Akai EWI 4000m Electric Wind Instrument Akai EWI 4000m Electric ...

Fig. 2: Fingerings are the same in every one of
the instrument’s seven octaves, so once you know
one you know them all. Then you select which
octave you’re playing in by putting your thumb
between two of these rollers—a very natural and
intuitive interface. The bar at the tip of the thumb
is the Glide strip, one of the instrument’s continuous
controllers. Normally the Glide strip turns portmento
on and off, but the more thumb it feels—the
harder you squeeze—the higher the value it sends
out.
ber the St. Elsewhere TV series, for example,
Nyle’s EVI playing was a big part of the sound
of JAC Redford’s terrific scores. Since then
many big-name jazz musicians have adopted
the instrument, including Michael Brecker.
The original EWI/EVI sent out control voltages
to an analog synth that was part and
parcel of the system, in fact even the 3020m
synth, which was part of the rack brain of the
EWI 3020, is digitally-controlled analog. (Akai
later came out with a 3030m module that
used samples.) Originally, MIDI’s 128-step resolution
seemed to be a problem for synthesizers
under wind control, but that got sorted
out and MIDI was added pretty early on so
you could use it as a controller.
A lot of professional
wind players would use
the EWI with an Oberheim
Matrix-1000 synthesizer in
the early days—an experience
we can now duplicate
using softsynths
(arguments about software
models aside). Later
(around 1994) the
Yamaha VL1 Acoustic
Modeling synth came
along, and it and its lesser
relatives became very
popular as sound sources
for wind controllers.
Akai took over manufacturing
and distributing
the EWI and EVI about 20
years ago, and sometime around the same
time Yamaha came out with the first of their
more sax-centric WX series of wind controllers;
other companies have introduced
trumpet-like controllers more recently. There
have been several iterations of the EWI, and I
understand that Nyle Steiner was still involved
with the design of the 4000s.
Steiner himself makes a custom instrument
called the MIDI EVI, but as a widespread
instrument it seems to be in limbo. However,
a lot of EVI players are reportedly flocking to
the 4000s.
So the EWI has been a mature, solid instrument
for a long time, and I personally have
had a longstanding and passionate love affair
with it.
Why wind control?
The obvious answer to that question is
Because it allows someone who plays a wind
or brass instrument to use his or her technique
to play synths and samplers. But there’s
more to it than that.
When you trigger a note on a keyboard
controller, it follows its programmed envelope;
you use a slider or other physical controller
like the mod wheel to modify the
sound after the initial attack—a playing/programming
technique that’s obviously 100%
valid. Wind controllers augment keyboards in
V.I. studios rather than replacing them, for
many reasons, most notably that the vast
majority of sample libraries are set up for keyboard
control… never mind that only keyboards
let you play independent notes with
each of your ten fingers.
However, wind controllers have some great
advantages. When you play a note with a
wind controller, it follows your breath (if programmed
to do so, of course). Innately that’s
a very physical, human connection, and it
gives you continuous and total control over
the sound without even thinking about it—
just like an acoustic instrument.
Blow progressively harder and the sound
shadows your performance, getting louder,
brighter, and possibly more distorted with
louder overtones. Tongue the note (“ta”) and
it has a sharper attack; play connected notes
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in the same breath without tonguing them
and they’re automatically connected; play
successive notes and they all sound different
because your breath pressure and attack will
be different.
Put another way, wind controllers are
extremely expressive instruments. That’s what
always overwhelms anyone who tries one for
the first time.
Fingers
Because of its maturity, it’s hardly surprising
that the basics of the EWI 4000s haven’t
changed. While a lot is new, its essential feel
is pretty much identical to its predecessor.
Rather than the mechanical keys most
woodwind instruments have, the EWI uses
capacitance-sensitive buttons like the ones
you find on some elevators—you just touch
them and they’re “on.” The instrument
comes with a neck strap, and you also support
it by resting its grounding strip on your
right thumb.
Some wind players find the lack of keys to
depress a difficult adjustment, so much so
that at one point Akai offered add-on faux
keys. Coming from a background playing
recorder, I didn’t even notice it, in fact after a
couple of days I actually felt more comfortable
on EWI than on recorder.
The instrument can use the Boehm fingering
system used by clarinets and saxes, or you can
use a simplified recorder fingering in which
each finger is only responsible for one key—it
never moves to cover other ones. This fingering
is really easy, for example all fingers on
gives you a C, and then you step up the major
scale by lifting successive fingers in order.
Then you determine the octave you’re
playing by placing your left thumb between
any two of a series of eight rollers (see Fig. 2),
giving the instrument a 7-octave range (plus
pitch-shifting). Every octave is fingered the
Fig. 3: The EWI 4000s next to the 3020, the
previous model. (Normally the 3020 is white—this
particular one has been painted black.) Not shown:
the 16” deep 2U rack unit you need to operate the
3020. Cool-looking instrument, eh?
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