Akai EWI 4000s

Software is Version 2.3 Factory presets are lame. Patchman music has some great patches that you can load into it if your willing to spend alot of time since USB MIDI cable brands seem finicky. Editing patches take time to learn and are time consuming dulling the creative spark. You need the patch editor that is supplied with the EWI. Manual is as clear as it can be. Buttons serve multiple functions in combinations so keep your manual handy, your gonna need it!!! Not very intuative out of the box, your gonna need alot of time to repeatedly use the functions to set them to memory.

It has great features, but are not quickly accessed. Built in effects are there and very good, but if your in a band, prepare your bandmates to wait forever for you to edit and adjust,...not cool!!! Like other windcontrollers, has midi, works fine. Your better off using this as a controller rather than with the internal synth & effects. Editing the internal sounds has to be done with a computer, one more thing to lug around!!

The internal factory sounds suck!! Patchman has some cool patches for the unit, but most are unusable in a band setting. Expressiveness? It's a wind controller! Fanatastic capabilities with this one. Great vibrato, portamento, velocity & volume. Reacts excellent to your tongue. This is the best for this catagorie. That being said, The rest has alot to be desired. Yamaha's WX11, WX5, is so much easier to use with the VL70M. Theres a screen to look at while editing and you don't have to use the myriad of combinations of buttons to get your desired effect and do not need a computer handy to store edits.

These have had a notorius problems with the headphone jacks being loosely soldered from the factory, mine was no exception-dropouts from the jump! Had mine fixed at Patchman where he also found numerous bad soldering points that needed to be repaired as well. Numerous problems loading patches into the unit. Not all USB MIDI interfaces work, even the expensive ones!! Akai doesn't have and never had a case that was made for the unit, unacceptable!!! This may be reliable if you spent a considerable amount of time setting everything up BEFORE a gig and plan on not making any changes to it which sucks for spontaneity during a show. Limits the creative spark!!

If you need help with loading patches into your EWI, forget it!! They refer you to Patchman,...Patchman is helpful but will not help with the editor functions because it's not his product. You can't load without the editor!!! So who's helping??

If lost or stolen, I would definately go with a Yamaha product!! They are more for the woodwind player going digital, than the digital person going wind instrument. Save your money & buy a Yamaha WX11 and a VL70M and forget all the hassles with Akai EWI. It's just not worth it!! This review is from an actual sax player, not a studio gear head that dabbles in wind driven synths!!!!

OS Version 2.3

This is not an easy controller to use, at leas until you get used to it, and it has a step learning curve.

The touch sensitive keys are nice and very cool, but it forces you to be always touching the grounding plates at the back of the horn, and you need time to get used to this. It is especially complicated when you want to use the bending keys (operated by the right thumb)and you have to keep touching the grounding plate at the same time.

The octave rollers are nice, and much more veratile that regular buttons, but you also need to get used to them. The portamento plate is hard to use because it is located on the oposite side of the rollers, and as you move your thumb to touch it you can loose the touch with the grounding plate, and then the sound drops to the lowest octave.

Adjusting parameters is not easy either, just a two digits led display and the OS is not consistent, sometimes you confirm the operation blowing through the mouthpiece, some other you just have to press one button or releas one button. All in all, it seems harder than it really is, once you get use to it the adjust is quite straightforward.

The EWI4000s has an internal built-in synthesizer that provides internal sounds without the need of an external sound. At first, I go very dissapointed with the preset sounds, but you can edit them from a software editor form you computer, and it is very easy to use. Also, there are some great sound banks available.

The manual is clear, concise and very well written, it goes step by step with each operatio. The only problem is that it is outdated, the current version shipped was the one corresponding to OS version 2.0, but the horn itself is shipped with version 2.3, which is loaded with new features and as a result, some of the instructions are not accurate and can lead to confussion, and also some of the new features are not commented. You can download the manual expansion from Akai's web sithe through.

The EWI is loaded with features and really customizable. It is a wind controller, so technically is monophonic but in fact is biphonic. Two of its features, the octave and hold, use a second voice.

Touch sensitive keys and hard to get used to, but once you get it they allow to very fast playing. If you are a wind player that use to play keyed instruments, you can have some problems but nothing that cannot be overcome with some patience.

