Middling MIDI
About 12 years ago, while playing around with a friend’s recording studio equipment, I had a chance to try out a Casio DH-100 – “DH” for “Digital Horn.” Basically a small saxophone-esque MIDI controller in the Electronic Wind Instrument (EWI, pronounced EE•wee – not especially dignified) category. I was astounded at how, with the simple addition of air-pressure sensitivity, the possible range of expression increased so significantly. Furthermore, that this could be mapped through other MIDI controllers or patch banks in order to play nearly any instrument in this fashion (though not all accept the full range of expression very gracefully).
I was hooked, but couldn’t do anything about it. My budget at the time was less than meager, and I had other factors of budding bachelorhood to attend to. I kept the idea in the back of my mind, every now and then checking on prices for used Yamaha WX-series wind controllers but otherwise simply sighing it off and going back to other things. I was happy enough to have our Alesis QS 8.1 keyboard which I’d been introduced to about a year after the first EWI, and which Rachelle and I bought shortly after getting married on account of A) it’s cheaper than a piano, B) easier to move up and down stairs (we were living in a 3rd floor apartment), and C) can be used with headphones. At least, those were the official reasons: the prevailing one for me was the re-enactment of the classic Wayne’s World “Oh yes; it will be mine…” scene I’d done when I’d first played one. That, and how much possibility was potentially held within good studio equipment for the eager practitioner.
This was our musical mainstay for nearly 10 years, through 2 apartments and into our 2nd home (where we are now). We were fortunate enough to “store” my aunt’s old upright piano for a while, and enjoyed it immensely, but had to make other arrangements while we were trying to sell the house, returning it to its rightful owner who by that time had space for it. During this time, in order to keep the place in a state of perpetual showability (or within 5 minutes of), Rachelle even had to keep the keyboard stashed away, and I didn’t have room to take it with me up to Washington. I did eventually make this all up to her by the way, with my “I’m so very very sorry for everything” / “welcome home” present: Her Baby Grand.
So then, we found ourselves mostly tuneless, at least of our own making, for many months while we were unwillingly separated and trying to make the best of our situations. I briefly toyed with getting the flute out of storage (packed away in Utah), but I wanted to be a good neighbor – especially in the 2nd apartment I had in Seattle, where walls/ceiling/floors were as thin as they could be and still maintain structural integrity. The keyboard still wasn’t an option, since I didn’t dare trust it to anyone to ship it nor could I very well bring it back with me from one of my visits, so I returned to the EWI idea after having a Homer Simpson Tom Landry’s Hat moment: “I can’t buy that. Only management-type guys with big salaries like me can afford things like that. [gasps] Guys like me! I’m a guy like me!”
I purchased an Akai EWI USB controller – a fairly cheap but eminently capable device, so long as you have a machine to hook it up to. Which I did, so I did, and it was. I used it to pass the time and play sad songs, practice scales, and improv along with classical music.
Now, whether or not the device is capable, it still relies on whomever is playing it to do anything worthwhile. I don’t know that I pass – I would like to think so, but I know I’m still a crude amateur next to any kind of real musician. I offer a few samples below, which lose a little in translation through the tracker back through the VST filter from the original performance, but it’s close enough (yes these are all me, and I’m sorry they’re all me):
What’s interesting is what prompted me to finally record at least a little bit of this. I have other music projects under way (and geek projects), and have been letting the EWI gather dust since shortly after I returned from Seattle, but upon hearing yet another phenomenal cello performance in the background track of something or other wondered to myself… “How much does a cello cost, anyway?” And have found myself once again bit by another instrument bug (there are more than just these 3, too). The thought has even crossed my mind of making a steampunk style electric cello myself, in order to have something to play and practice extensively without offending others (works well with headphones), because steampunk is fun even if it is getting a little too close to mainstream, and because it would be musical and geeky at the same time. I’d even make an interchangeable fingerboard, one with and one without frets, in order to support different styles of performance (or lever-actuated retractable frets, but imagination needs to give way to reality in terms of practical implementation sometimes).
I whipped out the EWI, set the VST to cello, and started playing that instead. Maybe someday…
Leave a Reply