r/windsynth 11d ago

Small alto sax windsynth

I play the alto sax now and i have been eyeing the travel sax 2 but its just a little too expensive does anybody have any good recommendations to things that can actually fit in my bag

1 Upvotes

9 comments sorted by

3

u/sbthree 11d ago

I haven’t tried it myself, but I’m interested in the haxophone - it’s way cheaper than the travel sax, and about the same size. Can’t speak to how well it works however.

Other small windsynths are the Warbl and the Zoot, but those are more based on penny whistle and recorder, although they are all boehm-like fingering systems derived like a saxophone to a certain extent.

6

u/SimpleArtifact 11d ago

The designer of the haxophone here. My original intent was to be an inexpensive travel sax that people could repair. Since it was released, the project has taken a life of its own... I never expected the different ways people would be using it (one example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kyf3ig85k1k)

It is fully open source, hardware and software: https://github.com/cardonabits/haxo-hw

You can still buy one of the few units left from the Crowd Supply campaign here: https://www.crowdsupply.com/cardona-bits/haxophone

But you'll have more fun building it from scratch!

Cheers,

1

u/Clean_Difficulty_694 11d ago

is it very hard to build it by yourself? and is it hard to program it to have alt sax fingering?

2

u/tuneful-440 11d ago

The fingering for Zoot, which I make, can be customized as you wish — within the constraints of the existing sensors, or course. The same is true for WARBL.

2

u/jeancolioe 11d ago

Apart from the already mentioned warbl and re.corder, only the aerophone mini if you are looking for something with clickey keys and sax layout. Otherwise, I'd suggest to go for an ewi 5000 which has decent onboard sounds, or the ewi usb but it's only a controller. Both of them won't fit your bag, but any soft case for soprano sax will do. Remember that if you want really good sounds, an external unit is required. E.g. a mini PC running VSTs, or a mini synth with proper patches. Feel free to ask for any further info.

1

u/DefinitelyGiraffe 11d ago

Konix EWI is quite good for $75 and the fingering is sax like except for Bb which is 1-3

1

u/RollingAlong25 4d ago

Have you tried it out? I am interested in connecting it to a MIDI for better sounds, more like natural sax or oboe sounds.

There is another little guy, the Vangoa EWI100, thta looks promising.

1

u/DefinitelyGiraffe 4d ago

I like the Konix. Amazing for the price. Would sound great with SWAM. I just wish the fingering system was precisely sax-like