This post is more of a question without an answer than anything else. What's your sound? Do we have our own sound on the EWI, just as we have our own sound on the horn? I've been thinking about this lately as I design EWI patches for Reason, which seem to fall into two categories. The first are the patches that have to sound a certain way because that is what the song demands. In this scenario, I'm using the EWI as a very specific tool to cover a very specific part in a song. For example, the band I'm in covers 'Just Dance' by Lady Gaga. (Eek! I'm surprised I just admitted that!) Anyway, I use the EWI to cover the synth bass and I spent a lot of time making sure it sounds just like the record. Or, maybe I have to cover a harmonica or something, so it has to sound just like a harmonica. The second category of sounds are more interesting to me because they are more free form. They are abstract, in that they don't try to be anything in the natural world, and I can drop them in whenever I want. Basically, I design sounds that sound a certain way because I am naturally attracted to those sounds. Over time, I feel that I'll have a set of sounds that are unique to me, just as my sax sound is unique to me. Look at Pat Metheny, for example. Any time you hear his sound on the GR-300 you know it is him and it has not changed much over the years. Yes, you also know it is him because of his way of phrasing, time, the notes he chooses and such, but you could only hear one note of that sound and think 'that's Pat or someone trying to sound like Pat.' Same thing with Lyle Mays, he has a particular set of sounds that are unique to him. If the EWI is an avenue of self-expression, maybe the sounds we choose (or are just attracted to) are part of that. Maybe we should be thinking about the sounds we choose in way that defines our uniqueness as artists and musicians. What do you think? Is your sound unique? Is it even worth it to think about? Is this something that happens organically anyway? Let us know in the comments.
8 Comments
7/16/2011 07:51:34 am
As an EWI 4000s player, I'm not using softsynths at this point, but I am using a well-known set of third-party sounds, some of which I have tweaked in small ways. Among those sounds, there are a few go-to ones for me, and mostly they are ones that sound fairly simple and nondescript--ones that I can use as a sort of blank canvas for working with the EWI's other expressive possibilities. Sounds that are too layered or swooshy or otherwise gimmicky aren't as useful for me.
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7/21/2011 05:04:46 pm
I think this is one of the biggest questions about synthetic instruments in general. It is something I spend a huge amount of time thinking about in a practical sense and also in a more meditative sense asking the question "what makes my sound (any sound) unique?"
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Tex
8/6/2011 03:55:06 pm
re: 'acoustic emulations'
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Ammo
10/5/2011 04:49:36 pm
Alvin Toffler in "Future Shock" warned that we are in an age where we suffer from "the strain of over-choice". I play two saxes, WX wind controller through stock VL-70m, and AX-Synth with 256 built-in patches and a couple of sound modules.
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Chris C
5/12/2012 06:06:15 pm
Hi guys
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Chris C
5/12/2012 06:17:43 pm
My post got cut off - I didn't know there was a limit to how much I could say here... Goes to show I talk too much! I'll see if I can re-remember what I said at the end here.
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Chris C
5/12/2012 06:18:10 pm
My post got cut off - I didn't know there was a limit to how much I could say here... Goes to show I talk too much! I'll see if I can re-remember what I said at the end here.
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john fautley
1/14/2013 11:57:53 am
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