Aodyo Sylphyo User manual
Contents
The Sylphyo at a glance ................................. 5
Overview (6) • What’s in the box? (6) • First steps (7) • What is there to
see? (9) • What is there to touch? (10) • What is it, exactly? (11)
Playing the Sylphyo .................................... 13
Playing posion (13) • Breath control (14) • Fingerings (17) • Shake vi-
brato (18) • Ineral mode (19) • Elevaon, roll, and compass control (20)
• The slider (21) • Changing sounds (23)
Using the Sylphyo as a controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Quick start using a Windows or macOS computer (25) • Quick start with
an iOS smartphone or tablet (27) • Seng up virtual instruments and
apps to work with the Sylphyo (29) • Default MIDI mappings and general
recommendaons (31)
The Link receiver ...................................... 33
Overview (33) • Pairing with a Sylphyo (35) • Playing wirelessly using the
internal sounds (36) • Playing wirelessly with a computer (37) • Playing
wirelessly with an iOS smartphone or tablet (38) • Playing wirelessly with
a hardware synthesizer (38) • MIDI roung (39)
Sengs .............................................. 41
Quick sengs (41) • Sengs menu (42)
Sounds .............................................. 57
MacGun (57) • Daphnis Flute (58) • House of Chords (59) • Meow (60)
• Sync Asset (61) • Soyuz LT (62) • Corroboree (63) • Chalumeau (64) •
Chameleon Bass (65)
Fingerings ............................................ 67
Recorder (67) • Clarinet (68) • Flute (69) • Saxophone (70) • Saxophone
(alt.) (71) • Oboe (72) • Trumpet (EVI) (73) • EWI (75) • Hulusi (76) • Celc
3
Contents
(77) • Oriental clarinet (78) • Saxophone (old) (79) • Whistle (80) • Ionian,
Dorian, and other modes (81)
Online support ........................................ 83
Updates (83) • Troubleshoong and technical support (84) • User com-
munity (84)
Complementary informaon ............................. 85
Repairing the Sylphyo (85) • Using the baery (85) • Cleaning (85) • Using
the connectors and the switch (86) • Using the mouthpiece (86) • Disposal
and recycling (86) • Trademarks (86) • Disclaimer (87)
4
The Sylphyo at a glance
A warm thank you from the Aodyo team for believing in us and supporng
our work! We hope you will love using your Sylphyo as much as we do.
Sylphyo is an electronic wind instrument that reproduces the feeling of
an acousc wind instrument. Like them, it is played by blowing into a
mouthpiece and selecng notes using keys on the front of the instru-
ment. However, unlike other wind instruments, the Sylphyo is also sen-
sive to your movements, as well as the way you touch it, oering novel
expressive possibilies.
To be able to hear the sound of your Sylphyo, plug it to your head-
phones, amp, or any other sound system. Your Sylphyo also allows you
to control any hardware synthesizer or virtual instrument on your com-
puter1.
Your Sylphyo becomes wireless when paired to a Link receiver, which
you might have already bought. This means that instead of connecng
the Sylphyo directly to your sound system, computer, or synthesizer,
you can connect the Link receiver instead, and use your Sylphyo freely
without being bothered with cables.
Of course, nothing prevents you from using it both wired and wireless.
For instance, you could use the headphones output of the Sylphyo as
1Before August 2018, the Sylphyo was only a controller and could not produce any
sound on its own, so you had to have a synthesizer or virtual instrument to use it.
5
The Sylphyo at a glance
an in-ear monitor on stage while the Link is connected to the control
booth.
Overview
Aodyo key
Mini-USB port
Bell
Power-on switch
Headphone output
Mouthpiece
Display
Thumbrest
Octave keys
Se@ngs keys
Slider
Note keys
What's in the box?
VIDEO youtu.be/yZnmMfIc1EI
TUnboxing
Two accessories2are included along with your Sylphyo:
5W charger
Plug the 5W charger into a mains socket in order to
charge the baery of the Sylphyo using the USB cable.
2Before August 2018, the Sylphyo did not include sounds and there wasn’t a Link
wireless receiver. Instead, there was a small black wireless receiver that could be
connect to a computer (via USB) or to a synthesizer (via MIDI) in order to receive a
signal from the Sylphyo.
6
USB cable
Use the USB cable to connect the receiver device to
your computer.
You might also have bought a Link wireless receiver to turn your Sylphyo
into a wireless instrument. You can use the charger and USB cable to
power your Link receiver, or to connect it to a computer. For more
informaon about the Link receiver, please see the dedicated secon.
First steps
When you unbox your Sylphyo, its baery might not be fully charged.
