"Garritan Jazz and Big Band 3" and Wivi comparison

I'm afraid the Wallander Band is not as good as it appears. I checked only the Wivi trial version and found that the saxes, the flute and the clarinet are very musical, and expressive, but I don't find them realistic for solo work.

In my opinion Garritan Jazz and Big Band is superior for the jazz instruments, or at least a better buy :). Just looking at the 2 saxes in the Wivi trial (Tenor and Alto) I created a small comparison. You can listen to that at 

http://lilypondtool.organum.hu/sax-wivi-and-jabb.mp3

Wivi tenor, Garritan tenor, Wivi alto, Garritan alto. Note that I'm totally beginner in jazz wind istrument playing, so sorry about the music quality. I used standard settings, no EQ, and played with an EWI USB.

So with Garritan JABB you get some 60 instruments (including very good keyboards, vibe, basses, drum sets) for the same price, and most of them are very good. Turning on some airflow noise and key clicks, for some instruments you get very applicable results for live solo work.

First (musical) steps with EWI USB

I started to practice the EWI USB.

Before I bought the instrument I checked the manual, and was concerned about what fingering system to choose. Years before I played the oboe, but nowadays the recorder is my main instrument, so I ended up choosing the default EWI fingering. I was only curious because the sax fingerings showed more fingering variations for some notes.

EWI USB Aria and Arturia Brass installation

First I installed the Aria software, which includes the driver for the device (or vice versa).
The installation went smoothly, with no problems, though there were some oddities.

I received my EWI USB

I ordered the EWI USB - Arturia Brass bundle, as from the audio demos I knew that the included Garritan sounds are not perfect for live performance use.

It came in a nice box. I recently realized that how important nice packaging is (and nice user interface etc.) for creative work. You'll want inspiration, and not a regular, dull view.

So what's in the box:

I learn to play the EWI

I decided to learn to play the Akai EWI, the Electronic Wind Instrument.
I have some experience with the oboe, but since years I've been playing mostly the piano (classical and jazz) and recorder (blockflöte), and the Hungarian whistle used in folk (and world) music.
This blog is about my experiences I gather, the lessons I learn during the process.