Works Well for Worship

I've used the Wx5 for 3 months now for leading worship at church. Paired with the VL70-m with patchman music turbo chip, it gives a great deal of versatility. Positives: Keys are smooth - an easy transition for saxophone players. Vibrato takes some practice but decent sound is possible in short amount of time. Ability to use same keying across octaves as well as support for normal alternatives allows a lot of flexibility. Negatives: Plastic feel and sense that it wouldn't take much to break it. Octave keys are very stiff and could be designed so they are much easier to use. I still have not mastered quick octave key changes for some transitions. Vibrato takes a LOT of tweaking - the lip sensor is stiff and way too sensitive. I haven't used other wind-syths like the Ewi so I cannot compare to others however from reading reviews, it seemed clear that the Wx5 is superior to others in functionality and learning curve. It took me about 1 month to really get comfortable with vibrato and still haven't mastered for violin sounds. Flute is easiest to learn but then its going to depend also on what tone generator you pair it with. I considered pairing with Motif ES rack (it takes breath controller) instead of VL70-m but...vl70-m has best horn sounds on the market I've heard - much better than Korg or Yamaha keyboards or racks. Vl70-m however (even with turbo) has just a few so-so keyboard sounds whereas phantom and motif keyboards rock.

Reviewed by SaxNMidiMan on 10/9/2006 who plays Worship - Light rock/pop.