Playing A6 with breath contoller - anyone tried this?

purpurkatten · Joined: May 27, 2005 Posts: 131 Location: right here

I´m interested in playing the A6 with a breath controller.

I guess all I would need is the Yamaha BC3 breath controller, http://www.musicstore.de/de_DE/EUR/Yamaha-BC-3-Breathcontroller-/art-SYN0000394-000
and a Breath to midi box, in which I put the BC3 breath controller, http://www.musicstore.de/de_DE/EUR/Midi-Solution-Breath-to-Midi-Box-Midi-Prozessor/art-PCM0005506-000
The Breath to midi box is connected to the A6 via midi in.

Would this work with the A6, has anybody tried this?

Any thoughts?

Tim Kleinert · Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2009 10:45 am Post subject:

I've tried it and don't recommend it, at all.

The digital modulation engine of the A6 clocks at mere 100Hz and is not smoothed, so you will get subtle (or not so subtle) intermodulation and staircasing artefacts when driving parameters with a breath controller (or any 7-bit MIDI controller for that matter) , especially with medium to high mod ranges.

This is the achilles heel of the A6.

purpurkatten · Joined: May 27, 2005 Posts: 131 Location: right here

Thanks for your help.

I guess I could try Digital ear or some other audio-to-midi software, though. Anybody tried that with any luck?

purpurkatten · Joined: May 27, 2005 Posts: 131 Location: right here

What I´m after is some way of getting the A6 to SING. I´m talking of the synth responding to midi signals beyond pressing the keys and/or the ribbon, in more of a flute/singing kind of type, rather than standard key dynamics.

Breath controller midi is apparently out of the question.

Recording notes I´m singing/playing with flute/similar and then converting the signals from audio to midi is another question. Anybody tried that?

Any more ideas to make the A6 sing?

The Real MC · Joined: Jun 20, 2008 Posts: 62 Location: Painted Post NY

The breath controller will work much better using the A6 rear panel control pedal input which will have better response than a 7-bit MIDI CC.

You'll need a converter circuit for the breath controller. I've got one on my webspace but I'll have to dig for it and get back to you.

purpurkatten · Joined: May 27, 2005 Posts: 131 Location: right here

Please do, sounds interesting! Smile

The Real MC · Joined: Jun 20, 2008 Posts: 62 Location: Painted Post NY

http://www.retrosynth.com/~analoguediehard/studio/keyboards/kurzweil_midiboard/yamaha-breath-controller.jpg

purpurkatten · Joined: May 27, 2005 Posts: 131 Location: right here

Thanks for the tip, The Real MC!

I´m no techie though. Do you know if anyone has this for sale?

Shreddie · Joined: May 12, 2009 Posts: 96 Location: UK

Cheers for that MC. I don't have a breath controller yet but I'm planning on getting one in a few months so I'll have to knock up one of those converters and see how it goes.

doperobot · Joined: Aug 05, 2007 Posts: 3 Location: Chicago

i tried for a long time to get a breath controller to work. the best i eventually got was for the patch to respond to notes, but it never got to the point where it was 'expressive'. it may be possible, but if it is, it's not easy.

Infrablue · Joined: Dec 29, 2011 Posts: 131 Location: Utah

Breath control absolutely is an amazing way to modulate the Andromeda. I was blown away to find after I got my Andromeda that it has CV inputs... since I also play wind synth.. (I play a Steiner EVI... a prototype that has CV outputs.)

Because of "life" it took me forever to finally wire up the EVI directly and try it out... I did it tonight and it was just really fun and works great...

I got the breath opening up closed filters and it was just perfectly smooth. So the Andromeda sounds were easy to articulate like a wind instrument (even double, triple tonguing etc).

But there is more... since it is analog, if you hum while you play it, your voice actually modulates the filter as well and your growl goes right into the andromeda path. That was exciting! I do that with the EVI it's self but hearing that through the A6 just filled my head with implications of all sorts of modulation... and just sounded cool on the filter it's self.

You could do all of this with the CV filter input using a Yamaha BC1 etc... any BC, but the trick will be to get someone to convert it to CV, not midi. I also play the Yamaha CS-01 with a BC input and it is analog smooth, so I know it can be done with the right circuit. I can also hum into the CS-01 and growl the filter with my own voice. So this could work with a BC and the right CV wiring... wish I knew better how to do that.

Anyway... very excited to finally have this working, if just in the early stages... I'll get some samples of this stuff up when I can...

Infrablue · Joined: Dec 29, 2011 Posts: 131 Location: Utah

Some real time playing around with CV input using a Steiner EVI as a breath control source. Notes and pitch bend played on Andromeda's keyboard.

All the modulation of volume, tone and filters are done in real time with the breath control through CV input by normal blowing as well as humming with my own voice into the EVI, multi tonguing and pallet fluttering into the EVI. Sound its self is from the Andromeda VCO's etc.

A Yamaha BC can do this stuff as well but it would need to be converted to CV instead of midi.

The playing is a little clumsy and also exaggerated to show the modulation... For most of the patches here, I usually like less resonance on a melodic line but these demonstrate the CV quite well.

Near the last half the resonance and growling grow progressively more extreme for demonstration. There are about 4 different patches throughout.

I was up all night excitedly playing around with the CV input... glad I finally got around to trying it! So happy to finally get breath control going on an Andromeda!

And here are a few tracks from about 17 years ago with melodies done on that same EVI using it's own analog sound module to compare. (Initial flute sound is EVI playing VL70-m module in a duet with an analog EVI square wave.)