Last week we were treated to some awesome new Roland synths and controllers, and to follow it up they are announcing a new digital wind instrument that us powerful yet easy to learn: the AE-01 Aerophone Mini.
Budget-priced at $299.99 but loaded with capabilities, the AE-01 continues Roland’s push to bring music to more and more people and help them get started playing an instrument at any age!
Built for easy learning, the AE-01 has a simple key layout that can be personalized, eliminates the need to master breath control, and integrates with a custom app to get you up and playing quickly. If you have always dreamed of playing a reed or woodwind instrument, now is your chance!
Here is the press release:
Roland, a leading manufacturer and distributor of electronic musical instruments and professional video products, announces the latest addition to its assortment of beginner-friendly products – the AE-01 Aerophone mini digital wind instrument. Roland has eliminated complicated fingerings and difficult breath control with this easy-to-learn instrument featuring Bluetooth® MIDI and Audio connectivity. Roland also developed a companion app for the AE-01 with interactive lessons and tutorials, allowing new players to begin playing instantly and improve quickly. The AE-01 Aerophone mini is available in the U.S. for $299.99.
Roland’s AE-01 joins Roland’s growing Aerophone family and stands out when it comes to features. The Aerophone mini comes packed with six different onboard sounds, including saxophone and violin, and offers over 50 additional modern and traditional tones through the free Aerophone mini Plus app for iOS and Android. The AE-01 offers features that experienced musicians can appreciate as well, like the ability to personalize breath sensitivity settings, fingering layouts, and connect via Bluetooth MIDI to popular DAW software for recording and sound creation.
The AE-01 Aerophone mini simplifies the experience of learning an instrument while providing an exciting new device for future music creation. Its many features are presented in an incredibly portable package, weighing just over one pound. The Aerophone mini runs on battery power, so users can play wherever their musical journeys take them. With both an onboard speaker and a headphone jack, users can show off their skills for an audience or get lost in the music without disturbing others. With Bluetooth connectivity and Bluetooth MIDI, users can jam along to their favorite songs and wirelessly play software instruments.
To learn more about the AE-01 Aerophone mini, please visit Roland.com.
Would someone like to explain to me what the point is of blowing into a digital instrument? Think about that. You were blowing into an instrument that does not use your breath to produce sound. What on earth could be the point of that?
All the way back in the late 1980s the Yamaha EWI (electronic wind instrument) and EVI (valve) paired up a synth controller with a sensor for breath control. Obviously it is digital – your breath pressure has a baseline and then you can modulate from there. Depending on the complexity of the control system you can do reed-like effects as well as standard things like dynamics and vibrato.
So it isn’t that the instrument doesn’t use your breath, just like synth keyboards use all things your hands do but on a digital level compared to an actual piano.
Specific to this instrument, it is meant to be a low-end introductory instrument that is like a ‘digital recorder’ similar to what most kids learn early in school. The instrument has multiple sensitivity levels, so you can go from having it be basically a binary response to you blowing, to a more nuanced control.