Akai EWI5000 manual Play, Tips, Glide Plate Standard Pitch Pitch-Bend Up Pitch-Bend Down

4. Play!

Hold the mouthpiece gently between your lips with your teeth, and exhale so your breath passes through both sides of your mouth. The EWI5000 detects this wind pressure with the breath sensor and expresses the change in sound volume and character, depending on how you blow. (It should not take much breath to activate the instrument.)

Tips:

•There is a bite sensor in the mouthpiece. You can produce a vibrato effect by gently biting the mouthpiece, which will bend the pitch up each time you bite, but do not bite too hard.

•You can create small bursts of air by tonguing the mouthpiece for even more expressive control.

•If the EWI5000's note keys, octave rollers, pitch-bend plates, or glide plates are not very responsive, it could be because you are playing with dry hands (the EWI5000 works by using the body's capacitance). If this happens, you can use a very small amount of non- greasy hand lotion to improve the connection between your hands and the keys.

Note Keys: The note keys are sensors that let you produce sound with only a light touch. The EWI5000 has multiple fingering options, so it can feel familiar to saxophonists, flutists, etc. You can adjust the position of the three lowest keys by loosening the screws that hold each of them in place.

To learn how to adjust the note keys' response, please see

Advanced Functions > Adjusting Sensors > Note Delay (Note Keys).

Octave Rollers: Place your left thumb between any two octave rollers (and over the grounding plate) on the EWI5000's back panel. Slide your thumb up or down across the octave rollers to shift its octave range up or down. While playing, keep your left thumb in contact with the octave rollers. The position between the two knurled octave rollers indicates the standard pitch.

Glide Plate: While playing a note, move your thumb across the octave rollers (without rolling them) while touching the glide plate on their right side to create a "glide" effect. This will smoothly and continuously slide the pitch up or down—a technique known as portamento.

To learn how to adjust the glide plate's response, please see Advanced Functions > Adjusting Sensors > Glide Plate.

Pitch-Bend Plates: Touch your thumb to either of these plates to move the pitch of the note you are playing up or down. Touch the upper plate to bend the pitch upward or the lower plate to bend the pitch downward. Before you get accustomed to using these plates, you may produce unexpected sounds by touching them accidentally. You can adjust the position of each plate by loosening its screw.

To learn how to adjust the pitch-bend plates' response, please see Advanced Functions > Adjusting Sensors > Pitch-Bend

Plates.

8

Glide

Plate

Standard Pitch

Pitch-Bend Up

Pitch-Bend Down