Patchman Music Matt's EVI Gig Rig Page 1

Matt's

EVI Gig Rig

Page 1

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Matt's EVI Gig Rig - Page 1

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Since I am always being asked by my wind controller customers what my own rig consists of, I decided to create a page with some quality photos of my live "EVI Gig Rig" along with some notes as to how I came to choosing the components of my rig. I recently put together a "Gig Rig" for my EVI to play out with my group. Money wasn't so much an issue as the size and sound quality. The top criteria were that the rig needed to be small yet uncompromising in the sound and playability. I want to be able to load into a gig in one easy trip. Using a dolly, said is possible with this system. Fortunately, the components I chose are not necessarily the most expensive though some are hard to find. After a lot of thought about every possible permutation, I arrived at my current rig as described here..

As you may know, I have extensive personal experience with wind controllers since I program all the wind controller soundbanks for Patchman Music. My first hand experience programming and using so many sound modules with a wind controller has helped me to focus on what is possible with the current crop of synths with regards to a wind controller. I have learned what works best (for me at least) with a wind controller and what to look for and avoid when deciding on wind controller gear. Hopefully, this page will help you in your quest for your own "Ultimate Wind Controller Gig Rig".

My wind controller of choice is the MIDI EVI (as shown at right). Since I am originally a trumpet player, the EVI feels most comfortable since it uses a fingering system similar to a valved brass instrument. Nyle Steiner makes the MIDI EVI by hand and it is an absolutely wonderful controller to play. You can read all about the Nyle Steiner MIDI EVI here. Learning this instrument, or any other wind controller, takes time. It took me several months to get comfortable enough with the fingering to be able to play it in public. It also takes time to get used to the mouthpiece and other controls on the instrument but the effort is well worth it. Playing a wind controller takes very little embouchure so I can sound great even after several weeks away from the instrument. Try that with a trumpet! Also, a wind controller gives a single instrumentalist the ability to emulate many different instruments. In fact, you can even sound like multiple instruments at once with the proper layered synthesizer patches. Because if this, a wind controller can open up vast possibilites for a musician who is looking to work professionally. Such versatility is a very valuable commodity. Plus, it's just a lot of fun to play!

Please note that the actual wind controller you use isn't terribly critical since most wind controllers transmit basically the same MIDI data. I use the MIDI EVI because it is currently the only choice trumpet and brass players have. (There is also another option for brass players which is soon to be released called the MDH. Details will be forthcoming.) There are several choices available to sax and reed players such as the Yamaha WX5, WX11, WX7, the Akai EWI3020, and the Softwind Synthophone. Patchman Music also sells lots of used wind controllers and wind controller related synths and gear on the Patchman Music Used Gear Page.

Below is a front shot of my rig. This rack consists of the following components: An Alesis QSR loaded with the Patchman Music QSR Volume 1 wind controller soundbank and two 8 meg Pretec Flash RAM cards, a Yamaha VL70-m Physical Modeling Sound Module with the Patchman Music VL70-m Soundbanks, a Boss MX-10 Ten Channel Stereo Mixer, a Boss SE-70 Super Effects Processor, and a Boss EH-50 Stereo Enhancer. Wired in the back is also a Midi Solutions Router. Below are the details on each component. Please note that the synthesizer you use and the patches loaded in the synth are really 50% of the rig. It is VITAL that you choose a synth that is capable of responding properly and quickly to the MIDI data a wind controller transmits. Some synths simply cannot be made to work well with a wind controller due to limitations in their internal patch programming capabilites and synthesis structures. Fortunately, a large library of professional commercial soundbanks is available from Patchman Music. Click here for a list of synthesizers that is supported by Patchman Music quality wind controller patch soundbanks.

Alesis QSR Sample Playback Sound Module

The Alesis is great for several reasons. It is small- only 1 rack space. It has a great legato mode which almost no other sample playback type synth has. When programmed to play in legato, it does not retrigger the entire sample. Instead, it starts legato (slurred) notes at the sample loop point. This method works great with a wind controller. Some modules always start legato notes at the sample start point which sounds like you are tonguing each note even when you are not. Other modules smoothly stretch a sample for legato notes. But this has the problem of sounding un-natural while playing long legato melodies due to over-stretching and "munchkinization". Plus this "super-stretch method" can cause very unrealistic sound if a fingering glitch accidentally sneaks in and "super-transposes" a sample many octaves. And fingering glitches are very commonplace with every wind controller. So I have concluded that the "retrigger at the loop point" method of legato is the best. By the way, another unit that is capable of this preferred form of legato is the Kurzweil K2000/2500/2600/R series. These are superb samplers/synths and I love my K2500, but they are too bulky for my needs with this rig. In the size needed for just one K2500R I managed to fit so much more that gave me much greater versatility.

It turns out that just about all the Alesis synths use the "retrigger at the loop point" method of legato so the older single rack space Alesis S4+ is also an excellent option. In fact in some ways it may be better than the QSR. The S4+ has 4 knobs which can be programmed to do a lot of different things. Also the S4+ has a different sample ROM and some of the wind instrument samples are perhaps better. This isn't a big deal since you can use custom samples off the Flash RAM card. Of course, this is very subjective. You can compare the QSR and S4+ at the Patchman Music site. Listen to the Patchman Music QSR wind controller soundbank demo here. Listen to the Patchman Music S4+ wind controller soundbank demo here. The DISadvantage of the older S4+ module is that it has only one card slot, has no headphone jack on the front, and it cannot play back Standard Midifiles which is a big minus if you have a VL70-m. Read on...

