You can overcome the RPi scarcity by migrating the code to the Teensy platform, which aside being cheaper and less power hungry than the 2,3,4 RPi, is a lot cheaper and more easily available. Not an easy task since there's no Linux under the hood, but there are some excellent audio/midi libraries to help. They already built commercial-level synthesizers with it. By combining the breath sensor data with other pressure sensors you could end up with a very expressive instrument.
As the owner of a (recently revived) ewi-usb… I’m really curious about the mouthpiece bit. What kind of analog sounds are happening while playing this? Do you notice that reed age, strength etc are as impactful as on a real saxophone? Do you feel a need to swap mouthpieces for different styles of playing? I love the idea and ingenuity to make this happen!
Reading the assembly instructions it's only an air pressure sensor. You can use a real mouthpiece with reed or not, but it won't make noise actually. It also won't detect anything you do with your mouth.
As the owner of a (recently revived) ewi-usb… I’m really curious about the mouthpiece bit. What kind of analog sounds are happening while playing this? Do you notice that reed age, strength etc are as impactful as on a real saxophone? Do you feel a need to swap mouthpieces for different styles of playing? I love the idea and ingenuity to make this happen!
As a sax player who also plays a Roland Aerophone, I have a similar question. Is the mouthpiece a real sax mouthpiece and reed? If so, that means it's making a lot of noise. One of the main appeals of windsynths is that I can play at times when the people in my household (and neighborhood) don't really want to listen to it. That said, it's a cool project.
The sounds are synthed sounds (I used fluidsynth) and the haxophone just uses the sound pressure to infer velocity of the notes.
The mouthpiece is optional: you can blow on the neck of the device and will get the exact same sound. But as a sax player, I really prefer to use it with a mouthpiece blowing through it but without making the reed vibrate (so no sound). I find that it helps me maintain proper embouchure and feels more comfortable. And after a solid practice session, I still get that gratifying tingling lower lip feeling.
Since it's using keyboard keys I'm guessing it doesn't have any analog touch sensitivity (?) Not sure if that would be even needed on this type of instrument though.
Yes, there is no analog touch sensitivity on the sax: keys are either open or closed. The pressure sensor is for volume and note attack.
Since it's using keyboard keys I'm guessing it doesn't have any analog touch sensitivity (?) Not sure if that would be even needed on this type of instrument though.
From what I understand of playing a saxophone the variability would come from the mouthpiece. On a type of instrument like a saxophone the valves should always be cleanly opened or closed.
Half fingering is a thing, but very rare and fine to be out of scope for a project like this
As the owner of a (recently revived) ewi-usb… I’m really curious about the mouthpiece bit. What kind of analog sounds are happening while playing this? Do you notice that reed age, strength etc are as impactful as on a real saxophone? Do you feel a need to swap mouthpieces for different styles of playing? I love the idea and ingenuity to make this happen!
As a sax player who also plays a Roland Aerophone, I have a similar question. Is the mouthpiece a real sax mouthpiece and reed? If so, that means it's making a lot of noise. One of the main appeals of windsynths is that I can play at times when the people in my household (and neighborhood) don't really want to listen to it. That said, it's a cool project.
The design says that it measures air pressure. So it's just blowing into a tube, much like e.g. the Yamaha BC-1. I've got one, and in the demo video, I hear the same rapid changes in volume/pressure. I would guess it could benefit from having a small, adjustable opening (like the BC-1), which makes it a bit easier to control.
As the owner of a (recently revived) ewi-usb… I’m really curious about the mouthpiece bit. What kind of analog sounds are happening while playing this? Do you notice that reed age, strength etc are as impactful as on a real saxophone? Do you feel a need to swap mouthpieces for different styles of playing? I love the idea and ingenuity to make this happen!
Reading the assembly instructions it's only an air pressure sensor. You can use a real mouthpiece with reed or not, but it won't make noise actually. It also won't detect anything you do with your mouth.
As the owner of a (recently revived) ewi-usb… I’m really curious about the mouthpiece bit. What kind of analog sounds are happening while playing this? Do you notice that reed age, strength etc are as impactful as on a real saxophone? Do you feel a need to swap mouthpieces for different styles of playing? I love the idea and ingenuity to make this happen!
As a sax player who also plays a Roland Aerophone, I have a similar question. Is the mouthpiece a real sax mouthpiece and reed? If so, that means it's making a lot of noise. One of the main appeals of windsynths is that I can play at times when the people in my household (and neighborhood) don't really want to listen to it. That said, it's a cool project.
Yeah and is the pressure sensor closed so you're actually not blowing but just increasing and decreasing pressure?