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Roland Aerophone GO (AE-05)

So, I bought an Aerophone AE-05 (it's basically a smaller, lighter AE-10)
It's not bad... it sounds OK, the breath control is easy. The flute and violin sounds are particularly nice.
Also nice is being able to practice quietly without disturbing others.
Price wise it's about half the price of the cheapest Sax I would consider buying. (Doesn't make it cheap, just vaguely competitive)
(Why do I not get a real sax? I don't actually know how to play one, but also I have limited mobility in my left hand, which is why I'm looking for things that might be a little less demanding than a real life (and expensive) Sax)
But I was pretty good at the recorder back in the day, and the skills are readily transferable... after a handful of days I'm getting pretty comfortable with it.
Having hand mobility issues I'm quite excited by the different fingering options... you can play it like a sax, recorder and EWEI, but it also has options to play with only your left hand or your right hand, which seem quite usable) or you could in theory customize your own fingering layout.
The single thing stopping this instrument from being perfect for me is that the octave control keys are just a bit too far over to easily reach with my limited thumb movement... if I could repurpose just about any other button(s) to do octave shifts (or the thumb keys were a bit closer) I would be praising this instrument to the skies... as it is, it is *almost* awesome.
I've also notice the app which you use for fine setting control via bluetooth is just a bit flaky on my android phone... there is supposed to be a usb option which doesn't seem to work on my Samsung S8, and the fingering selection seems to only sometimes work.
(The app has an additional 50 tones, so far I haven't found any which I think is better than the built in sounds, and over bluetooth there is a slight but perceptible lag.
And you can, of course, use it as a midi controller, but I need a better midi mixer to really put it through its paces.
I only have Ableton lite at present, and it attempts to treat all midi input as a keyboard.
But overall, I'm finding it a pretty neat bit of kit.
Has anyone else in the entire world actually got one?
 
Not me, but I'll say that having MIDI and a decent-ish computer opens up a whole world of tonal possibilities. You don't necessarily need Ableton :D. I do know that the AE-05 has breath and bite sensors. I don't know if that data goes through MIDI.

I'd like to try one.
 
Not me, but I'll say that having MIDI and a decent-ish computer opens up a whole world of tonal possibilities. You don't necessarily need Ableton :D. I do know that the AE-05 has breath and bite sensors. I don't know if that data goes through MIDI.

I'd like to try one.
It claims to have all the wind information passed along to the midi port. I haven't actually got a good enough midi editor/don't know enough to drive it to make it any more useful than a midi keyboard
 
It claims to have all the wind information passed along to the midi port.
That's actually quite good.

While I didn't check for breath control, you can get a bunch of free VSTs at https://www.dskmusic.com. Heck, if you Google, "Free VST plugins," you'll get a lot of hits. I also recommend signing up for newsletters/mailing lists at anyplace you like the samples from. Chances are relatively good that you'll get a free sample or three.
 
That's actually quite good.

While I didn't check for breath control, you can get a bunch of free VSTs at https://www.dskmusic.com. Heck, if you Google, "Free VST plugins," you'll get a lot of hits. I also recommend signing up for newsletters/mailing lists at anyplace you like the samples from. Chances are relatively good that you'll get a free sample or three.
Well, now I know what a VST is... thanks for the link!

Yes, I can confirm both breath control and bite control are being passed through as midi.
 
So, side question: If you were looking for a good midi-capable DAW (or just a midi player/editor), what would you just? Free, (or at any rate, free trial) would be nice, but not essential?

PS: The sax VST from DSK sounds pretty alright with the AE-05...
 
Yes, I can confirm both breath control and bite control are being passed through as midi.
Sorry. I wasn't specific enough. "I didn't check to see if all those VSTs support breath or bite control."

I'm sorry to say that I have no real need for a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation), so I haven't looked too much into them. I also have a Mac (dusty and sitting in a corner) so I can use Garage Band for free. I also can and have set up bunches of Linux distros (it's not that hard, anymore) and I could use Tracktion for free. There are a couple different DAWs that are commercial software for Mac/Win, but are free for Linux. However, free software can = no support. Additionally, you might want to confirm that the DAW supports the VSTs you're using. Some of the commercial VSTs can set you back $1K or more.

Many, many years ago, I did use Mark of the Unicorn's (MOTU's) Performer. Yes, long enough ago that it was just called "Performer." At the time, I didn't need vocals or acoustic instruments, so the amount of tweaking I could do in Finale was really good enough, so I never really bothered with any of the more advanced functions.
 
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