Roland has announced the Aerophone AE-10, an all-new digital wind instrument with advanced breath-sensor technology and highly expressive sounds. Powered by Roland’s acclaimed SuperNATURAL engine, the Aerophone AE-10 provides a wide selection of saxophone sounds with authentic response and playability. Many other acoustic instrument sounds are included as well, plus synthesizer sounds optimized for breath control. The Aerophone AE-10 also features traditional saxophone fingering, enabling a sax player to start using the instrument right away.
Roland is renowned for groundbreaking innovations in numerous electronic musical instrument categories over the last four decades, including digital pianos, keyboard and guitar synthesizers, V-Drums and HandSonic percussion, V-Accordions, and many more. With the inventive new Aerophone AE-10, Roland leverages its advanced technology to bring a versatile and fun performance instrument to saxophonists and other wind instrument players.
With a key layout that’s similar to an acoustic saxophone, playing the Aerophone AE-10 is an easy transition for sax players of all levels. The sensitive mouthpiece-mounted breath sensor also features a bite-sensing reed, allowing for control of expressive techniques like vibrato and pitch.
With its onboard soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone saxophone sounds, the Aerophone AE-10 gives players all the sax tones they need in one convenient instrument. Thanks to advanced SuperNATURAL modeling technology, the sounds respond to playing dynamics and articulations just like their acoustic counterparts. With the Full Range feature, users can automatically switch between sax types by key range.
The Aerophone AE-10 also includes a variety of additional acoustic instrument sounds like clarinet, flute, oboe, trumpet, violin, and more, all utilizing SuperNATURAL technology to faithfully match the behavior of the originals. With the Brass section function, users can easily perform multiple different brass instruments in harmony. When connected to a PA or portable amp like Roland’s CUBE Street EX, it’s possible to authentically play the sounds of large and expensive wind instruments like tuba and bassoon. The Aerophone AE-10 also includes a wide selection of Roland’s latest synth sounds, which have been specially tailored for wind instrument performance with fully optimized breath control.
Compact and lightweight, the Aerophone AE-10 can be powered with six AA-size batteries, and comes equipped with onboard speakers for monitoring the sound. With the headphones jack, users can play at any time without disturbing others nearby. The Aerophone AE-10 also includes an input for connecting a smartphone or music player to jam along with backing music.
The Aerophone AE-10 is equipped with a USB jack, allowing users to connect to a computer to play soft synths and external MIDI sound modules through a DAW. With the unique range of expression provided by breath control, the Aerophone AE-10 offers a world of creative options not possible with standard MIDI keyboard controllers.
Underwhelmed… I was excited until I heard it. Whoever it was playing was not the right choice. They should have used someone far more capable, that could have blown us away with their talent, if not the instrument itself. I’ve heard more realistic wind sounds from a regular keyboard. Does Roland make a breath controller for use with a regular keyboard? If not, that would probably be as, or more successful. I was looking forward to much more realistic sounds, played in an authentic sounding way. This sounded like a someone with sub-average improvisational skills riffing over a monotonous loop – flipping through bad presets on a regular keyboard. Like I said, not the demo to roll this out. It’s probably way more capable than what this demo portrayed.
absolutely right david! i tried the AE-10 with the iOS THOR with Patchman-sounds. the AE-10 works as it should. i encountered just one major problem: pitch-bending with lip-pressure doesn’t work as expected. the range is small. i hope this is a firmware thing…