James, I'm not sure you quite got the point of my post. Sure, a wind controller trumps all, but we are keyboard players here, not sax players or flautists or clarinetists, or even great recorder players...

So, we HAVE to use the technique we already have.

I don't understand why you still think that vibrato is better left to LFO's. A finger vibrato on a guitar, or cello, or any other instrument that uses finger vibrato is FAR more nuanced and realistic that an LFO derived vibrato, simply because you can change depth and speed and shape and even phase (go down first, or go up first?) all by how you rock your finger. A pitch strip allows you to do this. Start deep and heavy, transition to light and fast in the middle of the note, and speed it up as you get to the end. What LFO is ever going to give you this (and different for each note)?

I'm sorry you don't think a finger is fast enough to get all the inflection and trill and vibrato accuracy you might want, but I'm afraid I have to disagree. Somehow, mysteriously, guitar players get ALL the speed and accuracy they want with bends, trills (AND 'thrills' ), hammer -ons and offs, and most importantly, vibrato. To the point where you can tell them apart JUST from listening to how they vibrato ONE note.

If they can do that using exactly the same technique on a fingerboard as we can use on a pitch strip (I have to confess, the KX-5 is by far the easiest to do this on, due to the angle of it in relation to your fingers is just like a guitar or bass), there's NO reason why you can't get this yourself.

As to the 'tonguing' part of playing, that's where using the strip to 'play' notes rather than finger them on the keyboard comes in. You strike a note at the beginning of a phrase, then put your finger on the strip at the point of the new note. Presto! No new attack transient, but a new, legato note. Is it as good as SA or Giga 'triggers'? In some ways no, in some ways, it's better. Use SA or key triggers, and the legato note is PERFECTLY in tune. Do it with the strip, and it is likely to be NOT... Whereupon, you either bend it closer to perfect (like a horn actually does) or leave it where it is because it is MORE perfectly in tune than equal temperment can do (and you still get vibrato or pitch instability at the new point, just like a real instrument).

The whole POINT of using the strip is to get away from the rigid equal temperment that playing on the keyboard forces you into. No horn player, cellist, guitarist or just about ANY acoustic musician plays so perfectly in tune, In fact, the little out of tune things are what give it character and scream 'real!' to your ears.

Finally, the thing about using a strip, as opposed to x and y axes of a joystick, or mod wheels and pitch wheels, is that it is an extension of something you already know is a REAL musical technique. We've been using fingers on a fretboard for thousands of years to get emotional expression out of simple instruments. Learning which way to push a joystick is an intellectual approach, rather than a visceral organic way of achieving the same end.

So, yes, a wind controller gives possibly the most direct control over many parameters at the same time. BUT... it only works for very well trained wind players. But for the rest of us, I find that picking up these basic techniques is FAR easier and natural to do on a strip. You are STILL using your conventional keyboard technique for most of the notes, simply using your LH to add considerably more inflection and nuance to the note than you can get with a joystick or wheels...

And, if your controller has a breath controller input (like my Kurzweil and the KX-5), you can add a lot of the timbre and volume elements that a wind controller do....