Hi,
First I want to thank you all for this amazing Synthesizer project. There’s nothing like making some music to distract attention from the Pandemic. I imported the Were_Sax Alto and Bear_Sax Baritone with Polyphone but I can only play up to a quarter note. If the note duration is longer than a quarter note it just starts over and over for the duration of the note. If that didn’t happen, it would be prefect. I attached the result. I imported as an SF2. Should it export out as something else ? Also in polyphone I exported out the individual SF2 files from the Sforzando Bear_Sax installer. Am I missing a step ?
I am working on a version of Gerry Rupert + Foo Fighter Baker Street.
I attached what the alto sax sounds like… Any clues to how to fix this would be appreciated.
Thanks!
Did you configure the loop start and end points in Polyphone? If not, check here to see how it’s done: https://www.polyphone-soundfonts.com/documentation/en/tutorials/how-to-prepare-a-sample
Thanks! I missed this step. I will try this.
Jerryn, you might have a look a the latest posts in Free Soundfonts which looks at the 19 CC input patches setup on one experimental soundfont. Should provide some insight to breath control, head tilt sort of modulation.
This 12 year article describing how to add wind control to a sound font, is about the most comprehensive discussion I have seen.
Wow… thanks everybody for the help. I didn’t have the endpoints set. I will need to update the voices for control from a mouth piece next. The weather here wasn’t great so I worked on this
song once I got the Were_Sax imported. I’m going to contribute it to the Zynthian project once I get the 19 CC input patches setup.
You can’t import a Baritone and Alto Sax soundfont without trying to play the blues! This song isn’t done yet. I’m going to have a trumpet and trombone track added. Maybe harmonica too.
It’s a start though. 
Also I’m going to change the guitars up too.
Sounds like there’s a trombone mute waiting to be modulated…
And you can’t play the blues without playing a tune that the Blues Brothers did
I’m expecting my Akai Ewi to arrive Wednesday… can’t wait to try it. Hopefully it’s close to
saxophone fingering.
When the Ewi gets here I want to attempt to sequence the original version by Taj Mahal.
Bass, guitar. drums and harmonica. I’ve seen YouTube videos of people playing blues harmonic on the EWI.
Hi @Jerryn ,
this man is Ingo Scherzinger, maker the Dynasample XpressO hardware synt which is incredile perfect. By this video he prezent possibility of XpressO.
Zynthian is not on the same level as XpressO in area of sampled synthesis. But I think after implementation of Sfizz engine and tuning of selected sfz files will be very close to.
I agree. Sfizz is going to be an incredible addition to Zynthian I’ll help adding the 19CC patches. I will have my Akai EWI soon. I can’t wait. My tenor sax is in bad shape, it has been for a few years now. It’s an old Conn. It needs pads, springs, and an octave yet.
I’ve been playing around with the samples… tried blues… and now Dave Mathews. I used a Karaoke Midi. I played the lead on the keyboard… messed up a bit but this is what I ended up with for the first take. Wednesday I’m going to try it on the EWI. Or maybe it’s going to take a while to get used to it. I read you can map the keys like a saxophone, recorder, the lower three keys can be used as a valve instrument. or akai EWI which is I think a mix. I got the USB version. Hopefully there’s memory in it that will save the configuration settings. I am not sure how the valve map works because the keys don’t move, they are pressure sensitive.
If it works well I might get the wireless version, not sure how well it’s going to work for me.
If it works I will be jamming with my youngest son. He plays guitar. I’m lucky he likes similar music. Him and his friends are putting a band together, rock, blues, and grunge.
I’ll keep an eye on the Sfizz integration. I’d like to try that out with the Zynthian and the EWI!
Here’s the first attempt at Dave Mathews - Ants Marching
@Jerryn
here is video with “valve” fingering - also describe as “EVI Fingering Mode”. More is on this web.
