Hey… for all interested (and as a former horn player myself, I am very intrigued) I have been searching for a good sax plugin…and who isn’t and decided to do a quick search for a wind controller that can hook up to a synth or controller and stumbled across this.
The link off of it is for a youTube video which is
Also, 4 versions of this product can be found here:
This is a good video to watch demonstrating the capability of this product.
This certainly adds a different dimension to playing solos and as you can see from the videos, even orchestral arrangements can benefit from a new level of expression.
There are also some nice M1 patch libraries customized to breath controllers - they seem to work with the Legacy Collection M1 plugin as well. Lookee here!
Plus, for the NativeInstruments users here, there is a free Reaktor ensemble called Silverwood - also really interesting!
Torsten…it’s high on my wish it was more affordable list. Great sounds, but pricey. Hard to believe there are not more sax plugins that sound realistic.
There are quite a few synth plugins that pair well with wind controllers. Synth1 is my all around favorite, you can use breath or aftertouch which you can send to two destinations with separate controls as to the amount. Arminator, Daedalus, and MinimogueVA are also good and rely on aftertouch only (unless you are setting up control routing in Cantabile Solo, etc). I also use Voltage Modular (you can start for as little as $30), it’s very well designed for wind controllers. In the MIDI learn function, you can assign breath to as many different destinations as you like with a minimum/maximum range for each parameter. You can also use Voltage Modular as an effect plugin, I do that all the time sending MIDI to just the filter to add breath control to synths like Evol that sound great, but don’t respond to breath/aftertouch.
Ahah! I always have a breath controller on me and the latest one from TEControl is the one I use since 2016.
Show off and petulant bragging time ahead, disguised in a bullet point review.
Consider yourself warned!
Not cheap, but you have no choice nowadays, they are the only one doing something in this form factor (USB Midi)
Build quality is ok. You definitely have to take care of it… the plastic “bite” protection did only last 3 weeks with me and I’m not even a biter
It’s 4 sensors: breath (obviously), bite, nod and titt - the later two are accelerometer/inclination input which are, to me, quite gimmicky. TBH, even bite, well, I still have to use it correctly.
They used to have a cheaper version without bite/inclination if I remember correctly but I think they discontinued it (?)
Everything is controlled in a very easy 4 curves desktop application. You have to use the application manually by loading curve presets… I’m not sure it is possible to send the settings to the device itself with any form of saving them on device (so probably no bindings in Cantabile with CC or sysex if this is what you need). Now that I’m on Cantabile, I launch it as a starting tool.
Live usage:
On small gigs, where I’m very close to the crowd, I always use it once or twice. The fun, the wow factor, the intrigued crowd and the murmur slowly becoming a huge cheer when the sax solo erupts… it’s just pure showman’s joy
Live plugins used: Mr Sax T. and Saxlab
Just to shamelessly emphasis again: I’m really using it for the show, on a unique 61 keys with my hands clearly visible, doing ton of head movements and jumping all around, blowing hard and going red face from the effort. For me, it’s a “do it or don’t, there is no try” instrument.
I intentionally set the breath control on a lower curve to exhaust myself.
At this point, I realize I still need to transmit the pure joyfulness of this: I’m not using it for the best sound ever, even though it the plugins sound amazing. I use it like I would use my keytar: sporadically to steal the show on a huge solo… if I could put it on my wireless keytar and roll on the floor before jumping in the crowd, heavy-metal style and then smashing the guitarist’s Marshall with it, I would do it. Every frigging time.
Most of the time, at the end of the set, people ask for an encore “with the sax thing”. Take this, pretty hot blonde cleavagy model singer!
“Secret” Studio usage (I know we mainly discuss live things here but I’m more of a studio guy first, so please allow me to continue bragging in a more… nuanced way?):
In the studio, I use it mainly for… string controls - I’m not a wind instrument player originally and I still struggle quite a bit with my air column and breath placement - I really have to think about it. and put a lot of effort into respiration, musicality and expression. This makes for string tracks where I’m more “fragile” and “organic” than if I played with a lot of confidence on the mod wheel + I have to constantly challenge myself. People seem to like it.
Verdict:
This is your time to shine in live and reinvent yourself in the studio: buy 2!
