Aodyo Instruments sylphyo User manual

User guide
VERSION 1.0.0
DECEMBER 14, 2016
www.aodyo.com

www.aodyo.com

Contents
Safety informaon ..................................... 5
Repairing the Sylphyo (5) • Using the baery (5) • Cleaning (5) • Using the
connectors and the switch (6)
The Sylphyo at a glance ................................. 7
Overview (7) • Accessories (8) • First steps (8) • What is it, exactly? (9) •
What is there to see? (9) • What is there to touch? (10)
Geng started ........................................ 13
Charging and pairing (13) • Quick start with a Windows or macOS com-
puter (15) • Quick start with an iOS smartphone or tablet (17) • Seng
up virtual instruments and apps to work with the Sylphyo (19) • Using the
Sylphyo with a hardware synthesizer (21) • Default MIDI mappings and
general recommendaons (22)
Playing the Sylphyo .................................... 23
Breath control, nuances, and arculaon (23) • Fingerings (24) • Ineral
control (26) • The slider (27)
Sengs .............................................. 31
Quick sengs (31) • Sengs menu (32)
Online support ........................................ 41
Updates (41) • Troubleshoong and technical support (42) • User commu-
nity (42)
Fingerings ............................................ 43
Complementary informaon ............................. 45
Disposal and recycling (45) • Trademarks (45) • Disclaimer (45)
3

Safety informaon
Please take note of the following important informaon before you begin
to use your Sylphyo.
Repairing the Sylphyo
Do not open the Sylphyo and do not aempt to service it yourself. No-
tably, the blue ring below the mouthpiece might be glued to the body in
order to protect internal circuits from moisture in normal playing condi-
ons, thus it should not be removed. More generally, damage to you or
your instrument could occur during teardown. Please contact Aodyo
or an authorized service provider.
Using the baery
Your Sylphyo contains a lithium-ion baery that can only be replaced by
Aodyo or an authorized service provider. Do not try to replace the bat-
tery yourself, as this could cause overheang and injuries. The baery
must be disposed of separately from household waste.
Cleaning
To clean the Sylphyo, turn it off, then use a so and dry cloth. As the
Sylphyo contains electronic components, moisture must not get into
openings.
5

Safety informaon
Using the connectors and the switch
Avoid forcing a connector into a port, and do not use the switch with
excessive force. If a connector does not fit into a port, first check that
they match. The main screen of the Sylphyo turns on approximately five
seconds aer power-on. If you suspect that the Sylphyo does not turn
on normally, make sure you have been waing for at least ten seconds
before trying to turn it off and on again.
6

The Sylphyo at a glance
A warm thank you from the Aodyo team for believing in us and supporng
our work! We hope you will love using your Sylphyo as much as we do.
It is is the first wireless MIDI controller that reproduces the feeling of an
acousc wind instrument. Like them, it is played by blowing into a mouth-
piece and selecng notes using keys on the front of the instrument. How-
ever, unlike other wind instruments, the Sylphyo is also sensive to your
movements, as well as the way you touch it, offering novel expressive pos-
sibilies.
Overview
Aodyo key
Mini-USB port
Bell
Power-on switch
Headphone output
Mouthpiece
Display
Thumbrest
Octave keys
Se@ngs keys
Slider
Note keys
7

The Sylphyo at a glance
Accessories
Three accessories are included along with your Sylphyo:
Receiver device
Connect this device to a computer (via USB) or to a
synthesizer (via MIDI) in order to receive a signal from
the Sylphyo.
5W charger
Plug the 5W charger into a mains socket in order to
charge the baery of the Sylphyo using the USB cable.
USB cable
Use the USB cable to connect the receiver device to
your computer.
First steps
The Sylphyo allows you to control a hardware synthesizer or a virtual
instrument on your computer. While it is wireless, you sll have to
connect the receiver device to your computer or synthesizer in order
to allow the laer to receive MIDI messages sent by the Sylphyo.
You can turn the Sylphyo on and off using the power-on switch located
near the bell.
IMPORTANT
Once the Sylphyo has been turned on, do not blow into it nor press any key before
the main screen is shown. During this me, your Sylphyo calibrates its sensors to
ensure the best response while playing.
8