Before turning it on for the rst me, make sure you charge it for up to
8 hours. This ensures that the baery is not in deep discharge mode,
which could prevent the instrument from funconing correctly.
mains
socket
Sylphyo
5W charger
USB cable
Once the baery is fully charged, you can begin using your Sylphyo.
Connect your headphones into the headphone output near the bell,
and turn on your Sylphyo using the power-on switch just next to the
headphone output.
7
The Sylphyo at a glance
IMPORTANT
Once the Sylphyo has been turned on, do not blow into it nor press any key before
the main screen is shown on the display. During this me, your Sylphyo calibrates
its sensors to ensure the best response while playing.
VIDEO youtu.be/geMjQZJpwLA
TQuick start with headphones
Then, follow the instrucons that appear on the display.
Select a language using the three octave keys just
below the display. The middle one acts as a ◆
(“OK”) buon, while the other two act as ↑and
↓buons.
Hold the key using your le index nger.
Make sure your nger stays in contact with it unl
you see the main screen.
While connuing to hold the key, swipe your
right thumb from the boom to the top of the
slider to dismiss the text and enter the main
screen.
When you nally reach the main screen, blow into
the mouthpiece. Congratulaons, you just made
your rst note!
8
In the next secon, you’ll learn how to play dierent notes and change
the mbre of your sound. But before that, let’s get to know your Syl-
phyo a bit beer.
What is there to see?
The display of your Sylphyo provides you with three main screens that
provide you with all the relevant informaon to perform and congure
it according to your needs.
Performance screen
This is where you will spend most of your me.
You can see a quick recap of your performance pa-
rameters, such as the base key, the current sound,
or the currently played note. You can also have a
quick glance at important informaon about your
Sylphyo, such as baery life or wireless status.
Quick sengs
Holding the key while in the performance
screen moves you to Quick sengs, which we de-
signed to allow you to very quickly change your
performance parameters (base key, sound selec-
on, and MIDI channel) during your performance,
without even having to look at your screen. More
parameters (volume, and breath intensity CC) can
be selected by simply tapping on the slider with
your right thumb.
9
The Sylphyo at a glance
Sengs menu
Holding the key while swiping your thumb from
the boom to the top of the slider moves you
to the Sengs menu, where you can customize
many aspects of your Sylphyo, from the ngerings
to the way it responds to your movements.
What is there to touch?
The following explains the dierent keys and touchable elements you
can interact with.
↑
↑
◆
++
--
cde
ab
aThe Aodyo key ( ) allows you to enter Quick sengs, which you
enter as soon as the key is pressed, and leave as soon as it is re-
leased.
You can also access the Sengs menu by holding while sliding
your thumb over the slider from boom to top.
Inside the Sengs menu, pressing always allows you to go back
to the previous screen.
10
bNote keys allow you to select the played note. The default n-
gerings are similar to a modern recorder, however they can be
changed in the Sengs menu.
cEach octave key acts like a recorder thumb hole, or like a saxo-
phone octave key, but at dierent octaves ( ◆is the base octave,
↑goes up by 1 octave, and ↓goes down by 1 octave).
In Quick sengs (when you keep pressing the key), octave keys
allow you to select a quick seng.
In the Sengs menu, you can select a menu item using ↑and
↓, and conrm using ◆.
dSengs keys allow you to increase ( +) or decrease ( -) some
parameters in the Quick sengs and the Sengs 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 vercally.
It also allows you to access the Sengs menu by sliding from the
very boom to the top while pressing the key.
In the Sengs menu, you can also use the slider to select and con-
rm 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 boom.
What is it, exactly?
Your Sylphyo is a musical instrument: it is a tool that turns your gestures
into sounds. Once you learn how to play it, it becomes an extension of
your mouth and hands, allowing you to convey emoons and intenons
11
The Sylphyo at a glance
in a musical form, respecng most nuances you put into playing.
Your Sylphyo can also be a controller: when it processes input from its
various sensors (breath, ineral, capacive…), it determines what you
are doing, and then can send orders (e.g., start playing a so C note) to a
soware or hardware synthesizer that processes these orders and pro-
duces sounds. These orders are formaed as messages in the MIDI
communicaon 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.
With the Link receiver, your Sylphyo is also wireless: what the Sylphyo
interprets from your gestures is connuously transmied from the Syl-
phyo to the Link receiver through radio waves (typically in less than a
millisecond), and the Link receiver turns that into sound and into MIDI
messages, that it then passes on to your computer, smartphone, tablet,
or hardware synth, which then produces sound. When using internal
sounds, the whole process does not take more than a few milliseconds,
and when using MIDI it should take between 5 and 20 milliseconds
(gesture-to-sound), 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-
et from further soware and hardware improvements3. Updates to
the internal soware are free, designed for all exisng Sylphyo units,
and you can download them on our website. In the future, you will also
be able to buy an acve mouthpiece with extra sensors for even more
expressiveness.
