ewi-usb-config-cli

Configure an Akai EWI USB MIDI wind controller via MIDI from the command line on Linux, macOS or Windows.

Installation

Via pip:

pip install ewi-usb-config-cli

Via pipx:

pipx install ewi-usb-config-cli

Usage

usage: ewi-usb-config [-h] [-d DEVICE_ID] [-a] [-f] [-r PATH] [--all-banks]
                      [-s PATH] [-p PORT] [-t TIMEOUT] [-v] [--version]
                      [setting ...]

Configure an Akai EWI USB MIDI wind controller via MIDI.

positional arguments:
  setting               Setting to send to EWI in the form name=value (can be
                        given more than once)

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -d DEVICE_ID, --device-id DEVICE_ID
                        SysEx Device ID (default: 0x7F)
  -a, --ascii           Set SysEx dump output format to ASCII hexadecimal
                        values
  -f, --force           Allow overwriting existing file when writing received
                        SysEx dump
  -r PATH, --receive PATH
                        Receive SysEx dump from EWI and save in file PATH (use
                        '-' to write to standard output)
  --all-banks           Request all settings banks (0-3) (the purpose of banks
                        1 and 3 is unclear)
  -s PATH, --send PATH  Send SysEx dump file PATH to EWI (use '-' to read from
                        standard input)
  -p PORT, --port PORT  Number or (part of) name of MIDI input/output port to
                        open (default: 'EWI-USB')
  -t TIMEOUT, --timeout TIMEOUT
                        SysEx dump reception timeout (default: 5)
  -v, --verbose         Output verbose messages of program operation to stderr
  --version             show program's version number and exit

Settings:
   breath-gain, bite-gain, bite-ac-gain, pb-gain, key-delay, unknown-1,
   midi-channel, fingering, transposition, velocity, breath-cc-1, breath-cc-2,
   unknown-2, bite-cc-1, bite-cc-2, pb-up-cc, pb-down-cc

Examples

Connect your Akai EWI USB wind controller via USB and use your system's MIDI tools to check that it shows up as MIDI input and output ports having names with "EWI-USB" in them.

Then use the terminal to send commands to your EWI using the ewi-usb-config program.

For example, to set the key delay to 10 (the factory default value is 7):

ewi-usb-config key-delay=10

Configure the MIDI control change type, which is sent when biting on the rubber mouth piece to only send Modulation (CC #1) and disable sending Pitch Bend as well. Also set the bite gain to value 20 (the factory default value is 64):

ewi-usb-config bite-cc-1=0 bite-cc-2=1 bite-gain=20

Configure the MIDI messages types, which are sent in response to breath input, to Breath Controller (CC #2) and Channel Aftertouch, which is the factory default behaviour:

ewi-usb-config breath-cc-1=2 breath-cc-2=127

Retrieve all current settings from the device as a MIDI System Exclusive (SysEx) dump and write it to the file ewi-usb.syx using the -r|--receive option:

ewi-usb-config -r ewi-usb.syx

Send a SysEx dump to the device to restore all settings saved in the dump using the -s|--send option:

ewi-usb-config -s ewi-usb.syx

Retrieve a settings dump but output the SysEx data as hexadecimal numbers in ASCII to the standard output by adding the -a|--ascii option and using - as the output filename to indicate standard output:

ewi-usb-config -ar -

This produces output like this:

F0 47 7F 6D 00 00 06 40 40 40 40 07 7F F7
F0 47 7F 6D 02 00 0B 00 00 40 78 02 7F 00 7F 00 7F 7F F7

Note that this format can not be loaded back into the EWI USB. It is meant mainly as a debugging tool for developers.

Settings Values

All settings take values from 0 to 127, unless noted otherwise here.

• For the controller settings, some values in that range have no effect. See the table in the next section below for details.

• The fingering setting supports the following values:

  Value	Fingering System
  0	Standard EWI fingering
  1	Saxophone
  2	Flute
  3	Oboe
  4	EVI Valve 1
  5	EVI Valve 2 (reversed pitch plates)

• The midi-channel settings takes a value from 0 (channel 1) to 15 (channel 16).

• The transposition setting takes a value of 52 - 76, with 64 being no transposition and 56 = -12 semitones and 76 = +12 semitones.

• For the the velocity setting, a value of zero (0) means that the EWI will use dynamic velocity values for note-on messages, according to the breath strength, whereas values 1 - 127 will cause note-on messages to have a fixed velocity of the set value.

Controllers

Value	Breath CC 1	Breath CC 2	Bite CC 1	Bite CC 2	Pitch Plate Up	Pitch Plate Down
0	OFF	OFF	OFF	OFF	OFF	OFF
1-119	MIDI CC 1-119	MIDI CC 1-119	MIDI CC 1-119	MIDI CC 1-119	MIDI CC 1-119	MIDI CC 1-119
124	-	-	Pitchbend UP	-	-	-
125	-	-	Pitchbend DOWN	-	-	-
126	-	-	Pitchbend up-down	-	-	-
127	Aftertouch	Aftertouch	Pitchbend down-up	Aftertouch	Pitchbend UP	Pitchbend DOWN

Aftertouch is always Channel Pressure, aka Mono Aftertouch. Note Pressure, aka Poly Aftertouch, is not supported.

Development

Using the hatch tool:

• hatch run ewi-usb-config --version
• hatch run ewi-usb-config --help
• hatch status
• hatch project metadata | jq -C | less-R
• hatch version

Note: hatch run ewi-usb-config can be abbreviated as hatch run euc.

Deployment

hatch version <new version number>
git add ewi_usb_config/version.py
git commit -m "Bump version to <new version number>"
git tag -a -m "Tagging new release <new version number>" vX.Y.Z
git push --tags master

... and let the GitHub Actions release workflow do the rest.