Large Ominous Wind Instrument

I must admit, the first time I unboxed the instrument, I was amazed at the build quality. It has some heft, the keys are properly and ergonomically placed and you know Akai really took their time to perfect this wind controller. But as a long time saxophone player, the first time I actually played some scales, I was quite disappointed - it didn't feel like a saxophone. I was beginning to regret my purchase and thought about exchanging it for the WX5. So I gave it a few more days. Days turned to weeks, and I am beginning to appreciate this instrument. Keep practicing those scales, breathing with the mouthpiece and you realize how this is such an amazing wind controller. I made a mistake thinking that this is a replacement for a saxophone in an apartment situation. In reality, you should think about how this instrument can be an extension to your musical endeavors. The possibilities you can do with the sounds and playability are endless. There are a few usable synths prebuilt, but I suggest using the Akai EWI 5000 Editor to really play and edit your sounds then save it to the user bank. Also there are synths out there that can be used if you plug the EWI as just a midi wind controller; unfortunately you can't upload other synth sounds into the controller. Definitely give it some time to get used to the instrument especially moving from one octave to another. Keep practicing and you'll appreciate that there's hardly any moving parts here. I was opposed at it first since horns have that tactile and key feedback. But with the touch sensitivity, it really felt I was playing an instrument from the future. Again, you just have to get used to it - think about when mobile phones shift from physical keyboards to the modern phones we have today. And here I am today still keeping my purchase and writing a review. I thank Akai for making a top-notch wind controller and continuing the support for the modern electronic wind musician.

Installed these to avoid running cable after cable through ominous holes in the new home studio workstation.� One plug for each mic and straight into the patch bay.� Easier to connect and re-connect mic's without crawling under the board.� Standard mic in-out plug on both sides, NO�soldering!!!� I like that...

As soon as I received this filter I went out and used it. I've been working on shooting the storms here in South Florida and using the storms as the backdrop for some ominous looking photos of the older construction in the area. The filter gave me the exact effect I was looking for. It made the shots easier. It's a great filter to have in the bag.

Can’t beat this little instrument for the money!

Fine instrument, does what it should do and more. I recommend it.

Easy to grasp with my large fingers. Thinner caps are hard to get hold of and I always wind-up dropping them.

I use this with the Sanken Cos-11 and the large metal windscreen on beach shoots. I never have wind issues

The baby ball gag with the furry windjammer stood up perfectly to a very high-wind recording day I did in Time Square a while back - I was impressed. Before that outing, I tested it at home by putting the mic in the ball and accompanying windjammer, standing in front of it with a large piece of cardboard, and fanning like mad. I was really only a few inches from the mic, and was fanning the large piece of cardboard for all I was worth, and the recordings afterwards didn't have a trace of wind noise. Good enough for me!

I have reordered this stand five times.  It its well built and large base.  It holds my 48in softbox in the wind with no problem.

Wind bad, this good. Keep wind out.