What is it, exactly?
Your Sylphyo is a controller: it processes input from its various sen-
sors (breath, ineral, capacive…), determines what you are doing, and
sends orders (e.g., start playing a so C note) to a soware or hardware
synthesizer that processes these orders and produces sounds. These
orders are formaed as messages in the MIDI communicaon protocol,
an industry standard for more than 30 years. Most synths understand
MIDI, so you can really control almost anything that produces sound
using the Sylphyo.
Your Sylphyo is also wireless: MIDI messages are transmied from the
Sylphyo to the receiver device through radio waves (typically in less
than a millisecond), and the receiver device passes these messages on
to your computer, smartphone, tablet, or hardware synth, which then
produces sound. The whole process should take between 5 and 20 mil-
liseconds, depending on the computer, device, or synth at the receiving
end.
Finally, your Sylphyo is future-proof: it is designed so that you can ben-
efit from further soware and hardware improvements. Updates to the
internal soware are free, and you can download them on our website.
In the future, you will also be able to buy an extension card that turns it
into a standalone musical instrument (hence the headphone output), or
an acve mouthpiece with extra sensors for even more expressiveness.
What is there to see?
The display of your Sylphyo provides you with three main screens that
provide you with all the relevant informaon to perform and configure
it according to your needs.
9

The Sylphyo at a glance
Performance screen
This is where you will spend most of your me. You
can see a quick recap of your performance param-
eters, such as the base key, the current MIDI chan-
nel, or the currently played note. You can also have
a quick glance at important informaon about your Sylphyo, such as
baery life or wireless status.
Quick sengs
Holding the key while in the performance screen
moves you to Quick sengs, which we designed to
allow you to very quickly change your performance
parameters (e.g., base key, and MIDI channel) dur-
ing your performance, without even having to look at your screen.
More parameters (MIDI volume CC, and breath intensity CC) can be
selected by simply tapping on the slider with your right thumb.
Sengs menu
Holding the key while swiping your thumb from
the boom to the top of the slider moves you to
the Sengs menu, where you can customize many
aspects of your Sylphyo, from the MIDI mapping to
the way it responds to your movements.
What is there to touch?
The following explains the different keys and touchable elements you
can interact with.
10

↑
↑
◆
++
--
c
d
e
a
b
aThe Aodyo key ( ) allows you to enter Quick sengs, which you
enter as soon as the key is pressed, and leave as soon as it is re-
leased.
You can also access the Sengs menu by holding while sliding
your thumb over the slider from boom to top.
Inside the Sengs menu, pressing always allows you to go back
to the previous screen.
bNote keys allow you to select the played note. The default fin-
gerings are similar to a modern recorder, however they can be
changed in the Sengs menu.
cEach octave key acts like a recorder thumb hole, but at different
octaves ( ◆is the base octave, ↑goes up by 1 octave, and ↓
goes down by 1 octave).
11

The Sylphyo at a glance
In Quick sengs (when you keep pressing the key), octave keys
allow you to select a quick seng.
In the Sengs menu, you can select a menu item using ↑and ↓,
and confirm using ◆.
dSengs keys allow you to increase ( +) or decrease ( -) some
parameters in the Quick sengs and the Sengs menu.
During your performance, they act as supplementary octave keys,
going down by two ( +) or three ( -) octaves.
eThe slider allows you to nuance the played sound by sliding your
thumb vercally.
It also allows you to access the Sengs menu by sliding from the
very boom to the top while pressing the key.
In the Sengs menu, you can also use the slider to select and con-
firm menu items (by sliding and tapping, resp.), and you can go to
the previous screen by sliding your thumb from the very top to
the boom.
12

