[Harp-L] MIDI HARMONICA PERFECTED - The LEKHOLM DM48

[Slim Heilpern]

I would just add that you can also get a breath controller that you wear like headphones that will work along side any MIDI keyboard controller. Yamaha used to make one (check EBay) — requires a little unit to translate and merge the output of the breath controller with the MIDI stream (the one I have is by Anatek and called “Wind Machine”, but there are others like it out there, the hard part is probably finding the breath controller itself. 

But, the midi harmonica is a nice simple package and is certainly appealing to those of us who’ve already developed chromatic chops. I find that I play a synth differently with different controllers (I’m specifically thinking of the difference between guitar and keyboard controllers).

And Lekholm Instruments has now posted the manual online:

http://lekholminstruments.com/DM48_Manual.pdf

As I expected, you can set up the sensitivity for both volume (expression or breath continuous controller messages) and bending (pitch bend messages). So you could, for instance, turn off the breath-to-expression output and use a continuous controller pedal for that instead, reserving breath pressure for pitch bend only.

However, for my wish list, I think the addition of a little pitch bend wheel built into the controller would be welcome by most players, also a setting that would toggle the program change button(s?) to pull up different tuning presets ;-). Perhaps for the second generation…

There is an existing feature that sounds interesting to me: it can output each hole through a separate MIDI channel — you could have a different patch for each hole, or use it for some pretty cool stereo or surround effects….

- Slim.

www.SlimAndPenny.com

> On Feb 2, 2017, at 1:29 AM, Lew Aldridge <lewis.aldridge at xxxxx> wrote:
> 
> Hi All
> 
> Interesting development and good discussion.  I'd love to have one but at this stage of development it's far too expensive for me.  While I used Midi keyboards for a number of years I agree that to obtain the expertise to get anywhere the dynamics of a wind instrument takes a lot of practising.  However, there is another option, that is, to use the windcontrollers made by Akai and more recently Roland.  I have no experience of the Roland but have used an Akai EWI 4000 for a couple of years.  Yamaha also produce a controller but it seems to be very much aimed at players who want playing to be as near to a sax/clarinet etc as possible.
> ...