- Wind controller
A wind controller, sometimes referred to as a "wind synth" or "wind synthesizer", can loosely be defined as an electronic wind instrument. Wind controllers are most commonly played and fingered like a
saxophone though models have been produced that play and finger like other acoustic instruments such as thetrumpet ,recorder ,tin whistle , and others. A wind controller might convert fingering, breath pressure, bite pressure, finger pressure, and other sensors into control signals which are then used to control internal or external devices such as analog synthesizers orMIDI -compatible synthesizers, softsynths, sequencers, or lighting systems.Since a wind controller usually does not make a sound on its own, it must be connected to a sound generating device such a MIDI or analog synthesizer which is connected to an amplifier. For this reason, a wind controller generally can sound like anything depending on the capabilities of the connected sound generator. The fingering and shape of the controller are not related to how the wind controller sounds. For example, woodwind type wind controller could sound like a trumpet, drum, or barking dog, while a brass-type wind controller could sound like a saxophone.
Manufacturers
The major manufacturers of wind controllers are
AKAI , Yamaha andCasio . Available models include the AKAI-EWI 3020, AKAI-EWI 4000s, Yamaha WX-5, Yamaha WX-11, and Yamaha WX-7, and Casio's lower-end DH-100, DH-200, DH-500 and DH-800. There is also a controller intended to be played by brass instrumentalists called an EVI (for Electric Valve Instrument). The Akai EWI4000S has a special EVI mode that allows brass players to play the EWI. There are also homemade and experimental EWIs with different designs.Swiss-based Softwind Instruments produces the lesser-known [http://www.softwind.ch/Synthophone.asp Synthophone] , which uses an actual saxophone as the body of the controller. As the internals are crammed with electronics and the mouthpiece is a wind controllers' mouthpiece, however, like the other offerings it does not produce acoustic sound.
ee also
*
EWI
*Lyricon
*Yamaha WX5
*Zanzithophone
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
