AKAI Professional EWI Solo

18

Electronic Wind Instrument

  • Includes built-in speaker
  • Authentic wind instrument performance and response
  • 200 Acoustic and synthetic preset sounds
  • Mouthpiece with air pressure and bite sensor
  • 13 Touch sensors
  • 8 Octave rollers - 6 mobile rollers and 2 fixed touch sensors
  • 12+ Hours of play time with the rechargeable lithium-ion battery
  • OLED Display
  • Line output: 6.3 mm Jack
  • Headphone output: 3.5 mm Jack
  • Aux input: 3.5 mm Jack
  • USB-B port (MIDI and charging function)
  • Dimensions (W x H x D): 765 x 76 x 82 mm
  • Weight: 800 g
  • Includes USB cable, power supply (5 V DC), shoulder strap, and quick start guide
Available since September 2020
Item number 497848
Sales Unit 1 piece(s)
Bass Pedal No
Breath Controller Yes
MIDI Controller Yes
Filter No
Effects No
Sequencer No
Product Specific Expansion No
£409
All prices incl. VAT
In stock
In stock

This product is in stock and can be shipped immediately.

Standard Delivery Times
Delivery free of charge expected between Wednesday, 3.04. and Thursday, 4.04.
1

An expressive electronic wind instrument

The name “EWI” stands for “electronic wind instrument”. The EWI Solo from Akai represents a wireless model that combines wide musical expressiveness with the control of a traditional wind instrument. Moreover, the EWI also offers synthetic sounds. The mouthpiece is equipped with an air pressure level sensor and bite sensor, by which the sounds can be modified extensively. With its 13 touch sensors, you can control parameters and thus modify the sound of the instrument even more. On top of that, you can enable effects that add more life to the sound. This robust stand-alone instrument offers all artists a huge palette of artistic expression.

A special playing feel

The front of the instrument features a set of chrome-plated valves on which notes can be played with eight fingers. On the back, there are octave shift rollers which are played with the left thumb in order to control the octave range via a grounding plate on the right. The opposite grounding plate activates the Portamento function, which can also be turned off there. As opposed to a saxophone, where the right hand forms a “thumb hook” stabilising the instrument, the EWI Solo uses two plates to control the pitch bend. When blowing through the mouthpiece made of silicone, the air hits a diaphragm that controls the parameter responsible to create a note. The vibrato effect can be produced with lip pressure. The encoder can be used to choose between many sound presets such as flute, oboe, saxophone, and EVI (Electronic Valve Instrument) - which allows you to find the right configuration.

A stand-alone wireless instrument for a free performance

In the 70s, the EWI was presented as a stand-alone instrument by Nyle Steiner. Since the 80s, Akai Professional has been involved in the development of this instrument, which was played by Jazz players like Michael Brecker, Candy Dulfer, and Bob Mintzer. This instrument is more comparable to a synthesizer and thus not meant to represent a digital variant of an acoustic instrument. Nonetheless, it is innovatively designed and offers extraordinary sounds and allows access to many parameters and effects, turning every performance into an eye-catcher. The EWI Solo can be played as a stand-alone - it doesn't need to be connected to a computer. Powered by a built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery, it ensures up to 12 hours of playing time.

About Akai Professional

Akai Professional has its origins in the long-established Japanese company Akai, founded in 1929, which initially manufactured electric motors, soon to be followed by high-quality tape recorders and hi-fi products. Since 1988, Akai has also become a household name like no other on the Hip-Hop scene. With the development of its first MIDI Production Centre (MPC for short), created in collaboration with Roger Linn, Akai wrote history by decisively influencing the sound of Hip-Hop and electronic music, which it continues to do to this very day. Famous exponents of the MPC series include DJ Shadow, Eminem, and Kanye West. Today, Akai is also well known for its robust and versatile USB MIDI controllers, not least of which is the bulletproof APC range of Ableton controllers.

Wide-ranging sound options

The instrument’s sound generator is sample-based, meaning that the instrument is already equipped with 200 acoustic as well as synthetic stereo sounds. On the back display of the EWI Solo, you can choose between sounds - pretty much half of which are samples of various wind instruments. Beyond that, there are also less common sounds like synthetic basses, leads, and spheric sounds. Some parameters, like the cut-off frequency and LFO, can be directly adjusted on the instrument. You can customise your sound even more thanks to the EWI Solo software and sound editor for Mac and PC. On the back, you will find additional buttons to select and save presets as well as for switching on effects. At the bottom, there is a USB port and a stereo output jack.

18 Customer ratings

4.6 / 5

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12 Reviews

b
AKAI has done a wonderful job creating a semi-pro EWI
beatley 08.12.2020
The new EWI solo is close to being the best EWI and also therefore the best wind synth on the market in many respects. It has a good on-board battery, the OLED display/navigation features are great, the new F#-key is a great addition. The on board speaker makes it possible to take out the EWI and practice without any complicated setup. It just works. The instrument is a joy to both practice and perform on. I take it out many times a day, and it's probably the best addition I've had to my music setup in years.

I've always been of the opinion that wind synths sound much better as synthesizers than an imitation of wind instruments. The EWI solo has about 200 on-board sounds, and around half of them are sampled real-life instruments. They sound fairly good as far as that kind of instrument goes, but I'd never use them for anything but novelty purposes. That goes doubly for things like guitar/xylophone/piano/steel drum patches and similar, which to me make little sense at all. Several of the actual synth sounds, on the other hand, are decent, although they probably don't live up to the EWI 4000S overall, especially not with Patchman's sound bank.
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O
Good for the first steps. Not a digital sax!
Oniram 08.12.2022
One really can't desire more for the price. I played on It for a good year now and I Just recently switched to an Aerophone AE-20 fromm Roland, mainly because (and this Is my opinion as Professional musician) I found the responsiveness of the EWI somewhat underwhelming. You can't expect to double tongue or make fast and huge dynamic changes here, but this definitely won't be a problem for beginners or people who aren't at a pro level with their own instrument already.

For just having fun with digital sounds and playing without getting phisically tired, the EWI absolutely does it's job right. It's awfully easy to set up, the tones are good enough (the "real" instrument sounds like flute, sax, oboe... all sound pretty bad if you are used to the real counterparts, but the synth sounds are overall nice to hear and play with) and the fingerings leave room for playing scales on different ways, so that everyone can get used to it pretty easily. The touch sensors can be confusing at first, but you can adjust the responsiveness in order to more easily play the notes clean.

Lastly, the EWI is NOT a practice instrument for saxophonists. Those searching for a digital sax to practice with their Headphones should probably look at the Yamaha YDS-150. It's also not perfect, but anything else just won't really cut it.

For Studio productions with external VSTs, go look at the EWI USB, that's the one for you!
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MM
Hard Case / Soft Case
Mümkün Mertebe 26.11.2021
A very good quality and beautiful product. However, this valuable item must be sold with its bag.
Thanks Thomann..
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Yn
Très plaisant !
Yuukan na Senshi 30.03.2022
Je voulais un instrument à vent pour créer des loops perso que j'intègre dans ma musique électronique via un DAW. Et ben vous savez quoi ? Je n'ai pas un mais plus de 200 instruments !!!! La qualité des sons est largement suffisante pour cette application et les réglages permettent une prise en main évolutive en fonction du niveau de l'utilisateur. Bravo !
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