Akai Professional EWI4000S Electronic Wind Controller 

Comments about Akai Professional EWI4000S Electronic Wind Controller:

This is the first wind controller I have owned. I'm an Electrical Engineer and I enjoy the geeky, technology-filled things.The instrument is a fairly solid machine with a rich set of features. It is immediately playable from the box. All you need are 4 batteries and a set of headphones. Nice!There are many features that work fairly well. I highly recommend it.Now, for the cons (if you can call them that) that everyone seems to look for.1. The internal sounds aren't the greatest. The first thing you must remember is that this is a synthesizer and its sounds are produced by individual synthesizers. This has a tendancy to produce a bunch of sounds that sound alike. It also has the tendancy to produce sounds that do not sound like normal instruments. The best fix is to get Patchman Music's sound set. It is very nice.2. It does not come with a power supply. Be cautious when you purchase one as the center electrode of the power supply is negative, which is not all that common. Just pay attention to the power supply when you buy one.3. The instrument IS NOT a replacement for a clarinet, recorder or saxophone (or any instrument). This instrument is a different animal and requires time and effort to master. If you want the taste of regular meatloaf, don't use turkey. It's similar, but not the same.4. The neck strap is kind of cheap. I would invest insomething like the Rico neckstrap for $16. It's a nice addition.5. The 1/4" line out on the instrument is kine of loose. It didn't do very well at holding the cable. I ended up getting a 21' cable with a right angle connector on one end and using a piece of cable tie velcro to help secure it to the instrument. It works well and solves the problem.6. When you buy headphones, be sure to match the suggested impedance or you'll get hissing and the like.That's all for now. It's a great instrument, and with 6 short videos from Alistair Parnell (online), you'll be up and running in no time.

Comments about Akai Professional EWI4000S Electronic Wind Controller:

I've had my 4000s for a while now and find it a sweet instrument to play. Price was a little steep for me, but now I feel it was worth it. This is especially true for the onboard processor. My stage/studio mobility with my inexpensive wireless audio set up let's me wander, jump, turn around and around like any guitarist. Too cool!As noted, the factory patches are overall poor, but the beauty of it is that you can upload any sounds you'd like via MIDI from any source, e.g. Patchman Music for one good example. No problems with touch pads (as compared to moving buttons), and they're easier to keep clean. It takes some time to get the right emboucheur, even though some say you don't need one, because a small amount of air escaping around the mouthpiece enhances the sound quality and expression on many patches. One very helpful feature for me was the adjustable side-keys for the left pinky. I've got big hands and needed to get them lower and, thus, also a little further extended from the body. The EWI default fingering layout is most sax-like, pretty close to flute and oboe as well, and easy to get jammin' on. One somewhat difficult feature is the octave-roller section which takes some real practice to use with facility. My only, and totally minor, bitching is about the included crappy neck strap, which I replaved with a good on for $11.00. Things not included, like a case and stand, were not a problem: anything made for a straight soprano sax will work for the 4000s.Lots of fun to play and adds new aural colors and visuality to the group.

Comments about Akai Professional EWI4000S Electronic Wind Controller:

The AKAI EWI4000s is a great instrument for wind players. I bought mine almost two years ago and it is still in great shape and playing well. I've owned two other wind controllers (Yamaha WX11 and WX5) and the AKAI is superior one you get over the hangup of having real keys that move. I was very reluctant to try it at first because of this. I thought that not having keys would be too unnatural, but I was very surprised how it was not only easy to adjust to but helped clean up my technique on the real sax. The biggest thing is that not having keys that move means not having keys that wear or break off. The biggest fear I had with the Yamaha controllers was the flimsy plastic keys snapping off. My WX11 had one of the contacts for an oncatve key go bad. This is not a problem with the 4000s as there really are no moving parts, except the rollers. As for the built in synth, it's fine for what it does but I would recommend getting the patch library from Patchmanmusic.com. There are lots of patches with really make this thing sound good. I have mine midied up to several synths which respond to breath control and it works like a dream. This thing is great.

Comments about Akai Professional EWI4000S Electronic Wind Controller:

After owning 2wx5 I was looking for a more durable instrument My ist WX5B lasted about a year before complicatios costly repairs I decided to purchase another WX5 Once again about a year of service before needing repairs The puechase of Akai EWI4000s major improvement well built If you can find one they are a perfect match with wind instruments true sounds reasonable price under $300.00 I receive a lot of complements on the real sounds. The EWI4000s is an awsome unit the perfect solution for someone like me a Keyboard and sax player, the best of both world a saxophone with keyboard functions

Comments about Akai Professional EWI4000S Electronic Wind Controller:

Strengths:Inbuilt sound bankWeaknesses:Duplicated sounds ... Vyzex midi software frustrating .. constant sysex errorsPosted 12 hours ago - Although the EWI4000s is the next gen of EWI with built in sound bank ... found it cheeky that every sound from 1 to 20 was doubled up in the sound bank module sounds 81 to 100 were the first 20 duplicated ... Problematic software Vyzex kept causing constant Sysex problems .. emailed Akai and they said this was usual??? .. 0bviously Akai still have a lot of gremlins to sort out here and the constant revision of the OS was a real concern to me ... Since the revision from OS 1 up to now 2.3 obviously they are still trying to sort problems out with this ... Eventually with OS problems and Midi problems and loads of discust at the price for this piece of crap the EWI went back for a full refund ... :-( Sad to see it go .. but was glad that My reliable WX5 still seemed far superior to the new EWI4000s ..... :-)

Comments about Akai Professional EWI4000S Electronic Wind Controller:

Very good controller. Well made and very easy to play. The onboard snyth is convenient but the sounds are very synthy no real sounding stuff here at all. But that aside it is a great wind controller. I was a bit put off by the lack of any available case or stand for it however.

Comments about Akai Professional EWI4000S Electronic Wind Controller:

I've played the other brands of wind instruments and the EWI4000S from AKAI is the most expressive one I've ever played! As a sax player, it took me about a week to get the hang of the fingering methods, but now I'm soloing as good as ever. I have a guitar wireless unit hooked up to it, and am looking at the wireless MIDI transmitter so I can MIDI into my Triton Rack. I saw my sax hero Michael Brecker on You Tube and that convinced me to buy this, sight unseen. I love it!

Comments about Akai Professional EWI4000S Electronic Wind Controller:

The only thing I don't like is that it doesn't have true instrument sampling. Which you must get separately. Having said that though, I did the research and the reviews I read were right about this wind controller. Very cool!!!

Comments about Akai Professional EWI4000S Electronic Wind Controller:

I was very excited to play the new EWI, until the first and then the second main octave rollers fell off. Now it doesn't work. There is no US warranty for the instrument, so I've got no recourse but to try and get my money back.