Seems like the Robkoo R1, which I first heard about back in July, is now accepting preorders. Not a bad price point. Will be interesting to see this out and about.

Pretty good intro video here

I really love this. For years, there were basically two choices for Wind Controllers. Either ones from Akai or Yamaha. Then Roland entered the space, then controllers like the NuRAD. Now, another contestant has entered the arena….the Robkoo Wind Synthesizer.

It has some very interesting design choices, including a horizontal orientation. Like….that’s cool. All kinds of interesting features. No price that I can find.

Not a lot of videos either. But it looks interesting though. Love that more of these are getting made.

There is a plethora of wireless guitar transmitters out there for Guitar that will work with your EWI (Aerophone or Akai). I have two, the Lekato 5.8ghz ones, and the NUX B-5RC (2.4ghz).

The Lekato is currently about $50 on Amazon. It works really well…..except…..when it doesn’t. Let me explain. I’ve used it a couple of times on gigs (*gasp* during COVID?!?!) and it’s solid. No interference. Good sound. Except it interferes with my iPad. We use a wireless mixer, and the iPad was having major issues connecting to the Mixer, which is sorta important when you switch to the EWI and want to boost the sound a little either in my in-ear mix, or in the mains. We generally keep the mixer only on 5ghz cause…….science. There are more frequencies available in 5ghz, and less interference. Anyhow, so when I was about 3 feet or closer to the iPad, it would start having issues being connected to the band’s mixer. Deal breaker? Sorta…….I mean, now I know what was happening, it’s pretty easy to not be really by the iPad. But it is rather annoying. The Lekato though NEVER lost it’s connection. It was just the iPad.

The NUX is really solid. It also comes with a great case that also functions as a recharging case as well (a la Airpods). These function on the 2.4ghz band, but NUX has done some spectrum filtering to sort of have it’s stuff “sit” in parts of the band where wifi doesn’t sit. It’s also rock solid. Should be for 3 times the price.

Which one would I recommend? Both. I think it’s wise, when you are going into the wireless stuff, to have options. Unless you want to plunk out a lot of $$$ on a Shure system (currently about $299). With the Shure system though, you’d need to PLUG IN the receiver to power. Both the NUX and the Lekato are battery powered. You just simply come to the gig, plug into the sound system, and you are set for hours.

Having TWO different transmitters/receivers in your bag, it allows you to have options. And BOTH of them are battery powered. The big downside with the Shure system is that it requires you to take a fairly big (1/2 rack size box) with you and it’s AC adapter. The NUX and the Lekato would fix fine in your AE-30 case (with the stand I reviewed earlier) or whatever case you have for your Akai. Having both also lets you trouble shoot interference issues.

If you are looking to get into wireless, you can’t go wrong with the NUX or the Lekato.

I’d love to be able to abandon the original patch editor for the EWI400s (It’s so buggy and requires using an old computer stored in my basement!) But I’m having no luck. I am running it on a Mac OSX. There are never any “Core4Midi4J” prefixed ports so I can’t communicate with my EWI. Any ideas?

Excerpt from Help page.
“The next thing to do is to choose the MIDI ports you are going to use to connect to the EWI; go to the EWI menu and select MIDI Connections – that should be self-explanatory, but if you are on OS X you must choose the Core4Midi4J prefixed ports – using any others will prevent EWItool from communicating with your EWI.”

While I totally think this stand is the best stand you can currently get for EWIs, I somehow missed a post from Bret Pimentel in 2017 where he made a “home made stand”, which would screw into something like a Hercules stand, or whatever stand you have. Or maybe I did try making one? I don’t remember (nor have any fruits of me attempting to make one), so this might be an option for people. It’s not nearly as portable as my afore mentioned stand though (it fits in my Aerophone and Akai EWI cases).