New prototype!!
I finished another POC prototype. This time I upgraded a 1927 Lyon & Healy C-melody sax.
The cables are smaller, the octave system works better and I chose to omit the breathsensor completely.
This may seem an odd choice at first, even a step backwards, but I’m trying to make this thing as expressive as possible.
So what’s this about?
Well, if you control the ‘breath’ with an expression pedal, it’s a bit less precise for sure, but you can control the synth separately from what you are doing on the actual mouthpiece. This makes it actually more expressive than doubling breath from the mouthpiece.
Another practical thing is setup time when on the road.
Installing the pickup, connecting the preamp, splitting the signal… A lot of cables to deal with and all this before playing a gig is less inviting than just grabbing the sax, connecting the pedal and off you go! Sweet.
But hey, I’m not done yet. I will make a version with both piezo and breath controller options, but for now I will concentrate a bit more on some extra features.
Since the sax is a true MIDI controller now, I can map different sax keys to different functions.
I’m thinking about incorporating some Mortal Combat-like combos with the sax keys to unlock different functions.
Sending MIDI Program Changes from the sax with these specific fingerings as well as activating chords and polyphonic playing are on the to do list.
Still some work ahead, but I’m pretty excited this is starting to work really well!! To be continued…