Geng started
In this secon, you will learn how to quickly set up your Sylphyo to work
with virtual instruments on your computer, with your iOS smartphone or
tablet, or with your hardware synthesizer.
Charging and pairing
Your Sylphyo must be charged from me to me, and it has to be paired
with its receiver device in order to work correctly. Although your Syl-
phyo has been carefully charged and paired before shipping, it is impor-
tant that you know how to perform these operaons again.
Charging the Sylphyo
The internal baery of the Sylphyo allows it to last approximately 8
hours. However, you will have to charge it once the on-screen baery
level indicator shows the baery is very low.
To charge your Sylphyo, please connect it to the mains as described in
the following diagram:
mains
socket
Sylphyo
5W charger
USB cable
13

Geng started
You can turn on the Sylphyo if you want to keep an eye on the charging
process. If you have a spare mini-USB cable, you can connect it to the
receiver device and play the Sylphyo while it is charging.
Pairing the Sylphyo with the receiver device
When the Sylphyo is turned on, it tries to establish a wireless connec-
on with its receiver device. If the connecon cannot be made, or if
you’d like to pair your Sylphyo with another receiver device, you will
have to start the pairing process over.
Pairing button
(blue)
Pairing light
(red)
To begin the pairing process, press the blue buon of the receiver de-
vice you want to pair to your Sylphyo. The red light next to it will con-
nue blinking unl the process completes.
Then, enter the Sengs menu1on the Sylphyo, select Receiver device,
and confirm. Aer a few seconds, the pairing status will change from
?
to
◆
, and the red light on the receiver device will stop blinking,
indicang that pairing is complete.
1You can enter this menu anyme by swiping the slider from boom to top while
holding the key.
14

Quick start with a Windows or macOS computer
The most common way to use the Sylphyo is to have it control a virtual
instrument that generates sound on your computer. To do so, you will
need the receiver device and the USB cable.
Please connect these elements as shown on the following diagram:
computer
Sylphyo
receiver device
wireless
connection
USB cable
The receiver device is immediately recognized as a standard USB-MIDI
peripheral, thus no drivers are required.
To allow you to get playing as quickly as possible, we designed Sylphyo
Bench, a small applicaon for Windows and macOS2with five different
sounds that are setup to respond well with the Sylphyo. Even if you
already own other virtual instruments, you may want to keep this appli-
caon handy if you want to quickly test your computer configuraon,
idenfy potenal problems, or simply show the Sylphyo to a friend.
Go to www.aodyo.com/sylphyobench and click the link corresponding to
your operang system (Windows or macOS) to download an archive
containing the Sylphyo Bench applicaon. You may then have to unzip
2Sylphyo Bench supports Windows 7 and onwards, as well as macOS 10.8 and on-
wards.
15

Geng started
the archive before you can open the applicaon. Then, follow the num-
bered secons on the screen.
First, select Panda-Audio midiBeam as a MIDI input, assuming the
receiver device is already plugged in. Else, plug it to a USB port on your
computer, and hit the Refresh buon before selecng the MIDI input
again.
Then, select appropriate audio output sengs. The Driver and Output
should automacally match your default system sengs, thus you do
not need to change them. However, you may have to tweak Buffer
sizes3: put the same number in both boxes, ideally 128,64, or 32
3There is always a tradeoff with audio buffer sizes: they should not be too high (or
else there will be a delay between your breath and the sound), but they should not
be too low either (or else you will hear cracking noises).
16

samples.
ON WINDOWS
If you experience high delays, you might need an ASIO driver designed for low-
latency audio. If your sound card does not provide such drivers, you may want to
install ASIO4ALL at www.asio4all.com.
Finally, click the blue speaker buon and start playing the Sylphyo.
When playing, you should see a light blinking next to the speaker buon.
You can also adjust the volume control slider underneath if necessary.
Quick start with an iOS smartphone or tablet
You can also use the Sylphyo to control sounds generated from any
iOS applicaon on your iPhone, iPod, or iPad. To do so, you will need
the receiver device, the USB cable, and an adapter to connect the USB
cable to the port of your smartphone or tablet.
Please connect these elements as shown on the following diagram:
iPhone
or iPad
Sylphyo
receiver device
wireless
connection
USB cable
adapter
Lightning-to-USB (Lightning port)
or
Camera Connection Kit (30-pin port)
The Garageband app is the simplest way to quickly start playing your Syl-
phyo on iOS. It is also free if your iOS device is newer than September
1, 2014.
17