Aside from the editable sounds, it offers some effects: delay and reverb, that ad a lot to the internal sounds. They are editable form the same editor as the sounds but you can also change the amount of effects using the built-in controllers.

Very good MIDI implementation, pretty fast, all the controllers are transmitted via MIDI, which allows for a full control of external devices. I bought it with the idea of using it more as a MIDI contrller than as a self sounding instrument, but right now I have not used it much MIDIed.

Another nice featurs is that it allows you to assign a preset number to each key, which is great for changing presets in a life performance. Preset numbers are sent via MIDI too.

This is a very expressive instrunets. The mouthpiece allows you for vibrato control juts by bitting it, and you can use also bending and portamento. The volume and other parameters can be controlled via breath control. Reaction is fast and preciss.

The built-in synth is an analogue modelling, is is more suited to synthy-tipe sounds than for emulating acoustic intruments, but if you have a good sample at hand you can get wonderful results for realistic instruments.

Depending from what sounds you program or which synths/samplers use, it can be used almost for any kind of music. As for the effects, they are good but not outstanding.

It offers four fingering schemes, two sax-like and two valves-like. I think that you can program your own fingerings but I am not sure and the manual does not say anything about it.

It seems to be very reliable. The lack of moving parts (especially the keys) makes it less susceptible to break than the Yamaha WX-5 or the Casio DH-100. I will use it in a gig for sure without thinking it twice.

I am a professional keyboards and wind player, and I have been using a DH-100 for three years befor purchasing the Akai.

This is a trully professional controller, loaded with features, and I I would buy a replacement for sure if it got lost. I have played it for four months now and I am still far from dicovering all its possibilities.

You can't compare this with the DH-100 because they play in different leagues. I tryed a WX-5 before buying the Akai, but I found it less appealing. Aside from lacking the internal sounds, the keys looked less reliable and it had a couple of things I didn't like a all (most notably the mouthpiece and the octave buttons).

I would suggest to improve the manual, updating it and providing some information about the most obscure features. As for the rest, I find it simply perfect.

Just got one 2 days ago, at first it was very difficult, quite UN inspiring. The onboard sounds are bad, quite awful right out the box for a company that marketed the AKAI sampler! I was really having second thoughts. I called Guitar Center, they told me I can't return a wind instrument, but I always wanted an EWI, so I did the next best thing, plugged a MIDI cord into my Korg Karma and Kurzweil keyboard. Now I have an EWI with great possibilities. This is the way to go if you want to get the most out of this thing!
Software version is ver 1. Right out the box 6/2007
Onboard presets sound like they are searching for Bob Moog before he knew anything about electronics, not worthy of mention.
I hear the patch editor is awful, with so many great Keyboards and MIDI I most likely won't even use it!
The manual represents AKAI poorly, they should have put more time into it! but that's typical these days. When you purchase an EWI you may have to sit in the waiting room till a moment of realization hits. Despite EWI's short comings, there's still the endless universe of possibilities, that's where the heavenly gift of music lives, particularly with a MIDI cable, EWI is just a tools to help you step into that realm. Perhaps a simple MIDI cable will enable you to unlock something which would otherwise be more difficult to reach with a stand alone EWI!

It should have USB MIDI for direct access to a computer. Current MIDI needs a MIDI interface to connect. It should also have a wireless optionfor audio.

Using OS version 2.0. Presets are a very good start but with the included editing software there are virtualy limitless possibilities. It is very easy to use. The manual is clear and to the point.

This is a monophonic instrument with oscilators. Effects are built in and the sound module is built into the unit as well. This is an industry first. In addition it is quite capable of controling external MIDI modules as well.

The most important feature of a wind controller is the expressive breath control. This can be used for any type of music, the opportunities are limitless. Several of these in the same group would be an unbelievable experience.

This has been a very reliable instrument. Battery life is very good, 10 to 12 hours on a set of 4 AA batteries. Bring extras anyway. There is plenty of warning before they give up.

Havent had to contact support but the operating system upgrade took all of about 3 minutes to install, and I was taking my time.

If this was lost or stolen I would get another and pay extra to have it shipped overnight, even if I didn't need it for a gig. I have been playing wind controllers since 1982 and would never be without one. Like any instrument you need to master the technique in order to let the music out. It will not play itself but it can be so expressive in the right hands.