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Akai Professional EWI Solo Standalone EWI with Built in Speaker Demo

Electronic Wind Instrument/MIDI Controller with 200 Onboard Sounds and Built-in Speaker
11 Write review Item ID: EWISolod1

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EWI Anywhere

The Akai Professional EWI Solo builds upon the legacy of Akai Professional’s original Electronic Wind Instrument to give today’s wind players the ultimate in musical freedom. The latest entry in Akai Professional’s EWI series of dynamic performance wind instruments, the EWI Solo ups the ante with a built-in speaker that lets you express yourself anywhere. Onboard is a meticulously curated library of 200 premium onboard sounds that ranges from sumptuous evolving synth pads to a stunningly lifelike jazz clarinet. The EWI Solo is a standalone instrument, but it also features USB-MIDI for controlling your favorite music software or MIDI hardware. Experience the next generation in wind performance technology with an instrument designed expressly for the modern player: the Akai Professional EWI Solo.

Related Videos: EWI Solo Standalone EWI with Built in Speaker

Liberate your performances

Electronic musicians at Sweetwater know that being tethered is no fun when you’re performing. With the Akai Professional EWI Solo, you’re liberated from cable bondage. If you’ve got the stamina to play for 12+ hours, the EWI Solo’s internal rechargeable lithium-ion battery and built-in speaker will track you note-for-note. The speaker is tuned for natural-sounding reproduction of the onboard sounds, and the EWI Solo is ready to rock, whenever and wherever inspiration strikes.

Sculpt your signature sounds

For precisely controlling volume and pitch dynamics, the EWI Solo features an ultra-responsive mouthpiece with an air pressure level and a bite sensor to control your volume and pitch dynamics for natural, expressive performances. Add professional polish to your signature sounds with studio-grade Reverb, Delay, and Chorus effects and fine-tune your performances with editing functions for Pitch, Tuning, and Dual LFOs.

Multiple fingering modes for woodwind and brass players

The EWI Solo extends the performance potential of woodwind and brass players alike. With support for flute, oboe, and saxophone fingering modes, there is nothing new to learn. Especially for brass players, an EVI (Electronic Valve Instrument) mode is also included. Whether you’re a classically trained flutist desiring a modern instrument, or an experienced EWI player seeking the freedom of a self-contained instrument, the EWI Solo has you covered!

Akai Professional EWI Solo Standalone EWI with Built-in Speaker Features:

  • 200 onboard premium acoustic and synth sounds
  • 12+ hours of play time via rechargeable internal lithium-ion battery (charging adapter
  • included)
  • Built-in Speaker tuned for natural sound reproduction
  • Studio-grade Reverb, Delay, and Chorus effects
  • Editing functions for Pitch, Tuning, and Dual LFOs
  • OLED display lets you easily view presets and parameters
  • USB port for USB-MIDI connection and battery recharging
  • 1/4-inch audio output, 3.5mm headphone output, 3.5mm aux input

What is Demo Gear?

At Sweetwater, we're so picky that what we call a "demo" is actually better than what most music retailers sell as "new" gear! Our gear hasn't endured hundreds of people a week plunking away at all the keyboards, fumbling through Stairway to Heaven on every guitar or playing with every fader and knob on a mixer or control surface.

What demo means to us is that we've had it out of the box, or maybe it was in a customer's hands for a few days and isn't "factory fresh" as a result. Every demo item we sell has Sweetwater's 2-year Total Confidence Coverage™ warranty, and has been tested and verified up to "new" specs by our factory-authorized technicians to make sure it's in perfect working order before we ship it to you.

When you buy a Demo item at Sweetwater, you get:
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Tech Specs

  • Type: MIDI Wind Controller
  • Type of Keys: Synth
  • Other Controllers: Octave Rollers (6 mobile, 2 fixed)
  • Presets: 200 factory
  • Effects Types: Reverb, Delay, Chorus
  • Inputs: 1 x 1/8" TRS (aux)
  • Outputs: 1 x 1/4" TRS (line), 1 x 1/4" TRS (headphones)
  • MIDI I/O: USB
  • USB: 1 x Type B
  • Power Supply: Rechargeable Lithium-ion Battery (charges via USB bus power)
  • Height: 30.12"
  • Width: 3.00"
  • Depth: 3.24"
  • Weight: 1.79 lbs.
  • Manufacturer Part Number: EWISOLOXUS

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Customer Reviews

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A great instrument! (AkaiPro EWI Solo)

I love playing this instrument. So many nice improvements!
by Sweetwater Customer on

It’s Amazing !

Still just grazing the surface, but it's amazing ! My band is thrilled with the level of expansion of our instrumentation ! Bravo to AKAI and Bravo to Sweetwater ! Your Sales Engineer was brilliant ! Thanks again !
by Paul Frederick from Central New Jersey on
Music background: 56 years playing music

Akai EWI Solo - USER FRIENDLY!!

