A Modern Sylphyo Keyboard is Required - The Omega Has All The Keys
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Please release a Sylphyo with all the key options. I notice the Omega has all keys available, which immediately create familiarity and capability for expected keyboard-like modern passages. Recorder fingerings don’t cut it anymore. I would use the Sylphyo FAR more often, including professionally, if it could play rapid modern passages cleanly. We need side keys and right hand keys for the pinky fingers. There are simply not enough present on the first iteration of Sylphyo. This is my honest opinion after a couple of years of usage. The expression (morphing, vibrato, etc.) is possible, but not the expected woodwind-like facility for nimble, smooth fingerings for people expecting a Boehm-like set of keys. I love both of my Sylphyos (at home), but they have physical-design limitations that cannot be ignored.
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@ErikOnSax You seem to want moving mechanical keys like a Yamaha WX5? Is that correct?
Are you asking for a saxophone-type Sylphyo or flute-type Sylphyo?
You mention the Omega. Does this new design of Sylphyo need to be polyphonic? -
@ErikOnSax
Hi Ericyour comparison amazes me. and when i thing of it, the Sylphyo has more notes than the Omega. True imitating a real wind instrument has it limitations, but than as a musician you choose the settings with fits you, and practise you get fluent.
I come from the sax family, concerning keys, quickly realised that copying sax settings is funny, there are no acoustic constraints, changed te settings so half note up or down with pinky is efficient, and fast.
Yes needs some practise, but we practise anyhow. And doubling on a akoustic instrument needs the same, we are used to that.
but comparing a wind family instrument to a key ?? why not than the Fokker organ keyboard of the Osmose?
regards
Frank
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Hello,
I only made very obvious comments. I play two different Sylphyos on most days. The shortcomings of not having expected key functionality is always disappointing. The quality and immediacy of most the sounds has the opposite effect. My frustration is the comparison between what should be vs what is available. For example, the decision to remove the most usable Phi sound was removed (DudukPhi) during software updates was very disappointing, as was the decision to leave AltoSaxPhi and FlutePhi. It seemed that production decisions were being made that were either insensitive to modern musicality, or from a hard financial course that could not improve on the obvious shortcomings. Then I saw the Omega and realized that any keyboard player could immediately relate and connect with performing with one. This is what the Sylphyos are missing. It is the odd dog owner versus the main stream dog owner metaphor. If you choose to own an unpopular dog breed, yes the dog can love you, play fetch, hang out, etc. But you will miss out on all the specialty gear available for the Labs, Shepherds, Poodles, etc. Hats, T-shirts, Bumper Stickers, Buttons, etc. An instrument is more than the sounds it makes. The missing (pinky and Bis) keys on the Sylphyos force it to the niche end of wind synths. No, I have never proposed moving hardware keys (my Lyricon I and Aerophone Pro both have those), just distinct places to place fingers that any band member can relate to. In fact, I love the EWI-like silence of the Sylphyo key layout. It works particularly well at church and at night beside a sleeping baby (it needs more available LH keys (like Bis) and notes RH at the bottom end though, for example, not ending at at least low Bb is a truly surprising and restrictive choice). This is not new or unusual thinking. We aren't talking about practicing Sylphyo for the sake of improving Sylphyo performance, but rather pulling Sylphyo toward the center to increase the user base and bring it out of the niche market into the mainstream. The Omega design shows that someone at Aodyo gets that, or else it could have been released with a chicklet keyboard with great sounds and advertising would notify potential buyers, hey, just practice and hope for the best. Sorry if you intended to jam out on Spain or Donna Lee, but you need a real keyboard for that. Imagine if the Omega had only a single octave of keys available. This would be a non-starter. However, considering that keyboard players can simply Midi connect to an 88-key controller, their situation is less critical. Controlling a Sylphyo from another device is far more complicated due to the reliance on Sylphyo motion to alter the responses of patches. If I could reliably control a Sylphyo externally, with the same unique motion-sensitive responses I would.
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@ErikOnSax I know this is an old thread but I wanted to say that you have perfectly expressed everything that makes me, sadly, not play my sylphyo much.
A bis key, a couple more pinky keys, a sense of a strong community -- these seem like little things compared to the sylphyo's incredible strengths, but they're not little.
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I'm arriving late to the party, and @ErikOnSax you made great points.
The Sylphyo has very much outlived its initial purpose, that of a simple beginner's instrument, whose design, in retrospect, bears witness of our lack of understanding of the market and our own capabilities and sensibilities. Put simply, that was our first product :).
There is nothing we would like more than releasing a proper "Pro" version of the Sylphyo, or at least a huge firmware update, and there are many pieces of R&D already in place, but material reality being what it is, this is a project we cannot afford to tackle right now.
After the Loom and Omega are shipped, sure, but right now, the best we can hope for is to squeeze a few firmware updates here and there. But these updates don't have to be inconsequential, so we're glad we can hear about all the trouble people have with their Sylphyo and what more they want from it.Concerning the keys, you certainly aren't alone in needing more keys to be able to play faster. While we wait for a new Sylphyo, there are some things that can be done.
Two years ago, a few people started to experiment with copper adhesive tape to extend the sensing area of some keys to be a bit more comfortable, and they quickly realized that if the firmware allowed it, they could be able to repurpose octave keys they didn't use on the back to materialize new playing keys on the front. A few mails later, I was informed of the idea and started working on a beta, trying things with my own dev Sylphyo:
The last v1.5.0 includes a Copper Mod beta option to try this if you're using 3 or 3(+2) octaves and you're on the Sax/Sax alt/EWI fingerings: the + key will work as a Bb bis key, and the - key as a low C key, you just need to "reroute" them using copper tape.
Yeah, it's a big ugly hack, it looks atrocious (it could certainly be done much better, I don't care, nobody sees my Sylphyo), but it works and it could be useful to you.Another thing that people do is simply to try and learn Sylphyo-specific fingerings. For instance, in the Sax fingering family there are a few alternatives for Bb (
XxoxOoooO) or high D (XooxOoooO), Eb (XoooOooxO) and E (XooxOooxO) that could help. Others transition to the EWI fingering and develop their own shortcuts.Again, we understand these are stopgap solutions, but they exist today, and if you think of other things we could add today, I'd love to know. The more detail the better.
About the Duduk sound, it wasn't meant to be released because it has a few bugs (squeaks) and it still has them, but we could put it back as it is in an upcoming release.
R&D Engineer at Aodyo / Ingénieur R&D chez Aodyo
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@join said in A Modern Sylphyo Keyboard is Required - The Omega Has All The Keys:
About the Duduk sound, it wasn't meant to be released because it has a few bugs (squeaks) and it still has them, but we could put it back as it is in an upcoming release.
Yes please put it back. We can play with partially broken sounds but cannot play without the sound :-)
