"Sluggish External Synth Response"

Question: When I control an external synth via the EWV, the outboard synth seems have a very sluggish response, can I correct this?

Answer: You bet! What is probably happening is that your external synth is receiving too much midi data. The EWV-2000 continually pumps out gobs of information. Your first step should be to just connect the EWV to the external synth then the external synth to an amp/speaker (i.e. do not use the EXT IN yet and do not monitor the EWV's sound). Set the EWV's red MIDI button to CONTROL OFF. Pick a percussive patch on your external synth and play some rapid staccato phrases. If you experience a lagging then carefully check the settings of the blue BEND, GLIDE, and BREATH knobs on the EWV. If any of these knobs indicator lights are on or blinking without you touching the EWI/EVI then the EWV is sending confusing midi data to your external synth. and when a synth gets confused it starts dragging its sonic feet.

To correct this check to see that you are sending the minimum Bend and Glide data, and focus on the Breath Adjust and Sense relationship. You may find that these settings differ to a greater or lesser degree from you normal EWV settings. Thus, you will what to experiment to find the ideal blend of settings for EWV and external control. Once you get the hang of it you can increase the BEND and GLIDE amount.

Now take the same external patch and route it to the EXT IN jack on the face of the EWV. Call up P81-EXT SOURCE on the EWV and explore the response. Remember that to get that sharp, quick attack you will need to use a strong, hard tonguing and a soft, lagato tonguing will have a fade in effect. Now try other sounds on the external synth.

Craig Hara adds the following response: In response to the question regarding sluggish response, the other possibility is the capture time setting (for those of us with the velocity update chip). This will actually cause a delay when set too high. I suggest settint it to zero to see if indeed this is the cause of the problem. When set to zero, there is of course no velocity variation, so be prepared for your external synth to sound a little one-dimentional until you either set the capture time to "1" or "2"; or run the output to the EXT IN.