<...snip...>After high school I was playing guitar and trumpet in a rock/blues/soul band. I've always had asthma but it became severe when I was around 22. <...> Then I discovered wind controllers so no need to put in many hours of trumpet practice as my computer became my trumpet. Plus "my trumpet" can emulate all other instruments.
When I was 18, I wanted to join the Air Force Band. They had recently played in our town and our band director took us. Since I was first tenor sax in the all-state band every year I was in school, I figured I could pass the audition.
Back then, the government scheduled our physical exam date. I had recurrent bronchitis as a child, and the physical came right after an attack, and before I completely recovered. The result was a classification of 4F - (unfit for service).
So I joined a rock band and went on the road, touring the USA in college town bars, before DJs took that part of the business. Playing sax 5 nights a week from 9PM to 2AM actually cured my bronchitis. I never had another attack. No, I didn't go back to the Air Force Recruiter, gigging in college town with college girls after "the pill" and before AIDS was paradise.
I discovered Wind Controller when Yamaha released the WX7. I eventually went through the WX line as new models came out and currently play the WX5 with a couple of synth modules. My favorite is the Yamaha VL70m. The physical modeling makes it react almost like a real instrument, instead of triggering samples.
The wind controller uses much less air, but I use it for the variety of sounds, I'm a big bag of wind.
I still play sax, wind synth, guitar, vocals, and flute on stage, and the flute uses the most air, but has the least back pressure. I make my own backing tracks as I also play bass, drums, and some keyboards.
www.s-cats.comThe nice thing about the wind controller, is in our duo, it gives me a variety of solo voices, which keeps our sound from getting to much of the same good thing.