Akai ProfessionalEWM1 - Genuine Replacement Mouthpiece for AKAI Professional’s EWI Series

I did quite a bit of research before buying the akai ewi solo and for the price point was the best option out there right now for my requirements (recording).I'm totally new to ANY wind instrument so was a bit of a leap into the dark even though i've used synths and guitars etc for years.. so all new learning but it's not impossible!Things i like about the akai solo1. self contained does NOT require a phone app (phone apps might not get updated in future)2. lots of onboard sounds - 100 realistic and 100 synth patches3. rechargeable battery - no need to but/swap out AA batteries ever like other wind synths.4. decent speaker so without need of headphones for just noodling around5. proper display not just 2 number display6. you can edit everything on the aksi ewi solo if you want to or use the free pc/mac program when connected with usb cable.7. transpose button - makes light work of being able to play stuff not in C even if you only know the key of C regarding the keys on the aksi ewi solo itself.8. it looks Very cool9. fast/instant loading of next patch (ewi 5000 is a bit slow looking at videos in comparison)10. Akai have been making these since 1987.

Before I start I’d like to say I’m an amateur woodwind tooter (musician would be pushing it!) & until I had faffed around with Garritan’s Aria software I knew very, very little about midi/PC music-making so my review if aimed at like-minded folk.The EWI USB instrument is solidly built, but not unexpectedly it feels a little odd when compared to acoustic woodwind instruments. Other than the trickiness of mastering the octave rollers, it is fairly easy to play… that’s once you’ve faffed around with getting Garritan Aria to recognise the EWI USB & produce instrumental sounds as opposed to a weird buzz.Being eager to try out my new acquisition I read only the quick start guide included and not the full manual on the CD – big mistake.The Garritan Aria supplied with the EWI USB is designed to run on Win XP or Vista, but there’s a update for Win 7 on the Garritan website: I have Win 10 on my main PC plus an old netbook running XP. Just to get an idea of what should happen, I installed Aria on my XP netbook, loaded up an instrument file & tried out the on-screen keyboard… all I got was a buzz! Every instrument I tried buzzed. In case you too have this issue it was solved by going into tools > preferences & setting output to ‘Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth (out). I attached the EWI… nothing. Again, this was solved by going into tools > preferences & setting the input to EWI USB (in) & audio device to Microsoft Sound Mapper - output. All was well I repeated the installation process on my Win 10 machine (c/w B&O speakers), ran the update, opened an instrument file, but the software couldn’t find the .audio files & nor could any .audio files be found in the Akai programme folder  Having looked on the c: drive of the XP machine to see how everything was supposed to be installed I decided to copy the folder ‘Samples’, which contained the .audio files & pasted it into the Win 10 installation here: C:\Program Files\Akai\EWI USB. Everything worked using the on-screen keyboard, but not with the EWI. However, setting all the preferences (under Tools) as described above the EWI USB worked beautifully.This all might sound straightforward enough, but as I’m a complete novice at using PCs to make music, it took me quite a while to figure out what was wrong in the tool/prefs settings, etc. I really thought I’d bought a £300 white elephant or paperweight!A few additional points:1. Always make sure you attached the EWI USB before you fire up Aria or else the instrument isn’t recognised.2. Contrary to some of the answers to my query about the EWI USB having an ear/headphone jack for private practise it does not; however, you can use the same jack on the PC to play through ‘phones.3. The supplied neck strap is a little hard & rough so treat yourself to a decent one for more comfort: I have the Neotech 1902162 Saxophone Strap available from Amazon.4. There’s no case – the most suitable is on bassbags.co.uk (designed for the EWI 4000 & 5000, but USB will fit)I am giving 5-stars, but would like to have been able to knock off, say, half a star because of the faffing about with Garritan Aria & the fact that it’s still being supplied to run under Win XP/Vista; surely they could update this at least on their website if not on the CD.All in all, I’m really pleased with the EWI USB& look forward to hours of private tooting.Update: The ‘Clarinet Oboe Soprano Saxophone EWI Electronic Torch Sax Gig Bag’ from Amazon bag turned out to be way too large & it cost me £10-odd to return to the seller :-(Update (14.06.2017): In an effort to reduce the number of cables (USB & wired earphones for quiet practice) trailing from me/the EWI USB to my PC I have paired my EWI USB/HP Pav laptop combo with the ‘All Cart Wireless In-ear Headphones Bluetooth Earphone Sports Stereo Headset’ (£11-odd Amazon UK) and ‘MPOW Wireless Bluetooth 4.1 Transmitter and Receiver with 3.5mm Jack’ (£21). Even though I say so myself this set-up is fantastic – one cable, great sound; happy neighbours, happy tooter :-)Update (06.11.2019): found the perfect case here on Amazon - "1680D Clarinet Bag Case Straight Type Thicken Padded 15mm Foam with Adjustable Shoulder Strap Pocket" - absolutely bang on for length & has pocket for bits & pieces. Great for me one-piece metal clarinet too :-)

This is a nice piece of kit and is much more suitable for my needs than buying a loud acoustic instrument. I use a Mac with OSX Catalina and this was a complete nightmare to set up. The version of the Mac software on the disc with this is too old to use but luckily you can download a Catalina compatible version directly from Akai. The file is 1.2 GB and despite trying with 2 computers on different internet connections it just restarts the download at 1.08GB and never completes. I tried it with my DAW without the software - it worked but the breath sensor wasn't very natural. (I guess it was a sample velocity issue?). I tried a 3rd party app to configure it and that seemed a bit better. Eventually I found that you could download the software from the Akai.jp (Japanese) site. This proved to me that the file on the .com website was corrupt (It looks like it has too many file extensions when you see the name). When the software was installed the instrument really comes to life (even of the sounds aren't the best!). I am planning to try other sound sources with it again next. I don't play any wind instruments but my recollection of playing the recorder at school has given me the basics. I think this is going to be great fun to learn.