On the OAX1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rtv1IE9q3nM

Enjoy

Bill

Thanks Bill. This seems in principle like Yamaha Tyros and Genos "Ensemble" feature. Can anyone who has tried both comment on the similarities and differences?

Hard to hear past that awful clarinet sound…

I’m afraid that we’ve moved past sampled winds lately, modeled horns saxes and woods behave far more realistically. Not that I don’t think that that sound couldn’t be played better, but there’s a limit.

I think one of the things few keyboard players do is ‘breathe’ while you play wind sounds. A sample is so static, and just playing and holding the notes like you would an organ sound completely misses what makes the sound so popular. Even GREAT samples, played like an organ reveal just how weird the raw sound of so many reed and brass notes are. Don’t get me started about oboes or bassoon samples!

A horn player BREATHES, swells, dies, runs out of breath (!) vibratos expressively (real vibrato is completely different from a fixed rate LFO affecting pitch only) slurs from one note to the next, tongues differently, a myriad of things to shape the phrase, to pull the musicality out of a sound that is pretty boring listened to one note at a time, which is what samples are…

I’m a bit disappointed that firstly, the player in this demo didn’t really use the swell pedal to add a bit of dynamics and shape to the phrases(don’t even need modeling for that!) but also didn’t use the vibrato much, a signature of that 40’s Benny Goodman type sound, or the Glen Miller style.

Then, to be honest, the feature being demonstrated was somewhat buried by the lead, making it hard to distinguish how it was voicing the section.

Take a listen to SWAM using the Divisimate software, and you realize that this sort of stuff can be done MUCH better (and much less expensively than a Wersi!) nowadays.

And yes, this seems VERY much like Yamaha’s Ensemble feature that’s been out for 5 years or more (was on the OG Genos, iirc). Perhaps a little more control, but until I hear a more convincing demo, not as well as Yamaha’s implementation.

As a horn player, nothing grinds my gears like a bad arranger demo of someone playing horn sounds like an organ! 😨😱🤬🎷🎺🪈

Valid points, however most entertainment organs and arrangers are played primarily by Home Hobby players (As are most You Tube videos) who wouldn't know how to use the SWAM voices.
Playing technique is always lapped up by home hobby players, hence they are featured heavily with dealers and festival demos in Europe and Asia. (The US is the odd one out, as there are only a few dealers in a hell of a big country)
The upside with the Wersi, is that the voices you mention can be played with the Wersi as if they were part of it (One combined unit rather than having multiple items which don't fit well in a home environment) as it has an integrated VST Host.
The manuals can be downloaded here if you want to see its current capabilities (As per usual with Wersi it will be further updated down the line, including from feedback from owners) so you never know where things are going to go.
NOTE: Choose OAX Operating Instructions for the English versions)

Bill

Have you tried using SWAM? Even without a breath controller, map your swell pedal to expression rather than volume, and it does an AMAZING job of sounding expressive if you use the swell pedal well with organ sound…

Watch GREAT organ players, and you’ll see them constantly ’shading’ the line, pumping the volume, all kinds of tricks to extract dynamics and phrasing from a line played essentially (in the case of strait organ sounds) with no velocity control at all! Just the swell pedal…

That and if your keyboard has aftertouch for bringing in the vibrato (about the only lack on the iPad version of SWAM is a delayed vibrato, so either a wheel or a mod wheel is essential) and you can just about pull off a great sax part.

Until recently I was playing SWAM saxes quite happily on my arranger, shading with the pedal. Lately I’ve moved it over to my keytar, which has a breath controller, and now I’m in sax nirvana…

Yes, I agree that Divisimate is more to set up than these ensemble features, and I commend Yamaha and Wersi for making it simple, but it’s still the way that, once split up into the individual parts, the inter-note behavior is what makes the parts convincing.

Most modern arrangers have some articulated horn sounds, and in lieu of a proper modeled sound can still do well. The combination of ALL articulated horns and the ensemble feature should be quite convincing!

But… as I’ve said about many different sounds (guitars especially) getting a convincing emulation is still 90% about wrapping your head around what is typical idiomatic voicing and phrasing. There’s no reason an organ player can’t do that any less than a synth player or a pianist or even an arranger player!

Just listen carefully to the voicings, and listen carefully to what the player does, and even more importantly what he NEVER does, and with a bit of time and practice you’ll be able to play horns and guitars well enough to fool a discerning listener..!

What I try to do is immerse myself in the instrument and style for about a month. Listen to nothing but sax players for a month (give Bird or Trane a miss until you’re more advanced! 🎷😂) and play ONLY that sound when you practice, it sure speeds up getting your head around the typical lines. Record yourself constantly, listen critically and try to note what you did when you broke the realism and never do it again! Note where you really nail the idiom, keep doing that!

A month of anything without cutting to something else occasionally will quickly get you up to speed. Horns, guitars, sax, string voicings, anything non-organ/piano in technique will come a lot less painlessly if you steep yourself in the sound!