FYI The Modsynth Soundfont 19 CC adjustable params
(I don’t know if those are all of the Modulator inputs specified in the SF2 Standard)
(A patch on the fly facility would have to initialize scaling and associated filter parameters)
| CC | target |
|---|---|
| 71 | filter resonance |
| 74 | filter cutoff |
| volume envelope: | |
| 73 | attack time |
| 75 | decay time |
| 76 | sustain level |
| 72 | release time |
| mod envelope: | |
| 77 | delay time |
| 78 | attack time |
| 79 | decay time |
| 80 | sustain level |
| 81 | release time |
| 82 | mod env → filter |
| 83 | mod LFO freq |
| 85 | mod LFO → pitch |
| 86 | mod LFO → volume |
| 87 | mod LFO → filter |
| 88 | vib LFO delay |
| 89 | vib LFO freq |
| 90 | vib LFO → pitch |
The EWI Harmonica sound is interesting…
A foot pedal that mixed in adjacent notes might add a dimension to the modeling.
I played around with an inertial sensor in a globe who’s Horizontal and Vertical rotation mapped to a Harmonica scale. A 3rd axis changed the embouchure tightness, adjusting the number of adjacent notes that are played at once.
Would it be possible to extract the SFZ files from Aria (bundled with the Akai EWI usb ) and import them to the PolySound and export to FluidSynth ?
Thanks for the list. I’ve got Sfizz working. WOW… through a monitor speaker you hear the difference. The way it appears to work is it uses the soundfont loaded with LinuxSampler on channel 1. I have a sfizz layer onchannel 8. I am going open up Polyphone tomorrow and start getting the Modulator Inputs into Bear_Sax. Do you know if sfizz is working with Modulator Inputs ?
It looks like it’s possible to have a 3 piece midi arranged backup playing using high sampled instruments and playing the lead live with the with sfizz synth layer. This is awesome !
WOW… I just got the EWI. I had the EWI configured with the Sfizz prototype recipe. channel 1 with the LinuxSampler Tenor Sax and Layer 8 with Sfizz. The EWI worked out of the box! I can’t believe it! I was even able to get it to growl… also I need to get used to the missing upper right side keys LOL. I worked out of the box, no configuring… the fingering felt like an Recorder.
It’s going to take some time to get used to. I tried playing Van Morrison Moondance… figured out the funcy substitution for the side keys. It’s going to take some practicing to get used to it.
Also the rollers. If you slip down a roller you will be in anoter octave. It would be pretty cool if the have a sax version with a real octave key and you have to bite hard to hit the third octave like a real sax. It’s wicked easy to play 4 octaves on this thing… just don’t roll your finger.
I’m going to print the charts out, and search the internet for a visualizer. I’m also going to boot into windows (my primary OS is Linux) and see if I can extract the soundfonts that came with Aria. Also I am going to try Sfizz Harmonica with multi chord! that will be wild if it works.
Just got the EWI… Can’t wait to learn the new fingering style on this thing and record the new sax track
Wow! The Ewi worked out of the box. The Zynthian with the default LinuxSampler soundfonts in the test branch sounds better than the Aria Player LOL. And I can use Rosedgarden with
rtpmidi to play the backup. This post features Bear_Sax… I was playing the simple Baritone section without the improv solo… just to test it. I found a useful tool for learning the fingering, also it appears the default EWI fingering is best. The saxaphone fingering feel like missing keys and there are many fingering positions to make the same note with the EWI fingering mode. I figured if I practice the chromatic scales eventually it will sink in, It’s similar to playing a recorder.
Here’s the tool… feed it midi and it will show you the fingering and all the alternative ways to play the same note.
GitHub - bwasty/ewi: Fingering Tool for Akai EWI using React
I have it installed on my linux desktop. I want to figure out how to use this to generate the fingering chart over sheet music. That would help, big time.
Here’s the beginning of Moondance.
Now it’s time to practice, go through the scales with this thing to lean the fingering. Also tonight I am going to try Harmonic with MIDIChord to see if that works.
Bear_Sax Baritone + Sfizz… Wow… baritone on an EWI… and it feels like real control, and after I played the baritone line I felt a buzz as if I was playing the real thing LOL. The EWI + Zynthian is going to be a lot of FUN!. The break out Solo stuff in this song is the old SF2 Tenor sax. The second baseline is the Bear_Sax Baritone. I stuck the Bear_Sax Baritone on the left channel so you can easily pick it out. I think if anyone wants to start experimenting with an Electronic Woodwind Midi Controller now is the time
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