to produce music at home reasonably well, whereas the APC 40 would probably not see much use outside of an onstage environment as most of my studio production is done in Cubase.

I am wondering if anyone else has had any experience with using the EWI as a synth controller, specifically to control the Virus through Virus Control in an Ableton environment and might be able to offer any insight that I may be overlooking, regarding the advantages and disadvantages of each of the two setups...

1.) TI kbd + APC 40 + Laptop running Ableton
vs.
2.) TI Snow + EWI USB + Laptop running Ableton. (In this setup I would also be using an X-Session knob box.)

Opinions and feedback are also welcome. Personally I envision both setups as having extreme potential albeit drastically different styles of expression.

Which would be the most ideal setup for an electronic experimentalist musician who both produces professionally at home as well as touring heavily? (I play the keyboard and the recorder equally well and consider myself to have somewhat advanced knowledge of MIDI implementation.)


Apologies for the long post.

http://www.myspace.com/psyaxismundi

[chromatic]

i use an Akai Ewi normal version with the synth inside, its one of the most expressive instrument i have home and i do own real saxophone and stuff...
I dont know how it work with external Synth in the past i used an EWI 3020 with external synth but it was different you could rout your external synth into the 3020 analog synth and so it worked very well as it used his analog filter and all to give expression to your external synth...
I remember without routing the synth into the ewi synth the sound lacked all the articulations...
BUT it may have changed so you should try it, probably when they made transition from full EWI + SYNTH to EWI with virtual synth in it they did all they had to do to make the ewi send the right informations to SYNTH to have good expressivity and all... so i think it might be very good you have to try>>>

PS: if you dont play usualy saxophone or something like that be ready for a good learning curve, the ewi is a little difficult to play at first...

[Axis Mundi]

Thanks for the feedback I learned to play a recorder in school. The fingering seems similar on the EWI's "flute" setting so hopefully I'll pick it up quick.

Just out of curiosity, is it possible to assign your own midi notes to the fingerings? Or do I only get to choose from the "standard" fingerings offered?

[chromatic]

i dont know about that... MAYBE...
BUT anyway i think most simple would be you use the SAXOPHONE fingering its straight B, A,G,F,E,D,C b/# are done with the left pinky finger.
It should be easy. What is little difficulte at first is to go from one octave to another with the rollers under the ewi but nothing practice cant help... ^^

Iam sorry i dont know if you can alocate any note you want to each touch, but i never tried to search about that and my manual is in japanese lol so usualy i learn only about what i really need lol (i should download the english pdf version Though but iam so lazy lol )

good luck to you its a great instrument anyway...
i hope you listened to micheal brecker playing it to see how expressive that instrument can be...