Opinion - What's your Sound? - EWI Reason Sounds

Opinion - What's your Sound?

7/16/2011

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

Bret Pimentel link

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.

Since I'm a woodwind player, I don't have much interest in using sounds that are too imitative of acoustic instruments (if I want flute, I'll play flute). So my favorite sounds are definitely synthy. On the other hand, I've altered some of those sounds to make them feel a little more woodwind-y. Some of them, for example, are designed to gain a breathy quality as I blow harder, which is the opposite of what I expect from a "real" woodwind, so I tend to switch that around or take out the breathiness altogether.

My interest in more synthy sounds was part of the reason I decided to get the Akai controller instead of the Yamaha (which, with the Yamaha module, seems like a better choice for imitating acoustic instruments).

John Isley link

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?"

There's no doubt you can almost immediately identify the difference between say, Michael Brecker and John Coltrane; Cannonball and Bird; McCoy Tyner and Ahmad Jamal, Woody Shaw and Miles Davis, etc. With acoustic instruments the physiology of the player is as much part of the sound as the instrument itself therefor each individual instrumentalist has a unique and readily identifiable sound if you know what to listen for sonically. Their "voiceprint" if you will.

With digital instruments it's not so easy. I mean yes, when you hear Pat play the GR-300 there is an unmistakable sonic signature that registers, but is it actually the SOUND that registers or the patterns, lines, textures he chooses to play that make it identifiable? Could you - based on SOUND ALONE - identify Pat vs another guitar player playing the same lines, with the same inflections, using the same sound? I think it would be much easier to fool the ear in that scenario than with a "real" acoustic instrument.

I often ask, "what is the nature of sound as we perceive it?" And what does that mean to the idea of programming personalized sounds that create a unique identity for me as an EWI player? It obviously is all about the programming. While there is definitely an aspect that is identifiable through the musical choices you make, I believe ultimately, to have a unique voice, there must be a way to define your voice through the sound design alone. And that is the challenge we all face in embracing the EWI as a viable tool in creating music.

It's too easy to play stock or factory sounds, or to buy a few refills or hire a programmer to come up with something for you. But in that scenario, what have you done to earn your sound? Where have you worked to acquire that unique layer of je ne sais quoi that defines the separation between you, and the EWI player in the next room over?

I agree with Bret that I am not looking for acoustic emulations. If I want to play flute, clarinet or saxophone, well I'll pick them up and play them. But I'm searching for that thing, that sound, that hasn't been heard before in quite the way I hear it. That vaguely familiar yet hauntingly not-ness that makes your ears and mind go "oh, THAT'S interesting!" I really feel when you can define that for yourself, you will have earned your sound in much the same way those of us that play saxophones or other acoustic instruments have spent years earning our sound on them.

Tex

8/6/2011 03:55:06 pm

re: 'acoustic emulations'

Try playing a tenor for a few hours after you've been injured by a bozo crashing into you while on the road. One of the cool things about an EWI is that you can still perform music after an injury., when the physical weight of a tenor is 'too much'.

I don't expect a sax emulation to ever be as 'good' as the flutes I've heard and use on my EWI., but.... it would be nice if they even got close.

Looking forward to trying the new Reason sounds

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.

Believe it or not, this is a simpler set-up than I've had for the past 5 years.

When playing cover tunes, the goal is to come up with something that will emulate the recording, and this can be a real challenge. For Hallowe'en we will play "Thriller" and I have 6-10 sounds to organize for that one tune. Sometimes I wish I just stuck to the sax and never rubbed that lamp, so to speak.

Having just purchased the AX-Synth, I've only opened the Editor once, and seen the complex arrangement of parameters.
Similarly, I've just bought the Korg Legacy Edition virtual synths, and realized I've got a lot of studying and tweaking to do. So I bought Patchman's sets of patches for the M1 to go with it, and expect they will play very well through the MacBook, if the demos are any indication.

I admire your ambition to create great patches, and I sure plan to buy them once I'm set up with the (pricey) Reason (and I would like to know if they will run in the more affordable Reason Essentials program).

There's no question that the members of my R&B band are dubious about the EWI. I have to be real careful to select the right patch and play it with the right intent (e.g. "I Want You Back" sounds fine with the VL70m's "Brethbow" patch, which is a breath-controlled cello imitation, but definitely synthy).

I want to upgrade my wind controller to WX-5 or EWI-4000s because there are newer continuous controller available - for example, Growl can be brought in by pressing a key on the WX-5. Breath pressure, attack and lip pressure are all I can get out of the WX-11, and that's fine. But the EWI keys are aftertouch-sensitive, if I'm not mistaken, and that is a big plus on many synths.

