Breath Controller

[Pat Azzarello]

As an old DX7 guy, I've decided to go ahead and buy the MIDI Solutions Breath Controller device to use with GPO and JABB (probably won't work well with the Steinway :) ). I already have the Yamaha BC3 (from said DX7 days).

http://www.midisolutions.com/prodbth.htm#

Anyone have experience with this box before I plunk down the $$$ ???

Thanks,
Pat

[Garritan]

Hi Pat

You may want to wait as there will be an announcement of a new controller soon.

Best,

Gary


As an old DX7 guy, I've decided to go ahead and buy the MIDI Solutions Breath Controller device to use with GPO and JABB (probably won't work well with the Steinway :) ). I already have the Yamaha BC3 (from said DX7 days).

http://www.midisolutions.com/prodbth.htm#

Anyone have experience with this box before I plunk down the $$$ ???

Thanks,
Pat

[tfishbein82]

Hi Pat

You may want to wait as there will be an announcement of a new controller soon.

Best,

Gary
Can you qualify soon? :p

Pat, I use the BC3 with the midi solutions box and it works flawlessly. I received good tech support from midi solutions, when I had a problem once as well.

Gary, what benefits might this unannounced new controller provide?

[LFO]

Can you qualify soon? :p

Pat, I use the BC3 with the midi solutions box and it works flawlessly. I received good tech support from midi solutions, when I had a problem once as well.

Gary, what benefits might this unannounced new controller provide?

Yeah! Now that the cat is out of the bag lets hear details! :p

I have a BC3 controller and really like it. I use it with my CME UF70 MIDI controller and it works like a charm. No need for the midi solutions box because the CME boards come with a breath controller input.

-Kevin

[Pat Azzarello]

Gary;

Now I'm distracted, and with only a week to tweak and mix my XMas piece submission, my recording is sounding more like:

God Rest Ye Merry Gentle... (hmmmm, I wonder what Gary has in store it should be intere...) CLAM!!!!

Looking forward to the great reveal (and hopefully I won't be too busy at work be lurking here...

[Pat Azzarello]

Update -

My MIDI Solutions breath controller box arrived just before I had to leave the country. As of last night I got it working (of course, I was trying to cut JABB parts with it for a Christmas tune - nothing I ever do anymore seems not to have a deadline :) ) and I had pretty good luck.

However, I'm finding the velocity curves a bit baffling. I noticed that the trumpets have a hard "edge" to the attack (being a former trumpet player/current trumpet owner) I find that tongueing does this and I'm wondering:

1. Has anyone has experiemented with, and would be willing to share, their curves for various instruments in the Garritan libraries???
2. If not (or if so), would anyone find it interesting to have me post something on how this works and some of the pitfalls??? If Gary will allow I could put it up on the Garritan WIKI site when I'm done (probably get it working during the holidays).

Pat

[Jon Bryson]

Update -

My MIDI Solutions breath controller box arrived just before I had to leave the country. As of last night I got it working (of course, I was trying to cut JABB parts with it for a Christmas tune - nothing I ever do anymore seems not to have a deadline :) ) and I had pretty good luck.

However, I'm finding the velocity curves a bit baffling. I noticed that the trumpets have a hard "edge" to the attack (being a former trumpet player/current trumpet owner) I find that tongueing does this and I'm wondering:

1. Has anyone has experiemented with, and would be willing to share, their curves for various instruments in the Garritan libraries???
2. If not (or if so), would anyone find it interesting to have me post something on how this works and some of the pitfalls??? If Gary will allow I could put it up on the Garritan WIKI site when I'm done (probably get it working during the holidays).

Pat

Pat,

I have the same setup (MIDI Solutions plus BC3) that I acquired a few months back but haven't really got going on it yet. I would be very interested in you posting your experiences with this as I'm hoping to hook it up and start learning how to use it effectively during the Christmas break. I think posting to the WIKI site is a great idea as well.

Jon

[maiki]

Can you qualify soon? :p

Pat, I use the BC3 with the midi solutions box and it works flawlessly. I received good tech support from midi solutions, when I had a problem once as well.

Gary, what benefits might this unannounced new controller provide?

This discussion is a little funny now, in hindsight.

Now it's obvious what Gary was referring to, which caused so much curiosity on this thread. He was referring to the new (I guess about a month or two old now) electronic wind instrument by Akai, the EWI USB, which comes with Aria and sounds by Garritan.

I think there was some confusion about wind controller and breath controller. What Gary referred to, the EWI, could be called a MIDI wind controller. What was referred to as the breath controller, is a device to blow in and control MIDI volume, articulation, etc. through breath, while playing a keyboard.

It's too bad the breath controller thing (while playing keyboard) never caught on too much. I guess Yamaha invented it, created the controller, but only made a few keyboards many years ago that had breath control input jacks, and then dropped it. I've heard of one modern keyboard controller series that has a breath control jack, the CME UF series. Otherwise, one has to use some sort of device in between the breath controller and the keyboard, connecting to MIDI in of the keyboard, to transmit the controller messages. That is what was being discussed here, with the MIDI Solutions box. I think people thought that Gary was discussing something similar, when actually he was referring to the EWI.

I actually have something like that MIDI solutions box, that was made decades ago, by Anatek, I think called Pocket Wind (as well of course, as the Yamaha breath controller). The hassle about the Anatek, is that although it is just a little box to go in between the breath controller and the keyboard, it needs to be plugged in to its own AC adapter. (They should have put a battery in it instead.)

Unfortunate that built-in breath control ports did not become the norm in MIDI keyboards, as it could have contributed a lot to the expressiveness of MIDI keyboard playing.

[Pat Azzarello]

Agreed on both the confusion (wind vs. breath) and the expressiveness. I played flute back in the day (as well as trumpet and tuba), but I certainly couldn't manage the fingerings like I can a keyboard (although some might argue I can't handle either :) ).

I used the breath controller early on in my DX days (harmonica seemed to be all the rage back in '84/'85 :) ). I seem to be getting the hang of it again, but I think that if it had been more popular, there would be MANY more patches/programs/libraries out there, and it would have become far more mature.

[jmpaquette]

This discussion is a little funny now, in hindsight.

It's too bad the breath controller thing (while playing keyboard) never caught on too much. I guess Yamaha invented it, created the controller, but only made a few keyboards many years ago that had breath control input jacks, and then dropped it. I've heard of one modern keyboard controller series that has a breath control jack, the CME UF series. Otherwise, one has to use some sort of device in between the breath controller and the keyboard, connecting to MIDI in of the keyboard, to transmit the controller messages. That is what was being discussed here, with the MIDI Solutions box. I think people thought that Gary was discussing something similar, when actually he was referring to the EWI.


I think you're right about what Gary was referring to: the EWI-USB.

Yamaha didn't abandon the breath controller, though. The Motif series has it built in. My Motif ES has an input for Breath Controller.

What they didn't do is promote it, and improve on the technology. Nor did they make it more affordable.


Joe