Hey Guys,

Thanks for the notes of confidence. I'm afraid I don't have anymore inside knowledge about the EWI5000 than what I already found on one or two websites.

The biggest unknown feature is the claim that this model:

"Automatically calibrates & adapts to the player's style"

What does this really mean?

The 4000s has a number of analog knobs to set the calibration and some such as the two knobs (one for setting the breath threshold (at which you start hearing a sound, the other for setting the dynamic range) for the basic response calibration/settings are interactive (you set one, then the other, which then may change the firs setting etc.) can be a bit tricky.

In contrast the EWI-USB, does this basic calibration/setting automatically.

Perhaps the EWI5000 has the same automatic calibration/setting as the EWI-USB.

As for the second part about "adapts to players style", I can't even speculate.

I would be surprised if the EWI5000 produced better "sounds" with the very same external synth patches than the EWI-4000s, or that it would be in some way more "responsive".

Therefore,I would expect that it is simply a matter of having improved features such as:

1 Wireless connectivity (receiving unit is included in the unit price) which is extremely handy for live players on a gig. No tripping over wires. Separate wireless systems are quite expensive.

2 No need for battery or external AC adapter when connected to a computer when using USB connection, since you get both a MIDI and a USB connection all built in to the unit.

If you're happy with the EWI-4000s and are not ready to commit suicide unless you have new features of the EWI5000 I wouldn't rush out to buy the newer model.

We won't be able to say much until we get some expert reviews from someone who uses the EWI-4000s and can give us a detailed comparison with the EWI5000.

I note that Patchman Music is now also offering the EWI5000 (pre-order) for $799 inc free shipping

http://www.patchmanmusic.com/ewi5000.html

I highly recommend buying from him because he has unmatched expertise with EWI's and it's always great to support small businesses over large corporations in my opinion.

I personally have no interest in the internal sounds unless they come up to the quality of samplemodeling. Unfortunately the daydream of having those great sounds built is probably unrealistic because I would guess that the computing power of the CPU in the EWI5000 is not up to task, and it would require special software to implement. However, I recognize that some people like the synth sounds of the type in the EWI-4000 and therefore the EWI5000 samples that I heard on a youtube demo.

Hope that helps,

Dan

https://soundcloud.com/dstong