QLB & Yamaha WX5

[PatrickP]

Wow! I\'ve been working with the Quantum Leap Brass and a new Yamaha Wind Controller (WX5) for a couple of weeks now and I have to say I am pleased. The QLBrass is amazing and using the controller is night and day in terms of getting a realistic sound . . . beats the sox off a piano keyboard. It\'s also alot more fun to play a wind sample on a wind instrument, although a bit bizarre to hear a bass trombone when you\'re fingering a soprano sax.

I actually play most woodwinds and low brass as well and it\'s always funny how your fingers want to finger the real instrument. It also throws me for a loop when I forget that I don\'t need to adjust my embochure for the Sax low notes to get them in tune . . . they\'re recorded in tune already! I\'m going to sound really bad when I go back to the accoustic Sax!

I can now sequence some wonderful big band stuff now! I highly recommend this if anyone is considering either QLB or a Yamaha WX5.

[Metallian]

I was thinking of buying this controller but i\'m only pianist and guitarist.
Is it hard to use for a beginner in wind instruments ?

[dnortana]

Hi Patrick,
Have you reprogrammed the controllers for the QLB instruments to get them to work better with a wind synth? For example, are you still triggering on velocity, or are you using breath now for volume??
Regards,
Trond

[PatrickP]

Metallion,

If you ever played a recorder in grade school and found it \"doable\", I think a WX5 would be a useful thing to pick up. There are 2 mouthpieces with the WX5 . . . one is a sax mouthpiece with a plastic reed and the other is a recorder type mouthpiece. You can also make tons of adjustments to get the pitch to bend like a sax or not at all. If you\'ve never played recorder, pick up a cheap one (or a little pennywhistle for $10 bucks) and mess with it. If you can finger and blow air through the recorder, I think you would be able to make use of a wind controller.

dnortana,

I basically just set the WX5 to act like a sax so far, so I\'m using the breath (wind speed) to trigger expression (controller #11). That works well. I believe I can also use various keys to trigger other controllers as well, but I haven\'t stopped my projects long enough to do more.

Also, what I like about the WX5 manual is that it doesn\'t blow your mind with 5000 pages of details. There are really not that many technical settings, but you still have a good bit of control.

Hope that answers the questions. If not, try again.