increasing expression and control: breath controlling

[clefmaster]

I noticed that a lot of people discussed about sampled saxes and solo saxes libraries..many of them still have difficulties to find a good sampled sax for their needs,

so I think this article could share some light on the subject, at least for the immediate relation between \"bad sampled sax <-> not controllable and un-expressive sax\".

Let me know what you think about it, there are no problems for improving the page.
www.albertorizzoschettino.com/breathcontroller.html (\"http://www.albertorizzoschettino.com/breathcontroller.html\")

(you may visit www.albertorizzoschettino.com, (\"http://www.albertorizzoschettino.com\") then choose the ARTICLES page and then select the article related to breath control)

[This message has been edited by clefmaster (edited 03-17-2002).]

[esteven1]

Beautiful...... just Beautiful. I\'m buying a breath controller today! That was excellent. I use a k2500 too http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif

[clefmaster]

I\'m posting a zip file on the page so that Kurzweil users may freely download and use the program I created.

Thanks a lot, regards,

[clefmaster]

Thanks for the support, I managed to edit and fix the link. It works perfectly now.

Regards,

[magnus]

to use a breathe controller do you have to have any experience with wind instruments? i\'ve never played a wind instrument. or can you play it on the keyboard and and use the breathe controller to adjust your notes afterwards??

[cataro]

The link d´ont work!!!

[clefmaster]

I\'ve never played a wind instrument too.

When you play winds on a keyboard with a breath controller, you basically perform three actions: 1) trigger keys on the keyboards with your right hand 2) use the bend wheel with your left hand 3) use the breath controller with your mouth.

What I think important to make a solo a good solo is the combination of your keyboards playing skill (obviously) and your instrument knowledge. It is recommended to listen a lot of solos performed by different wind players in different songs and genres in order to understand how the instrument \"moves\" in the mix when playing.

This will naturally make you tend to play the instrument with all those articulations that the wind instrument played by a real performer usually does.

Regards,

[magnus]

thats sounds difficult... how long did it take you to perfect that way of playing? listening to those demo\'s i wouldnt be able to tell that that wasnt a real sax if you didnt say so. must have tooken a while to immulate a sax so perfectly.

[A_Sapp]

Trust me, when you\'re really getting into a solo english horn, you won\'t think about all the actions you are creating with your hands and breath. Breath controller is one of the best investments you can make. It really makes solos work out well. I use the expression pedal on just about everything else, but it doesn\'t seem to work well with solos. I cropped out a part of a work of mine so you can see what it can do for a wood flute. ( http://68.14.189.31:8080/files/music%20demos/Control.zip (\"http://68.14.189.31:8080/files/music%20demos/Control.zip\") ) Mind the clip in the beginning, Cakewalk is nuts.

[clefmaster]

Learning how to use a breath controller has been a matter of minutes I think..I spent an entire night having a lot of fun with that tool and my synth but I didn\'t find it hard to master.

A_Sapp is right, I\'ve got the same opinion here: it\'s always important to take your mind and hands to the most natural performing possible.

Thanks a lot for all those good words,

[magnus]

oh ok... another thing i noticed is that it has one of those stereo jacks. does that plug into your midi controller or what?

[A_Sapp]

Your keyboard has to have a breath controller input. Well, that\'s what I think. My kurzweil has a dedicate breath input.

[Jamieh]

What breath controller do people recommend? As a saxophone player, it seems like it would be a good thing for me to get, though my keyboard certainly doesn\'t have a breath controller input. Don\'t any of the breath controllers just output MIDI data?

[Jamieh]

Oops, I was thinking WIND controller, not BREATH controller. Nevermind.

[clefmaster]

If you are a sax player, then I would recommend a Yamaha WX wind instrument and a Yamaha VL-70m physical modelling sound module.

Regards,

[Jamieh]

I\'d only be interested in using the Wind Controller to trigger Gigastudio sounds. I know Bruce Richardson has posted quite a bit on how he edits the Giga sounds to do this.

I\'d love to try it out, but there is really no way to check it out without just buying one.

[clefmaster]

Good idea too. Gigastudio is open to receive input from a breath controller too.

I believe that tweaking an instrument on Gigastudio to be used with a breath controller is going to be slightly different from what the tweaking is on a K2500x because of sampling and filters usage.

I could try to do this and release some .art (articulation) file to be used with some sax libraries...

Regards,