So, basically, just by removing the left index finger you would go to the upper octave? It sounds good.

I guess you'll have to wait until the 1.1.0 release to determine whether the shake vibrato is OK for you or not (or mail us at contact@aodyo.com to be part of the beta program and we'll send a beta quickly).
If it's not OK we could try your proposed solution for vibrato, but it'd be specific to the Celtic fingering, so a bit more complicated for us to put together and explain in our documentation materials.
If I understand correctly, you'd like to perform a vibrato by repeatedly tapping the right pinky key (K8), with a fixed drop in pitch (around 10%), am I correct?

You can already order additional mouthpieces at our retailers (e.g., at Thomann), but you're right that there should be another approach when our active mouthpiece is available, else it'll be way too expensive :).

It's too soon to give you details on our solution to this problem for the active mouthpiece, but the idea of 3D printing a cover at home is interesting.

In fact 3D printing an entire (passive) mouthpiece is also quite interesting because you can experiment with different shapes, but I guess it's a bit more complicated, as the design must prevent leakage inside the instrument (you can see ours has a gasket). I'm really not an expert on this, but @doul might be able to correct me and offer you more insight on these issues.

A nice vibrato will land in version 1.1.0 in a few weeks. You'll be able to control both timing and amplitude with this, just by very slightly shaking your Sylphyo away and back towards the mouth. We thoroughly enjoy it and it really adds expression to even the simplest sounds. We'll post a video soon to show it in action.

For the extended celtic fingering, could you please explain a bit more what kind of enhancement you'd like to make on it?

You can use our notation to describe fingerings: for instance, XoooOoooO is the fingering where I only press the octave key, and all other keys are non-pressed (we use x for a pressed key, and o for a non-pressed key).
It'll make things clearer for everyone, and it's the exact notation we use to generate the code for the fingerings, so it's quicker for us to integrate your proposal.

The order of keys is:

• whether any octave key (K0) is pressed (X) or not (O);
• whether the left index key (K1) is pressed (x) or not (o);
• whether the left middle key (K2) is pressed (x) or not (o);
• whether the left ring key (K3) is pressed (x) or not (o);
• whether the left pinky key (K4; the one a bit to the left) is pressed (X) or not (O);
• whether the right index key (K5) is pressed (x) or not (o);
• whether the right middle key (K6) is pressed (x) or not (o);
• whether the right ring key (K7) is pressed (x) or not (o);
• whether the right pinky key (K8; the one a bit to the right) is pressed (X) or not (O).

À propos du Sylphyo et des tablettes Windows, on en parle aussi dans un autre sujet (en anglais, par contre) où ont été testées une tablette comparable à la Surface Pro et une tablette à 100€. Vous pourrez y trouver quelques conseils sur la meilleure façon de paramétrer vos logiciels.

Envoyez bien votre vidéo et votre configuration (ainsi que vos remarques ultérieures) directement par mail à support@aodyo.com : nous y serons plus à l'aise pour discuter que sur un forum public.

Pour votre problème, le fait qu'il puisse aussi arriver sur un EWI me fait dire que la technologie capacitive a peut-être du mal avec vos doigts (on cherche des gens comme vous pour améliorer nos capteurs :)). Veuillez essayer la version 1.0.2 du logiciel interne du Sylphyo qui devrait améliorer la détection des doigts de certaines personnes au niveau des touches de jeu.

Nous serions intéressés d'en savoir plus au niveau des autres problèmes que vous décrivez (touches d'octave), mais là encore je pense qu'il serait plus approprié de passer par support@aodyo.com. On attend votre mail !

C'est un problème dont nous n'avons jamais entendu parler, mais je ne suis pas sûr de comprendre exactement de quoi il s'agit…

Pouvez-vous SVP nous envoyer une vidéo du phénomène (s'il est facilement reproductible) par mail à support@aodyo.com, ainsi que la version du logiciel interne et votre numéro de série ?

I don't know of any video that clearly shows someone using a Samplemoding VSTi with slider-controlled manual vibrato. I suggest you wait for the next software release and the batch of videos that'll accompany it to see if it can suit your needs.

