The standard reaction most people have when they first see an EWI is “What is that?”
An EWI (Electronic Wind Instrument) is a “wind controller,” a computer that creates sound by controlling a synthesizer with MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) Data. Wind controllers gained prominence in the 1970s and are now widely available through several manufacturers. I choose to play the Akai EWI (4000s), thought they all operate around the same principles. Many wind controllers have internal synthesizers, but they also can send the MIDI data out to control an external synthesizer. I do this almost exclusively, as I find the synthesizers made by Native Instruments, Arturia, UVI and others to be more powerful and flexible than the internal synths.
Lots of instrumentalists find wind controllers a fun alternative to acoustic instruments because of their simplicity and range of sound. However, public information on most aspects of wind controller playing (technique, programming, sound design, history, etc) is severely lacking. Thus, few players out there truly understand the power and flexibility of wind controllers, and see them as a simple plug-and-play substitute for acoustic instruments. One of my goals is to educate people and raise awareness for wind controllers’ potential use in performance, improvisation, composition, and much more.
The other pages under the EWI tab explain some of my specific interests in the world of wind controllers. The patches page displays some of my favorite sounds that I have made / edited and use frequently. I like to design sounds that are very expressive, and I find Native Instruments software some of the most consistent and EWI-friendly. Synth Dinner Theatre is a cool project where keyboardist Andrew Links and I improvise and re-score movie scenes with synths. It gives me a chance to showcase many of these sounds in a cinematic setting. Lastly, I spend lots of time building programs in Logic to manipulate MIDI data sent from the EWI - these programs push the boundaries of what the EWI can do, and elevate it from a monophonic instrument to a compositional powerhouse.
Check them out!
