Wind controller: a synthesiser for wind players

The wind controller, or wind synth, is a synthesiser for wind players who want to pluck, hammer and bow. Saxophonist Louis Gerrits knows all about it. There’s always work for the wind controller, he says. Mind you, the real controller isn’t the instrument, but the player.

Saxophonist Louis Gerrits

The future can begin

A single burst of sound is enough to unleash a shower of cinematic expression. Here, you can hear the dark foghorn of an ocean liner packed with European migrants, catching a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty through shreds of mist. Ellis Island. The journey is complete. The future can begin. Yes—this is how vividly the sound language of the wind controller, or wind synth, can paint pictures. The instrument is exceptionally well-suited to bringing fantasies to life. Because we’re not out on the ocean, and we’re certainly not heading for the Big Apple. The setting is much more rural. In Studio IJsseldijk in Epse, a small village in the eastern Netherlands near Deventer, saxophonist Louis Gerrits (47) blows his first note on an Akai EWI4000. Everything has been set up for an anatomy lesson on his wind synthesiser. The instrument is a long, grey plastic block with touch keys. It’s a toy for wind players—and that term is literally a recommendation for anyone who wants to try their luck on this instrument. Anyone who experiences the saxophone as an extension of their own body, with all the conveniences and inconveniences that come with it, is faced here with an air-processing machine which—powered by four AA batteries—is connected via an interface to a powerful dialysis machine: Apple’s latest MacBook.

Nyle Steiner

Gerrits gives a short lesson on the origins of this type of wind synth. First came the Electronic Valve Instrument (EVI), seen in action in the video below. That instrument was developed in the late 1970s by American trumpeter Nyle Steiner. The EVI is an electronic wind instrument with trumpet fingering, based on the three valves of a trumpet. Those valves were reduced to touch keys. To still be able to play all twelve notes of a chromatic scale, Steiner fitted the instrument with a rotating cylinder at the front. He also built a separate sound module—something like a Minimoog—with analogue synthesiser sounds inside. There were no samples yet. Steiner demonstrated his instrument on television with Bach’s Toccata and Fugue. Never before had so many registers of a large church organ been pulled out in such a compact setup. The instrument made its debut on the soundtrack to Coppola’s Vietnam film Apocalypse Now. When saxophonist Michael Brecker (Brecker Brothers, Steps Ahead) heard about the EVI, he shared his enthusiasm with Steiner and said he’d love one with saxophone fingerings. Steiner then built the Electronic Wind Instrument (EWI). In the hands of virtuoso Brecker, the instrument quickly became popular. In 1987, Akai bought the rights and released the EWI-1000.

Lyricon

Unlike the EVI, the EWI did have a predecessor: the Lyricon. Patented in 1971, it was the world’s first electronic wind instrument, fitted with a reed and moving keys. On a saxophone or clarinet, the reed vibrates and sets the air in motion. On a Lyricon, the reed works with a sensor. Gerrits: “By pinching the reed, you can create vibrato. The EWI mouthpiece may not have a reed, but it does have a sensor with the same effect. If you move your jaw, you get vibrato. That’s an advantage over a keyboard player. A second sensor makes it possible to manipulate the sound by blowing harder or softer.” As a counterpart to Akai’s EWI, manufacturer Yamaha released the WX5, then the WX11 and finally the WX7. Yamaha’s wind synths—with moving keys and a reed—are closest to the Lyricon. Gerrits: “The instruments from both Akai and Yamaha are breath controllers. The principle is the same. You manipulate your sound with air and with your jaw. We wind players get our own controller for free.” Keyboard players can get close to the same effects using the pitch-bend wheel, aftertouch, or an external breath controller such as the BC1 on Yamaha’s DX7 synthesiser. But maximum control is only possible with a wind synth, Gerrits believes. As an example, he plays the theme from the film Midnight Cowboy, selecting a harmonica sound on the Mac. Through a combination of blowing harder and softer, and using the EWI pitch bend, the sound is more expressive than if the same piece were performed on a keyboard. Gerrits varies the pitch by sliding his right thumb back and forth over the two pitch-bend plates on the underside of the instrument.

Huge range

Instead of a single octave key, as on the saxophone, the EWI has eight octave rollers on the underside of the instrument. A wind synth has the same high/low range as a piano—or even more. “A huge range,” says Gerrits. “If you place your left thumb between two rollers, you activate the upper roller. You slide from one position to the other. At first, it really is a search.” And with that he has arrived at the playability of the EWI. Physically, playing this lightweight instrument is not demanding. What it comes down to is precision. That’s also true for traditional wind instruments, but because there are no moving parts, playing an EWI is even more exacting. Gerrits: “You can’t press the keys down. You either touch them, or you don’t. If you touch them and you blow, there’s sound. It’s about playing very correctly and neatly, and that takes getting used to.” The thumb plate must also constantly rest against the right thumb. Letting go means the instrument isn’t grounded, and that can disrupt the note. Compared to a brass tenor saxophone, the EWI also feels rather plastic, in Gerrits’ experience.

Robert Long

That experience now spans 25 years. “I started playing EWI because Michael Brecker did too. In 1991, fresh out of the conservatoire, I used it in a hobby band and we played tunes by his band Steps Ahead in a local pub in Enschede. In 1994, I was asked to join the band of Dutch singer-songwriter Robert Long. I got the gig purely because I played EWI. I was the youngest in the band. It was my first theatre experience, and I was now playing EWI for real. I pulled synths out of it, made little bells ring, and now and then opened up a whole string section. I also lugged around a 19-inch rack on wheels. That’s where all the sounds lived. I played with Long for four years.” The EWI also came in handy for Gerrits in the theatre shows Dobbe dobbe dobbe and Telkens Weer Het Dorp. “And for the past six years I’ve been playing, among other things, violin on the EWI during the Christmas circus in Roermond.”

‘Louis, horns!’

When we speak to Gerrits, he’s in the middle of a short tour with Dutch pop star René Froger and his band. He plays saxophone and EWI. “The guys in the band shout: Louis, horns please! Well, then I pull a full horn section out of my EWI.” The wind synth, according to Gerrits, greatly expands a saxophonist’s possibilities. “It makes me multi-purpose in theatre and increases my chances of work. I started out playing saxophone, flute and clarinet, but I’m not going to go and study oboe, horn or bassoon as well. That’s what I have my EWI for.” Gerrits makes a bassoon sound as realistic as possible. “The playing won’t be as beautiful as a real bassoonist’s, but with modern software you can get a long way.” The wind synth player is currently looking for new software. So he has already invested in a new MacBook, because his old 2007 Mac can’t handle that new software. Gerrits now works on stage with Logic Pro X’s live performance environment (MainStage), with the entire setlist pre-programmed. Finding the best sounds, he calls “work in progress”. “I listen to a lot of samples of oboe, bassoon, flute and piccolo, and I don’t rush it. I think it’s a shame to spend four or five hundred euros on something I might later be unhappy with. I want it to be one hundred percent right.” Making it right means software and player become one. “How it ultimately sounds has to do with how you start a note, how you finish it, and what you do with it along the way. By the way, I’m convinced that even as a wind synth player you can develop a very recognisable personal sound.”

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