Good luck! I'll stay tuned.
Ammo

Chris C

5/12/2012 06:06:15 pm

Hi guys

This is an interesting thread and a great topic, with some EWI heavies involved. I have had the same discussion with myself about this very thing. what is 'my' sound on EWI? In the late 80's I was very interested in the new possibilities with wind synthesis after hearing Brecker with the EWI. My mind was blown by what he was doing with it. I had to get in on the action. So I went to check it out and was torn between the EWI 1000 and the WX7. Long story short I had a lot of trouble with the touch sensitive keys, no articulated G# etc, so I oped for the WX because it felt more "sax-like."

Well, after a few months of frustration with it and the crappy sounds I was getting out of the TX 81Z I bought with it, it kind of went on the shelf. But with the advent of all these soft synths and no racks to take around, coupled with the fact that I was doing a "regular" job and not playing music at all, AND living in an apartment that wasn't conducive to practicing, I decided to jump back in again last with the EWI USB and see what I could come up with. I was tired of my own playing on the tenor and didn't care much about music any more. Life takes its twists and turns and sometimes it just gets in the way of what we'd rather be doing sometimes.

So I thought this would be a cool way of practicing again with a new "sound" that would be fresh again, and I could just put on headphones and jam till my ears bled and not worry about the neighbors. Great...

Originally, I thought like Bret. I want to be 'synthy' and not play sampled acoustic instruments. I was having a little fun with the Aria synth that came with the EWI USB, stacking and layering sounds, offsetting pitches to get chords, etc. Then came Logic. For me a big leaning curve with a couple thousand pages of manuals. I wasn't going to read all that - and why don't the samplers and synths respond to my breath control? Do I really have to tweak every patch? I'd rather just play it and have it work than do all this tweaking. And many thanks to John for his Harmonic Xpander (that I'm still trying to figure out) and all his help and email support.

But then I thought, why the hell not play sampled instruments? Talk about expanding my sonic palate. I could be a violinist, cellist etc. I could throw the clarinet and flute out the window because I hated practicing them anyway, oh and by the way, now I can play oboe, english horn, and bassoon too - like I would ever have submitted to the misery of learning those axes. Forget it! I hated having to keep up chops on all these instruments to play pit orchestra gigs, and big bands. I honestly applaud the doublers. It takes a certain maniacal discipline to keep up your chops on ten axes and try to sound like each one is your principal horn. God bless you guys! I'd rather play 10 choruses on I Hear a Rhapsody than practice my high G trill on piccolo. So I could double now if there ever was a gig for that where I'm at. The "real oboe" patch is going to sound better than if I practiced oboe for four hours a day for the next three years... and I'm not going to make those reeds either! And now I can play Round Midnight on Harmon mute trumpet and I don't have to buy a trumpet and lear how to play it. Okay, so I'm lazy.

But I love the synth sounds too. Then I have to agree with Ammo that I can be too much "over choice" when it comes to the sounds. I just picked up Reason a couple months ago because I saw Bernie uses it a lot, and then I found Chris' website a great resource for having sounds that "just work" on the EWI and all the tutorials here are great. I"m liking it more than Logic now, but will probably still end up using it in re-wire inside Logic eventually.

And as great as the Cyclone is, sometimes I say "... yea, but..." because I'm hearing something else that's not coming out, and I'm not proficient enough to know the tweaks yet. I know that I'll eventually discover that programming my own sounds will be as rewarding as playing them, and I think that Reason probably offers the best method of getting there. It also has a great user base, tutorials and tons of refills out there too. But then there's so much sound choices and I'm still hearing something in my head that I'm not hearing coming out of the EWI. The compliment I hear most often about my my tenor playing is my sound. I have a voice on the sax that I am trying to find on the EWI. I'm still new to it, and have spent the last year just learning the technique of the instrument itself and learning new fingerings that you can't do on the sax across the breaks. But now it's about finding "the sound" that's me, and that's going to take a while I'm sure.

I'm still convinced that nobody has ever played it better than Brecker did, and I really miss him. He was doing more with it in the eighties before there was even a soft syth, than most people are doing now with laptops loaded with 100GB of samples. But of course

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.

...But of course he knew his gear inside and out and could wring everything out of it. So that's where the programming comes in. Too bad George Whitty doesn't live next door to me!

So Chris can you be my George? I have a request. There's a sound Brecker used on the youtube video "Michael Brecker Plays EWI" that's a 9:13 setup to Song for Barry. It's the sound he used to build the loop. It has a real fatness to it with just enough 'fuzz' around the edges. There's a couple of patches in the Cyclone that are close, but not "that sound". I"m sure you can recreate it. I'd pay for that one!

So thanks to you for this great resource, your refills and tutorials. And thanks to John and Bret for your work too. It's a great community.

Many Thanks
Chris

5/12/2012 06:18:10 pm

john fautley

1/14/2013 11:57:53 am

Opinion - What's your Sound?

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