Geng started
If Garageband is not already installed, download it from the App Store.
Once Garageband is open,select aKeyboard track. Then, tap the down-
wards arrow in the upper le corner of the screen, and select the second
item of the menu (Grand Piano in the image below).
Then, go to Leads and select Vintage Lead. There are other interesng
sounds in this secon, as well as in the Bass, and Others secon. The
laer contains brass and woodwind sounds as well.
If the receiver device is connected to your iOS device, you can directly
play the Sylphyo.
Besides Garageband, you can find other iOS apps that work out of the
box with the Sylphyo, such as Yamaha Synth Book (free, select AN2015
to access 128 synth sounds such as 07 Odyssolo) and bismark bs-16i
(paid). In addion, there are many more paid iOS apps that can be
quickly setup to accept most MIDI messages sent by the Sylphyo (mainly
18

the one controlled by breath intensity, CC11): Thumbjam,Propellerhead
Thor,iProphet and other Arturia synth apps, Korg apps such as iM1,
iWavestaon, and ODYSSEi,iGear Instruments Laplace… See below for
details on how to configure them.
Seng up virtual instruments and apps to work with the
Sylphyo
Through the receiver device, your Sylphyo is automacally recognized
as a standard USB-MIDI device by your computer, smartphone, or tablet,
hence you can directly use any virtual instrument (VSTi,Audio Unit, app…)
that accepts MIDI.
NOTE
On a Mac, your Sylphyo will also work out of the box with most wind and synth
sounds of Garageband.
However, many virtual instruments are not made for wind controllers
and may not respond to breath intensity and other expressive controls.
In this case, you might need to assign some of their parameters to the
MIDI messages sent by the Sylphyo.
See the documentaon of your virtual instrument or plugin host to learn
how to control parameters through MIDI. Usually, a MIDI Learn funcon
will allow you to visually select a parameter, and then to send the MIDI
message (usually a MIDI CC) you’d like to assign to this parameter. To
facilitate the mapping of a specific control of the Sylphyo through MIDI
Learn, go to the Sengs menu in the MIDI Mappings secon, select the
relevant control using ↑/↓or the slider, and blow into your Sylphyo
to send only the corresponding MIDI message.
19

Geng started
Without MIDI Learn, you will have to enter the MIDI message manually.
At the end of this secon, you will find a summary table of the MIDI
messages sent by your Sylphyo that you can map to parameters of your
virtual instrument.
We have successfully used the following virtual instruments and audio
workstaons with the Sylphyo:
Samplemodeling/SWAM (www.samplemodeling.com, paid)
We highly recommend Samplemodeling/SWAM instruments. They offer very
realisc and tremendously expressive control of many classical instruments
(saxophones, flutes, clarinets, double reeds, brass instruments, violin and other
stringed instruments…). For best effect, set Attack Sens. to Express, and set
Expr. Trigger Mode to Fast.
Garageband (www.apple.com, free, Mac only) and Logic Pro (paid)
Most included virtual instruments work out of the box.
Massive (www.nave-instruments.com, paid, demo available)
Use MIDI Learn to assign breath intensity and other controls to sound param-
eters.
Live (www.ableton.com, paid, 30-day trial available)
Many Live instruments can be controlled using the Sylphyo if you use Aer-
touch instead of MIDI CC 11 (see the MIDI Mappings secon of the Sengs
menu). Some instruments, such as Operator, require that you manually map
Aertouch to volume and/or filter frequency, for example.
Reason (www.propellerheads.se, paid, 30-day trial available)
The Subtractor synth has a Ext. Mod secon where you can directly assign
breath intensity (select Expr) to variaons of sound intensity (Amp) or mbre (F.
20