For now, people make do with a CC-controlled automatic vibrato, or with completely manual vibrato (which can be difficult to do quickly with our recommended approach due to the different muscle groups used depending on the fingering), but we're committed to design the best solution we can.

The next minor release (1.1.0) will include a usable way to easily control vibrato. The shake-vibrato gesture won't look ridiculous because it's subtle, nevertheless it seems to visually communicate musical intent quite well (e.g., shaky gestures that lead to a shaky sound). There'll also be a slider-controlled vibrato with a EWI-like behavior, but I personally think it's better to use the slider for other things (bends and modulation).

We didn't include a bite sensor because we wanted to nail the breath sensor first, but we designed the Sylphyo so that the mouthpiece can be changed, and eventually replaced with one that includes sensors (it'll work with all existing Sylphyos). We're trying some alternatives to the bite sensor that'll even be able to provide other dimensions of control (e.g. vocoder-style filtering related to your vocal tract) that can bring life to novel uses. But it's a work-in-progress and we're already busy updating the Sylphyo and developing the synth module for the next few months.

You guessed right, we're doing it incrementally, with the combined feedback and expertise of all our users and testers, and although for some people the Sylphyo isn't quite there yet, we really think it's the right approach in the long run.

There are no separate plates like in the EWI, just the single large touch-sensitive surface we call the slider (which can be separated into three parts, the top edge, the middle, and the bottom edge, depending on where you start touching it ; once you start touching an area you have control over the whole slider area).
As you noted, the thumb is usually resting under the thumbrest, so it's easier to control bends from the top, but there are many ways to pitch-bend on the Sylphyo.

What we recommend in the user guide is this: use the top part of the slider to bend downwards, and use key-bends (slightly move the bottommost finger that touches the keys away from the key) to bend upwards. Having a separate way of bending for each direction looks tedious, but it's really easy to get used to it, and I find it nicer than the EWI because it is less demanding on the posture.

But the mouthpiece on the Sylphyo is passive, so you can't bite it to do vibratos like in the EWI. However, we're currently beta-testing the next release of the internal software, which will allow you to control vibratos by slightly shaking your Sylphyo away from the mouth. We're adjusting the sensitivity and response so that it's really nice to perform in any situation.

To come back to the pitch-bend topic, there are other ways to control it with the slider (if you choose to do so): for instance, you can start anywhere on the slider and rock your thumb downwards or upwards to bend.

Yes, if someone could pitch in, we'd also like to have some feedback in order to improve the fingering in future versions.

The main differences I see from the way Patchman explains the EVI fingering are:

• The 1st trill key (+2) is at the bottom of the right hand, not at the top like in the EWI
• There is no 3rd trill key (+4). How often do you use it?

On another topic on EVI-style fingerings you'll find a link to the exact mappings we use.

Basically, your left hand replaces the things you would have done with a trumpet embouchure, and your right hand controls what would be the valves.
In the base position, you only hold keys 2 and 3, those below your left middle finger and your left ring finger, and this plays a C.

On the left hand, you can go down by 5 half-tones (add the left index finger). Meanwhile, your left thumb selects the current octave (a specific mode with reversed direction will soon be available). In addition, like with the EWI, you can go up by 1 half-tone (remove the left middle or ring finger, or add the left pinky finger) at most.
On the right hand, you can use the index, middle, and ring finger like you would on the valves of a trumpet (to go down 1 tone, 1/2 tone, and 1+1/2 tone, respectively). In addition, putting the right pinky finger adds 2 half-tones (like the 1st trill on the EWI).

To sum it up, from the base position (press only the left middle and ring finger keys), pressing or releasing other keys will add or subtract a certain amount of half-tones from the C pitch:

Left Hand (embouchure)

• Press Key 1 (left index finger): -5
• Release Key 2 (left middle finger) or Key 3 (left ring finger), or Press Key 4 (left pinky): +1 (non-cumulative)

Right Hand (valves)

• Press Key 5 (right index finger): -2 (valve 1)
• Press Key 6 (right middle finger): -1 (valve 2)
• Press Key 7 (right ring finger): -3 (valve 3)
• Press Key 8 (right pinky): +2

We'll try to quickly release some more polished documentation about it.

In the future we'd also like to make a tutorial video on this, but we're not good enough with this fingering to make a convincing demo :).