I have been playing various wind controllers for 20-plus years. The past several years, I have exclusively played Akai Ewi; 4000 S and 5000. My go-to for gigs is the 4000 S … until now.! As much as I love the 4000 S, I have to say that the Solo is a great performance instrument. It is very user friendly, the voices are really quite good, (I only use the woodwind and brass voices). You don't have to be a computer programmer to use the great potential of this instrument. I have one small criticism: I wish the onboard speaker could be louder. That said, this is a 5-star product for beginners and pros!
by John Danis from New York on
Music background: Music college graduate, 33 years teaching instrumental music, 50-plus years performing.

I LOVE THIS THING

I have been playing wind controllers for 25 years. I have used AKAI 5000 and 4000S since 2015. When I saw this AKAI EWI Solo, I had to try it out. I have had it in my hands for a week. This instrument is already making smile every time I play it. It is simple to configure and set up. I use EWIs as my main instrument when I play gigs and I play mostly jazz standards, so I prefer wind instrument voices - saxes, brass. The voices on this instrument have exceptionally good sound for being synthesized voices. The set up options really make changing instruments mud-song really quick and simpleThe EWI Solo is already on its way to being in my regular lineup for gigs and practice. It definitely needs amplification in any room larger than a bedroom, ( I use a Bose Solo-1 - it is a perfect companion for the EWI Solo).
by John on
Music background: Music Teacher - 33 years, Professional musician over50 years

An endless rabbit hole of sonic possibilities

Alright, full disclosure, this is the first instrument I have ever truly set out to learn. I could not have chosen better. I've had it for 3 months now and it seems that whenever I feel I've really got something down, I find a new way to play with it and change my sound. The built in speaker is great for practicing or even playing in a small setting. The fact that I can plug in my headphones and practice all I want without bothering anyone else has made it possible to progress quickly since I'm not accommodating everyone around me with my practice times. The build quality is great. I have taken it with me all over the place and it shows no signs of wear nor has it had any malfunctions. It looks beautiful and not like a toy, a complaint many have lobbed at previous incarnations of these devices. Everyone who I've shown it to loves the look and is floored by the sonic possibilities. The built in synthesizer is fairly limited but does allow you to play with the built in patches a fair amount. That said, I haven't been able to make any custom patches that I really love yet. So all of that is for the instrument itself in stand alone usage. I love it. But there is more. A lot more.

You have to look at all the various control elements this instrument opens up. You have your breath to modulate whatever you want with, your bite which kiiiiiind of lets you bend up but really is just for vibrato, your pitch bend, your octave roller, the glide plate, the hold and interval buttons and of course the notes. As a midi controller, this lets you control nearly any synthesizer or sampled instrument with so many different intuitive controls that you can make and control nearly any sound you can imagine. Obviously this is true of most midi controllers but not many of them offer the level of expressive control that this one does. I have been successful in controlling VSTs on my MacBook as well as a number of iOS synthesizers. The fact that you can change which Midi CC is used for nearly every one of the above mentioned controls means that you can probably make it work with nearly anything. I have been able to hook it up to sample based instruments with breath controlling the filter cutoff as well.
To use it with a computer is as easy as connecting via USB, at least on a Mac. To use it with an iPad... Well, that one requires the camera kit, a current or previous generation Pro or a current generation (4th gen) Air with a USB-C hub or adapter. The fact that it relies on usb bus power to be used as a controller feels like a miss. If they had just let it power itself with the battery and still be used as a controller then it would easily work with older generation iPads as well.

The possibilities really do seem endless and if you like learning things that seem to be like a bottomless rabbit hole, then this thing may just be for you.

Pros:
- So many ways to control your sound!
- Awesome build quality
- Beautiful
- Convenient for practicing
- Long battery life
- Fun and often beautiful sounding included patches

Cons:
- Bus powered when used as a controller (only a con for older iPad users)
- No Bluetooth... I really wish it had BT-MIDI support. SO much.
- Occasional hiccups when changing octaves due to losing contact with my thumb between the rollers and by default falling to the lowest octave. I wish it would just stay in the previous octave until I was fully in the next. Not a problem if you are tonguing between notes, but sometimes when slurring and needing to change octaves it's a pain in the rear.
- No pitch up AND down, only up OR down. Defaults to down. It is cool that it allows you to modulate the bend with the amount of your thumb that is in contact with the bend plate, but I really wish it could bend both directions.
- The EWI Solo Editor sucks for MacOS. The UI is glitchy, the controls are just barely functional if at all but with patience you can probably make the adjustments you want.
- No available patches anywhere nor do I know how you could load them on even if they did exist. Maybe with the above mentioned buggy as heck editor? So the onboard sounds just are what they are pretty much unless you count changing the effects and hooking the LFOs to your envelope or pitch as enough. I feel as though if the editor worked the onboard synth could do some cool things.

All in all, it's a great instrument with a ton of capability and I would suggest it to anyone who wants to have fun and make music.
by Jeff Glenn from CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA on
See also: Keyboard Controllers, Akai Professional, Akai Professional MIDI Controllers
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