Yamaha WX 5 and VL 70

[JunioK]

I have a question about Wind Controllers WX 5 and VL 70. Anyone use WX 5 and VL 70? Does it sounds great or just OK?

I'm Thinking of getting one but i'm not sure if its worth it though.
:?

[saxmanglen]

I have a wx5 and a vl70. I've found it fun to tinker with but haven't tried to play it on any gigs.

The provided sax patches aren't acceptable sounding to me. I like some of the horn patches and clarinet sounds. I'm thinking about getting some additional sounds from Patchman Music and load them into the synth.

I leave my controller out and accessible just to grab and play at will. I use it with some of the play along cd's and also find it's good to work on site reading skills even late at night with headphones.

It doesn't take much of a lip to play and I find if I've played regular sax too much and the lip is dead I can still practice some additional time on the controller.

There are a couple of sites I found very helpful for setting up the controller and tips for playing. I'll have to do some research and post those later.

[Morry]

I had one but sold it. Now I want it back. :-(

I've found that the sounds are great for any instrument that you don't play. For example, sax players don't like the sax sounds, but love everything else. Ditto for brass players. I will tell you that I thought the flute sounds were terrific. All of the sounds, IMHO, are quite acceptable for any amplified gig.

If you want better sounds, go to patchmanmusic.com and get some of their improved patches. Tom Scott uses them.

[philly_sax]

I am using these now. The sax patches from Patchman are quite good. there's a variety of sax sounds, but purists will probably still prefer a real horn. Most of the time I play tenor, so to add a bari to one or two songs without lugging the bari to the gig is a help. Also, you can add trumpet where needed, or flute, etc.

My band did a reggae version of Knockin' on Heaven's door, and I played steel drum through it.

[Teddy]

I have that set-up but I got superior results with an E-mu Proteus module and an after market ROM entitled "Orchestral sounds vol.2"You have to tinker with your dip switches and breath controls and If anyone is interested I can get you details.I did like the jazz trumpet patch after tweaking it on the VL 70m but a lot of sounds were not that great.Killer "Miles"patch on the proteus and after market flutes,picolos,Bass clarinets were awesome.

[JunioK]

Thanks for your tips guys. I have seen people use WX5 and VL 70 but sounds really MIDI though, I mean it's so unreal, is not what i expected.
Do you guys know, What other tone generator that works perfectly with WX 5 beside EMU and VL 70.

I heard AIWA also have woodwind controller what are they?

[Morry]

Phillysax...I never quite understood how to get the Patchman sounds into the custom sound banks. Can you explain the process and the connections?

[philly_sax]

It's all there in the instructions although I was intimidated at the prospect. You either transfer voices as MIDI files, in which case you must transfer a bunch together (either 6 or 10 - I forget). Or, you can use a System Expert Editor program to transfer individual voices. (this program is downloadable from the Patchman site). With the MIDI transfer, you need a MIDI sequencer and of course, a MIDI interface between computer and the VL70-m module.

With the single voice method, which I used since I did not have sequencer software, you are using files with a .lib filename extension. (patchman sends them in both formats). You still need a midi interface between computer and VL70. I used an Edirol, which cost under $50 and is useful for composing or editing music with programs like Cakewalk, etc.

The USB type interface is fastest. Plus of course you need a midi cable to go from the interface to the VL70. If you take your time and do it step by step, hopefully it'll work out.

The VL70 will only let you have 6 Custom voices at a time. In effect, you create an Internal voice. The module comes with internal voices already loaded, so you will be editing, for example, the tenor sax internal voice. All custom voices draw relate to either a preset voice or an internal one so, when you go to play, you'll actually select the custom voice which will now look to the related other resident voice for the guts of the voice.

All this sounds pretty complicated but I could not believe how simple it went in. Depending on your PC operating system, MAc, Windows, or the version of Windows, the System Expert Editor might be a problem, in which case you might have to go to the MIDI fle transfer.


the flute actually has breath sounds built in, as do others such as the Jazz Tenor, even the tuba is unbelievably realistic (to an admitted non-tuba player).

good luck.

[ey up]

Don't get me wrong guys... but,

if you want to play and hear a real sax, then there is just no substitute.

However, if you want to play synths and sampled instruments using your existing playing skills, then the WX5 is for you.

Many of us do not like the "limitations" of the keyboard when playing synths etc; or should I say that wind contollers like the WX5 open up another window on musicality as compared to keyboard.

Of course, if you are happy with the keyboard then that is the way to go.

Right tool, right concept, right place. 8)

[saxmanglen]

Sorry it took me so long to get back. Here's the site with information to set up the controler the first time to get decent results. Reading the book Yamaha provides is confusing at best. This heiped me in getting the dip switches set and helped me to understand the different options.

http://www.nortonmusic.com/wx5.html

[Dr_sax]

I am using a old Yamaha WX 7 for about 10 years now. My synths are a Yamaha VL1m, Oberheim Matrix 1000 , Ensoniq ASR10 and a Clavia Micro modular. I always use them live for all kind of sounds but never to replace the real thing. All the sounds have to be customised to use it with a windcontroller. Here are a few sites a got all my information over the years:
http://www.sky.net/~kennyb/wx7/
http://www.ucs.mun.ca/~andrew/wind/
http://www.ewi-evi.com/
http://members.aol.com/whitfiel/artwind.htm
http://windsynth.org/
http://home.earthlink.net/~jasband/wx7.html
Hope I could help.

[CircularSoul]

Thats the best way to use them

Obviously, noone is claiming that these patches sound or play like the 'real deal', but in a mix, or even live, these can sound musically close to the real thing. If one were to pay attention to the sound, and not the musicality, they'd notice the difference, but if they were actually enjoying the music, it's difficult to distinguish.

I love the combo cause I can play clarinet at a higher level than I can normally, and can play brass now too :-D

[timobrien]

I also have a WX-5 and a VL70m

The standard patches are a bit wonky, but with some tweaking they can really sound good (then again I don't think I've ever heard ANY synth that didn't shine after some tweaking.)

I also use several patches that I downloaded from various places on the web and, after some more tweaking, I think they sound really good. REALLY wish there were more than six measly slots for custom sounds tho...

Patchman just came out with a new chip of basic sounds. Examples are on his website (www.patchmanmusic.com) and it looks like I'll be asking for it come Christmastime....