My QSR has two 8 meg Pretec Flash RAM cards. (Specifically these are Linear Flash memory cards FAD008-P "8MB AMD Series D Flash" from www.pretec.com) These cards each can hold up to 8 megs of data. The data can be samples (in SampleCell format), Program banks, and Standard Midifiles. Details on these cards can be found here. Data is loaded onto them via the free Alesis Soundbridge software. I loaded the 2 Patchman Music VL70-m soundbanks (in the form of 20 Standard Midifiles) onto one of the cards. The cards are non-volatile- they have no back-up battery to go dead on you in the middle of the gig. I expect they will prove to be reliable. So far they have. And since they can store everything, you could travel light. Just take your card with you and plug it into any QSR.

Also, the Alesis is one of the few synths that can have each element in a single patch set to either mono or poly independently of each other! This is great for adding note to note transients such as pad or valve clicks that re-attack for each note while the main sound plays smoothly in mono legato. Or you might add a non-transposing picking click or body resonance to a guitar sound for added realism. Being able to add these little quirky noises and resonances in the Alesis patches allows a form of "physical modeling sample playback" if you will.

Yamaha VL70-m Physical Modeling Sound Module

There is nothing like playing a VL Physical Modeling synth with quality patches with a wind controller. The VL is just a monophonic module (more precisely, stereo but with one note of polyphony), but when layered with the QSR it adds a great deal of reality to the sound. Of course it sounds great solo as well. The big limitation with the VL70-m is its small Custom bank size- just 6 Voices. But I overcome this by utilizing the QSR's Midifile playback function to quickly load sets of 6 Custom Voices into the VL70-m without the need for an external data filer. Great for live gigs! You could also use the Midifile playback to play sequences within the QSR and jam over them on the VL70-m. Of course I use the Patchman Music VL70-m soundbanks in my VL70-m. MP3 demos and complete info on the Patchman Music VL70-m wind controller soundbanks is available here.

Since this writing, Patchman Music has developed the incredible TURBO VL upgrade chip for the VL70-m. Check it out here!!

Boss MX-10 10 Channel Mixer

The Boss MX-10 is the smallest rack mount mixer I know of. Unfortunately it is no longer in production and is quite hard to find. It handles 10 inputs (4 stereo line inputs, and 2 mono line or Mic inputs). It has an effects send which is wired to feed the Boss SE-70. I use one of the Mic inputs to plug my AKG C419 Clip On Trumpet Mic into. Then I can use the SE-70 for acoustic trumpet and flugelhorn as well. The output of the MX-10 goes directly into the Boss EH-50.

Boss SE-70 Super Effects Processor

The Boss SE-70 is an amazing device. Aside from great sounding reverbs, delays, etc..., it has several effects that are not commonly found on other effects processors. It has 2 vocoders, a guitar synth, bass synth, (these synths can track any mono acoustic instrument complete with a dynamic enveloped filter and amp envelope!), a tuner, a 60 cycle hum remover, a vocal remover, TRUE stereo reverbs (stereo in and out), great sounding distortions and pitch shifters, a 20(!) tap delay, 16 stage chorus, 40 stage phaser, a sampler, and on and on. It can chain a large amount of effects for massive processing. It can respond to MIDI controllers and up to 3 pedals. It's a pretty cool device. It is capable of doing all sorts of things to your sounds. The guitar and bass synths algorithms can be used with the acoustic trumpet or flugelhorn as pitch-tracking synthesizers! That's right, this thing will track your horn and synthesize it (internally only- it doesn't do pitch to MIDI conversion). It sounds great!

Boss EH-50 Stereo Enhancer

The Boss EH-50 Stereo Enhancer adds that extra sizzle to your sound without resorting to strident, ear-fatiguing eq. It responds dynamically to the audio signal. I don't use an EQ. I prefer the enhancer over EQ because it kicks in dynamically whereas an EQ is "in" fully all the time which can get tiring on the old lobes after a while. It's interesting that after working with it on for a while how dull everything sounds when you bypass it. In a way, with wind controllers, a dynamic enhancer is very similar in function to what is happening in the wind controller patches anyway. That is, the louder you play the brighter the sound. It's pretty natural and it's just adding to what is already supposed to happen with an acoustic horn anyway. The combination of the two (quality wind controller patches and the EH-50) just gives that extra dynamic punch. BTW, The Boss EH-50 is the only half rack enhancer I know of. Yes BBE makes the small unit but it isn't totally rack friendly and Alesis makes the 1/3 rack-sized Micro Enhancer which also works very well.

Anvil 3 Space "Forge II" Rack

A super heavy duty 3 space rack case. This one is about as small as you can get for 3 rack spaces yet it is built like a tank.

On-Stage Stands Rack Stand Model OSS RS7000B

This is my solution to getting the rack up high enough for easy access while playing. I believe this stand was designed for holding a small guitar amp. But I turned the two rails 180 degrees and use it as a rack stand. It's a great way to go. Since I can easily get to the rack without having to stoop down, I am eliminating the need to have a foot controller. A foot controller is still an option, but for the sake of size, I am trying to live without one for the time being.

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