I have the EWI 4000 wind controller and would like to know if there is a way to play the Zerba 2 with it. What are the settings that need adjustments. Any links related to this topic is helpful.
Thank you,
Frank Doblekar
EWI wind Controller
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- KVRer
- 16 posts since 14 Jul, 2009
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- u-he
- 30222 posts since 8 Aug, 2002 from Berlin
The main thing to look out for is the assignment of the volume control. You should not assign it in the VCA section (this only scales the normal envelopes), you should assign it to the volume control of the oscillators directly, to give you full control over breath/articulation.
I have no EWI myself, but I know quite a range of artists who use Zebra/Zebralette with wind controllers. I could probably ask one for his tips & tricks once I'm back from vacation.
Cheers,
Urs
I have no EWI myself, but I know quite a range of artists who use Zebra/Zebralette with wind controllers. I could probably ask one for his tips & tricks once I'm back from vacation.
Cheers,
Urs-
- KVRist
- 115 posts since 15 Feb, 2012
I've been playing a wind controller (Yamaha WX7) with Zebra for the last couple of weeks, and it's working out well.
Are you asking about EWI settings, Zebra settings/presets, or both? The default settings (as I understand them) of the EWI should be find: the breath pressure sensor will emit note-on velocity, channel aftertouch, and Breath Control (CC#2). The latter two are redundant; just use one of them -- Breath seems like the better -- in your patches. And pitch bend just works.
If the only synth you've used with the EWI is its own internal one, you will soon discover that most presets for most synths are designed with keyboard controllers in mind. But Zebra is a great synth to program from scratch, and you can use Breath to control a lot of interesting parameters, simultaneously if need be. Just in the oscillators I've gotten interesting results using breath to modulate Wave, Phase/PW, Sync, various Osc FX, and (as Urs mentioned) Vol. Filter cutoff is an obvious target; FM and Vol in an FM Oscillator; many parameters in Comb -- I've just scratched the surface so far.
An interesting exercise might be to try to set up a Zebra patch similar to one of the EWI ones you use now: I think all the 4000s synth components have counterparts in Zebra.
Are you asking about EWI settings, Zebra settings/presets, or both? The default settings (as I understand them) of the EWI should be find: the breath pressure sensor will emit note-on velocity, channel aftertouch, and Breath Control (CC#2). The latter two are redundant; just use one of them -- Breath seems like the better -- in your patches. And pitch bend just works.
If the only synth you've used with the EWI is its own internal one, you will soon discover that most presets for most synths are designed with keyboard controllers in mind. But Zebra is a great synth to program from scratch, and you can use Breath to control a lot of interesting parameters, simultaneously if need be. Just in the oscillators I've gotten interesting results using breath to modulate Wave, Phase/PW, Sync, various Osc FX, and (as Urs mentioned) Vol. Filter cutoff is an obvious target; FM and Vol in an FM Oscillator; many parameters in Comb -- I've just scratched the surface so far.
An interesting exercise might be to try to set up a Zebra patch similar to one of the EWI ones you use now: I think all the 4000s synth components have counterparts in Zebra.
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- KVRist
- 54 posts since 30 Dec, 2007 from Frankfurt/Germany
i'm also using a wx7 most of the time but i have the ewi4000 too.
a good way to make the sounds playable by windcontroller is to replace the volume envelope (attack to zero and sustain full up) and form the envelope yourself by breath control. velocity off feels more natural. percussive sounds are not very fun to play because you never get the timing tight. so blowing xylophones in not a good goal.
best way for me is: modulate volume by cc2 (breath control) to 100%, add some filter cutoff modulation to it. the rest is a matter of taste. all solo-synthi, fluty, brassy, voicy kind of sounds work well. also fun: basses with softer attacks like frettless and lead guitar sounds (synth sounds through a guit amp). therefore it's cool to set pitch modulation to more extreme ranges (+/-12 halftones) to make the hendrix vibrato with your lips.
a good way to make the sounds playable by windcontroller is to replace the volume envelope (attack to zero and sustain full up) and form the envelope yourself by breath control. velocity off feels more natural. percussive sounds are not very fun to play because you never get the timing tight. so blowing xylophones in not a good goal.
best way for me is: modulate volume by cc2 (breath control) to 100%, add some filter cutoff modulation to it. the rest is a matter of taste. all solo-synthi, fluty, brassy, voicy kind of sounds work well. also fun: basses with softer attacks like frettless and lead guitar sounds (synth sounds through a guit amp). therefore it's cool to set pitch modulation to more extreme ranges (+/-12 halftones) to make the hendrix vibrato with your lips.
Saxplayer, LogicUser, loves and makes Jazz/Chill/Latin/Filmmusic, House...
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- KVRer
- Topic Starter
- 16 posts since 14 Jul, 2009
Thank you for the insight and info. Yes anything on this topic will be very helpful.
Perhaps there is someone that can tutorial this topic for us.
frankielouis
Perhaps there is someone that can tutorial this topic for us.
frankielouis
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- KVRist
- 54 posts since 14 May, 2012
I've only recently begun experimenting with this kind of thing, but not much with any u-he products yet. A few recommendations:
Look into some MIDI plugins to expand what you're able to do. Filtering different notes/note ranges to different channels can be useful. Microtuner, a neat plugin, combined with the "scales.zip" you can find on the internet if you search alongside the "Scala" software, will let you play in any tuning you can imagine (literally thousands), not only equal temperament... only downside is some of the scales included do not expand to the whole range of the EWI unless you edit them yourself. MidiChords is another great plugin which will allow you to map certain notes (ones outside of your normal playing range I'd imagine) to trigger chords, any chord you want on an individual note->chord mapping basis.
Finally, any VSTi that will allow it - still havent found a substitute MIDI plugin - is great to link breath control to several parameters, across different ranges of each parameter. You can even set some ranges in reverse (with a higher minimum than maximum) so your breath scales them back. Mixing oscillators and tweaking filter values will provide an endless sonic palette in this way.
Look into some MIDI plugins to expand what you're able to do. Filtering different notes/note ranges to different channels can be useful. Microtuner, a neat plugin, combined with the "scales.zip" you can find on the internet if you search alongside the "Scala" software, will let you play in any tuning you can imagine (literally thousands), not only equal temperament... only downside is some of the scales included do not expand to the whole range of the EWI unless you edit them yourself. MidiChords is another great plugin which will allow you to map certain notes (ones outside of your normal playing range I'd imagine) to trigger chords, any chord you want on an individual note->chord mapping basis.
Finally, any VSTi that will allow it - still havent found a substitute MIDI plugin - is great to link breath control to several parameters, across different ranges of each parameter. You can even set some ranges in reverse (with a higher minimum than maximum) so your breath scales them back. Mixing oscillators and tweaking filter values will provide an endless sonic palette in this way.