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The original was posted on /r/windsynth by /u/GenericUsrname101 on 2023-06-24 08:28:32+00:00.

Picked one of these up for cheap to replace an aging WX11, although at this point I guess the 4000s is 20 years old and no longer made so it’s still aging.

Pros:

Octave rollers. These things are great. Maybe it’s just the old Yamaha system being a bit fiddly, I never really had a problem with it, but rollers feel way better. Moving up and down is quick and has a positive feel, this is just better than buttons.

Touch sensitive keys. Going in, I thought there was a chance I wouldn’t really like these, I’ve had problems with touch sensitivity on old touch screens before and I feel like my fingers can get quite dry, but I’ve had no issues at all with them. Adapting has been easy, and I don’t think I’d ever go back to regular keys, they seem faster. At an early stage I find myself wishing all the smaller keys had the same level of adjustment as the right pinky keys, I have small hands and some of them are a little further away than I’d like, but it’s a pretty minor issue and I’ll get used to it.

Battery power. Fantastic, I can walk around with headphones on or just plug in a mini speaker if I want. Only minor complaint is it’s a little bit of a hassle to get them in, in an ideal world I’d wish for a quick change system, but modern AA rechargables last a while. For anyone curious, the battery door bolt is M3x7, I swapped mine out with a lower profile head because I sometimes rest the base flat on my chair and it pokes out a bit. I don’t know why they switched to built in lithium batteries on later models, defeats the whole purpose of them if you have to plug it in every time they run flat, and it’ll cost you a lot more to replace them when they do eventually fail.

Undecided:

The mouthpiece. I quite like the bite sensor, it’s more limited than the WX11, but it doesn’t require you to hold a bite position and it seems to work fine for most vibrato. But I struggle with the embouchure, it feels hard to leak enough air out and not blow raspberries. At this point I think I prefer the Yamaha/Roland system, but maybe I’ll get used to it. I looked online for a solution and found mention of a mouthpiece type B that Akai or some third party made a long time ago that was essentially just the same mouthpiece with a couple of 2mm holes drilled on both sides, I might wind up making one.

EWI fingerings. The old WX11 ones were different. Some of the new stuff I like, some of it seems like a downgrade. The Yamaha felt like it was setup a little more for fingerings where you had to move fewer keys, like you could go from an F to a D with one finger instead of 2, or you could go from B all the way up to F just with the right hand and no octave switch. The Akai ones seem to offer a lot more alternates though, and I think in the long term it’s probably a better system, I’m just not used to it yet.

Cons:

Weight and length. I know it feels like a much more solid instrument, but the added length and weight make it a little cumbersome. If they made an EWI USB form factor with all the octave rollers, I’d buy that in an instant. Maybe I’ll get a 3000 if I see one cheap enough.

Port placement. They all stick out 90 degrees, which makes them a bit bulky. The WX11 had its port at 45 degrees, which was nicer. I guess I could buy right angle cables but it’s an additional expense, and most of them are still pretty wide.

Program change screw. Maybe it’s just the age of my model, but this thing is intermittent. Sometimes it works fine, sometimes it just flashes on and off like a mad-man. I’ve tried adjusting the key sensitivity and it didn’t make a difference, I took the back off and checked the connection and that seems fine, so I don’t know.

Overall, I’m very happy with it. I can’t seem to get the software for changing the synth voices to work, but it might just be my cheap MIDI cable. Both EWItool and Vyzex run fine, but they can’t see the instrument on W10.