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A composer friend of mine demoed me the Yamaha BC3A (a breath controller) a few weeks ago and I was amazed by the level of expression this adds to a performance and wanted to buy one of those asap. Much to my chagrin, I was very disappointed to find out they are discontinued and it's pretty much impossible to even find used ones (Craigslist, Ebay none to be found) I discovered that a number of composers have 2 of them and would buy even more to make sure they never see the day where they would be without one! That tells you how indispensable tool this is for a composer or performer.

I contacted Yamaha and I was told they discontinued the product because the keyboard it was designed to use it with (VL1) is no longer made. Since there is a little box you can buy from MIDI SOLUTIONS to plug it into it's still possible to use them, in fact that product (the box converter) was developed because there was a great appeal and demand for the breath controller.

I was told that if I could gather a petition of 1000 names they would send the request to Japan and would consider manufacture more of this very handy device. So I've started one! You can sign here.

"Musicians and Composers wanting to buy the Yamaha BC3A"
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/yama ... o%2BFriend

I'd appreciate if you could add your signature to it regardless if you'd be interested or not in that product. It takes just a few seconds of your time.

Thanks for your support and passing it along!

I almost hate to admit I have three... two have been repaired.

The BC3 has a weak spot where the mouth tube connects to the headset. A fix is possible, using glue and heat shrink tubing. I posted about this a while back. Ah yes, here it is:

http://www.motunation.com/forum/viewtop ... ir#p359717

fwiw: Nick Batzdorf from VI mag is starting to make a breath controller.

http://www.vi-control.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=20775

See the 6th post in the thread.

I'm looking forward to this,it looks like it should be available soon.........

kgdrum wrote:fwiw: Nick Batzdorf from VI mag is starting to make a breath controller.

http://www.vi-control.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=20775

See the 6th post in the thread.

I'm looking forward to this,it looks like it should be available soon.........

Definitely interested here, too. Please keep us posted here at MOTUNation!

will do
What I like about it potentially, it has MIDI out so you don't need the MIDI solutions box or a breath control feature built into the kb and Nick also mentions an improvement over the BC3 re: responsiveness.

Last year I bought a cheap melodica and since then I've been obsessed with finding an affordable breath controller. I have a K2661 with a BC in.

I've been watching those threads about Nick Batzdorf's breath controller for a while. Sounds like it's been a rough development process. Hopefully it'll be released soon.

The good news for him though is that I think there is pretty strong interest, and he'd be the ONLY game in town! (That is unless Yamaha does another run of BC3's -- I wouldn't hold my breath on that one -- no pun intended).

I think that breath control is a very powerful way to play music (as a trombone player, it comes pretty naturally to me).

Yes, BC is fantastic in studio and live... my favorite live patch is a Yamaha S90 providing piano or Rhodes layered with a modwheel variable-filter pad controlled separately by CC11 on a volume pedal MIDI'd to a Motif ES6 providing Organ on pedal two and the both keyboards and Breath-controlled brass accessed from the S90 keyboard only.

The alternative breath controller has been discussed in the wind controller topic, and I updated it recently with Nick's new estimates on delivery. I didn't want to pollute this thread with that crosstopic as it seemed dedicated to encouraging people to sign a petition to save the BC3A. I personally am holding out for the new controller, which will use a MIDI connector and thus won't require the MIDI Solutions breakout box.

mhschmieder wrote:The alternative breath controller has been discussed in the wind controller topic, and I updated it recently with Nick's new estimates on delivery. I didn't want to pollute this thread with that crosstopic as it seemed dedicated to encouraging people to sign a petition to save the BC3A. I personally am holding out for the new controller, which will use a MIDI connector and thus won't require the MIDI Solutions breakout box.

Hi ,
I'm looking for the other thread you are referring to & I can't find.
do you have a link or section it's in?

Edit* nevermind,I found it

If there is a better product that this fellow will come up with all the better. I'm not a attached to the BC3A I just want a breath controller and there are none available. From what I gathered this product he has developed is a wind controller some sort of ocarina if I'm not mistaken.

There is little info about it and it does seem like the development has been difficult and God knows when it will be available and how easy it will be to get and at what price. It's quite an undertaking though quality assurance and all.

In any case still signing the petition is just a show of support for the technology and the proof for anyone out there that there is a demand and use for it.

I got in touch with Nick (the fellow who has a product in development) and it is indeed a breath controller and it won't need a MIDI box to convert the data, it will plug in MIDI (as opposed to previous breath controller that had the mini-jack).

That's even better than the BC3A!

Do we know anything more about it yet? (besides MIDI out?)

I'm wondering if it will be hands-free like the BC3. I'm also wondering if it might have any user adjustable features (air-flow, range, sensitivity).

Nick's been playing his cards pretty close to his chest. COME ON, NICK! SHOW YOURSELF!!!

Ok, he's not a super-hero... but pretty close.

It's wooden and in the form factor of an ocarina, the last time he showed pictures of it.

I noticed a long time ago that my Wavestation supports breath controller. And now that I stumbled on this subject I checked out what it's all about. For me it's totally unbelievable that no one except Yamaha has manufactured a breath controller. Are they really that impractical, impopular, unusable?

Yea, I completely agree. It really is puzzling that this isn't a more popular, in-demand controller. I hope it wasn't due to some overly restrictive patent thing. But perhaps.