Hi,
I play Blues Harp. I found a Hohner C scale Harmonica on Polyphone’s repo. I converted it to SFZ… , connected my EWI, now I need to make some CC adjustments to make it feel real. I would like to sense draw and blow… is it possible ? Is the EWI capable of that ? If not I’ll just stick to woodwinds on the EWI, LOL.
Maybe I will get something like a DM48 midi harmonica but cheaper. When a good blues harp costs $50.00 USD and a MIDI Chromatic Harmonica costs $800.00 USD… you stick to the standard blues harp, LOL
Saxophone is different. My old sax will cost me around $2,100 USD to overhaul. So that’s how I figured the EWI USB was worth the money. One day I will find a shop that will strip it, dip it and replace all springs, and pads. For now it’s not playable because even if you squeeze the hell out of the keys while playing you will hear air leaks and squeak no matter how good of a player you are. I should dig it out and post some pictures of it here.
In descriptions has Ingo Scherzinger this comments:
The harmony notes can be played by sending CC71 which is assigned to modulation (CC1). This had been assigned to the bite controller here.
The available notes have been reduced to the notes that are actually available on a real blues harp in order to sound more authentic. E.g. the minor third or diminished fitfh can only be played by bending the diatonic notes above.
Thanks!.. I have bite set to bend pitch up/down right now. It looks like need to get used to “no draw” ? All notes played , volume controlled with breath ? Harmony with bite ? It appears that I would need to update the fingering map too.
The EWI is not capable of sending CC2 (or any other CC) for pressures below ambient (i.e. draw, sucking). The pressure sensor is capable of measuring some pressure below ambient, but the programming is not set up to handle it. You could program something else to send another CC to drive “draw” (eg bite sensor, pitchbend sensor), but you’ll get no MIDI noteons.
Maybe the JamBoxx senses draw ? The online FAQ was vague. It does not list the CC supports. The DM-48 looks promising but it’s expensive. I’m looking for something that costs less than an EWI. I think a DIY midi harmonica would need a bidirection breath sensor for each hole, or a slider maybe that will have 4 bidirectional breath sensors ?
I have about 24 harps, some hardware effects, and a Green Bullet. That’s about $1200. Of course I’ve bought them over a period of time, and inherited the bullet. I usually play off a rack with guitar, on a piano you’re gonna break some teeth. I’m checking out the effects on the Zynth.
Regarding the diatonic scale harps, I’ve posted my Raganomicon which has a modal chart for harmonica based on the Melakarta system converted to the Roman numeral system. I play in “exotic” keys.
