me and my bud have been thinking about starting up a electronic band. I play sax, and was wondering if the WX5 is worth its $500 price tag. Does this thing respond like a sax? If i use vibrato or jazz articulation will it respond to that????
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andrew The WX-5 and EWI are fun little toys. They are not however a replacement for a saxophone. A windsynth, is a cool fun toy, but it is an electronic instrument. So if you want to use it to replace the sound of a saxophone, I would say no, but if you want to use it to work in an electronic world/style, than its a nice alternative. You can play sounds of a flute, clarinet, violin, rock guitar, whatever you want to be.
Yes you can use all the vibrato you want on a WX-5. In fact, it can be quite an expressive instrument. You have a lot of control over vibrato, note bending etc..
$500?... that won't get it done. The WX-5 alone makes no sounds. It needs to be attached to a Synth tone generator module. A good tone generator is theYamaha VL70m. These work very well together.. but your looking at like 1200-1500 for everything. Basically the Tone Generator is the box that you plug the WX-5 into, that has all the different sounds.
An alternative is the AKAI EWI 4000s. This has the tone module built into it. However there are only 100 tones, and they are not as realistic sounding. (But, you can also plug it into a Tone Generator like the Vl70m, and have the best of both worlds)
Here's a few pluses/minuses to WX-5 versus AKAI 4000s
1. The AKAI, is much more difficult to learn to play than the WX-5. The AKAI has touch sensitive keys, and an octave roller mechanism. The WX, has actual keys on it, and the octave buttons. It just makes it a little more sax-like, and the learning curve is easier.
2. Tone Module is on board in the AKAI.. you can just plug it in and play it. You can actually plug headphones right into the Akai, and play on batteries,and practice anywhere.. there is a 2nd piece of equipment needed with WX to make any sounds.
3. AKAI on boards sounds, are not as good as an external tone generator's sounds.
4. Prices.. WX- $500-$600 + Tone Generator $600-$800 total $1200 to $1500 new
AKAI - $700 new
If have owned and played both. Currently I have the WX-5 with the VL70m. I have personally had problems with some of the help at yamaha so i would not buy anything from them |
