Bb bis key please?
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I’m sure we all have many differences of opinion on what the perfect wind controller should be but why at the very least is there no Bb bis key on the sylphyo? Can we have this upgrade please R and D dept? I’m genuinely curious as to why this key was not implemented?
Thanks -
Hi Pedro
You got me confused: Bb bis key ?
What fingering have you chosen in setup ?
I have chosen EWI fingering with pinky raises half tone, gives me several options for raising the A to Bb : Left pinky from A , Right F and E from A
for a sax player thos come natural.Kind regards
Frank
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@frank
Hi, it’s the small key between the b and a keys on a sax. Did you say your a sax player? Do you play jazz? Holding the b key and bis key together produces a default Bb with the left hand first finger.
It’s pretty common in sax technique.
Cheers -
@pedro1690
Hi PedroI get what you mean: never knew it was a bis key.
I replaced it with a A + F A Fis and A + left pinky B right tumb down key.
I regard the Sylphyo as a new instrument (group) which needs exercise (a lot) to get fluent. Not a quick sax alternative.My musical background has its roots in jazz. But i am not a the more notes the better in a beat player. The shape of the tone is very important.
One of the tone generators i use is Respiro.For fun we also play kind of EDM. Stems for the boring monotonous parts, with real players for the music. No rehearsals Play. Straight uninterrupted 1/2 hour sets. Dance till you die.
kind regards
Frank -
@frank
All good frank. The sylphyo is innovative, great and in no way a sax replacement but the inclusion of the bis key would have made a lot of sense. If certain players don’t need it then that’s fine they don’t need to use it but it’s exclusion must confound many advanced saxophonists in. I’m genuinely interested in the reasoning behind it’s exclusion.
All the best and keep on playing
Pete -
@pedro1690 True...so very pure and true. Well...instead of relentlessly lamenting the overly-obviously shortcomings of the initial Sylphyo key setup. I have been practicing and looking for the instrument strengths, of which there are many. I have an early release Sylpho that was subsequently improved with hardware sounds in later releases, so I know that Aodyo is aware and listening to the needs of performers. I am not angry that I purchased an early iteration. However, before I upgrade, like many others, I am waiting for the keys to be upgraded too. This way I can perform with it live, instead of using the increasingly useful Roland AE-10. If no keyboard update comes soon, perhaps, I will purchase the AE-05 and benefit from its built-in wireless Bluetooth MIDI and modern keyboard options, or wait for a built-in wireless MIDI EWI release.
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@ErikOnSax
I agree and i like the sylphyo a lot. It just wouldn’t have been that difficult to add the Bb bis key and I’m confused as to why it was omitted. I could make other suggestions but that the bis key is a huge omission.
All the best -
@pedro1690 said in Bb bis key please?:
It just wouldn’t have been that difficult to add the Bb bis key and I’m confused as to why it was omitted. I could make other suggestions but that the bis key is a huge omission.
I think one part of the answer to why it was omitted, if not the entire answer, might be this: although it's a big deal (okay, huge deal!) to you, Sylphyo is trying to serve two fairly varied markets: people who currently play wind instruments, and people who play or compose with electronic instruments. The first category includes sax, clarinet, flute, and all the rest, and the second includes software instruments, hardware synths, and DAWs. While there are some shared needs (fingering! breath!), almost everything else varies. Someone using the Sylphyo exclusively to play SWAM saxophones will have different wishes than someone using it to play a dozen Eurorack modules.
So, it's a huge deal to a fraction (people who love the Bis key) of a fraction (sax players) of a fraction (wind players) of Sylphyo's target market :-) Everyone is going to have a "pet feature" they'd change. For me, it's the slider. It's physically impossible for me to reach the bottom 1/3 of the slider without lifting at least one other finger on my right hand and almost impossible without lifting two. If it implemented everyone's pet features, instead of being a good or great fit for almost all playing needs and players, it would be a poor fit for some. In this case, any additional button would complicate fingering for other styles and make a fairly crowded/dense device even more crowded.
With the Sylphyo, I think its giant advantage is that it has so many ways to finger, and to express/control, that one can come up with great ways to accomplish anything. They may not be exactly what one would do with a different device, though.
As a product designer myself, I think the most compelling suggestions/changes to the Sylphyo would probably (a) apply to almost all situations and players (including people who have never touched a sax and have no idea what a Bis key is, and people who have never touched a synth and have no idea how MIDI works), and (b) not make it materially worse (steeper learning curve, less expressive, harder to manufacture, etc.) for any of the use cases I listed above. That's a high bar.
I'm probably at most 50% correct here, so please consider this food for thought :-)
Happy playing,
Troy
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@troy
Scuse delay. I’ll try answer your points. Perhaps separately. So the product is aimed at many different markets and users but if sax players are in the mix then why not just add a bis key? It doesn’t have to be used by a daw user or a recorder player but it’s difficult to undress that sax players were considered highly with this bis key omission. Ta -
@troy
The bis key is small and offset and could be de activated so it shouldn’t complicate anything. I like sylphyo a lot. My first reason for asking about the bus key was one of genuine curiosity. I thought i might get an answer from the developers.
Ta -
@pedro1690 i agree 100%