3If you bought a Sylphyo before August 2018, you can purchase the sound upgrade to
turn it into a Sylphyo +Link combo with sounds.
12
Playing the Sylphyo
In this secon, you will learn to control various aspects of the instrument,
as well as several expression techniques that you can start praccing right
away.
Like any wind instrument, your Sylphyo is played by blowing air into its
mouthpiece. Your breath then ows through the body of the instrument,
which produces sound as a result. Although the Sylphyo has a very
dierent way of making sound compared to acousc instruments, it
has been designed to be played just like one.
If you are familiar with wind instruments, feel free to skip the rst few
subsecons.
BEFORE YOU START PLAYING FOR THE FIRST TIME
Please make sure of the following:
−your Sylphyo is fully charged (leave it charging up to 8 hours the rst me),
−your headphones are connected to the headphones output of the Sylphyo
near the bell,
−your Sylphyo is powered on (using the power-on switch near the bell).
Playing posion
Grab your Sylphyo with your le hand, and put your right thumb below
the thumbrest. Then, place the ngers of your le hand on the four
13
Playing the Sylphyo
topmost note keys, and place the ngers of your right hand on the re-
maining four boom keys. In the base playing posion, your le thumb
should touch the middle octave key.
NOTE
The base playing posion is a bit similar to the recorder, with two dierences: there
is an addional le pinky ``hole'', and you don't need to cover the keys enrely, just
to touch them.
VIDEO youtu.be/HTyGKMpCDoM
THolding the Sylphyo
Breath control
Now, place the mouthpiece between your lips, and gently blow into it.
You should hear a sound coming out of your headphones. Don’t worry
if you don’t really like what you hear, because your Sylphyo can play
several dierent sounds, and you’ll soon learn how to play them.
14
When you blow more air, the sound intensies, and when you blow
more lightly, its intensity decreases. When you stop blowing, the sound
stops.
Take a moment to appreciate the relaonship between how hard you
blow and how intense the sound is. You should noce that the way
you breathe has an impact on the mbre of the instrument: loud notes
seem brighter, and so notes seem darker.
NOTE
You can generally observe this in most sounds, but somemes your breath will have
a more dramac eect on the mbre (like making it roar), and somemes it'll be less
pronounced (like merely changing the volume).
Even if the sound somemes seems to linger or reverberate for a bit
aer you stop blowing, your breath is its fuel: it provides it with energy,
makes it exist, and keeps it going. Using your breath, you can shape
a note a bit like you would brush a stroke on a canvas: during your
gesture, you determine exactly how and where you want to apply your
ink to the painng1. There are many ways to shape a note. Let’s try
some of them:
Short and long
Try several note duraons, from really short
notes to really long ones.
So and loud
Try to make a so note, then a really so one,
and nally a really loud one that becomes a lit-
tle more muted at the end.
1And somemes your brush ends up running out of ink in the middle of a stroke, so
don’t forget to breathe!
15
Playing the Sylphyo
Crescendo and descrescendo
Start by making a really so note, then increase
its intensity in a very gradual way. Stay at the
loudest for a moment, then make it soer and
soer unl it vanishes.
Tremolo
Try maintaining a note for a second, then use
your throat to soly oscillate the amount of air.
tu ku du tukutudu
Staccato
Have you paid aenon at how you use your
throat and tongue when playing a note? Some
people naturally do fuu, while others do tuu,
duu or kuu, but all have a dierent eect on
your sound.
Try them all to see how they more or less de-
tach each note from the other.
frrrrrrrrrrrrr
Fluer-tonguing
Rolling the “R”s, or uer-tonguing, has a dra-
mac eect on the sound, but should be used
sparingly.
VIDEO youtu.be/yK-2y5c6CVg
TDierent ways to shape a note
NOTE
If you feel a bit winded aer playing for some me, you might want to limit the air
ow by covering part of the hole in the bell using adhesive tape or puy. It might
also be a good idea to increase the Range of breath control in the Breath secon of
the Sengs menu.
16
Now that you can shape notes and create rhythm, let’s focus on how
you can apply melody.
Fingerings
When you are in the playing posion, each of your ngers is assigned to
a specic note key, and your le thumb touches any of the ve octave
keys above the thumbrest.
left
thumb
(octave key)
left
index
left
middle
left
ring
left
pinky
right
index
right
middle
right
ring
right
pinky
First, touch all the note keys in the front except the one under your
le lile nger. Also touch the middle octave key on the back of your
Sylphyo using your le thumb.
To represent this parcular ngering, we’ll use the notaon
(or XxxxOxxxX in textual form).
If you blow into the mouthpiece, you will hear a Cnote on the third
octave (C3).
Then, raise your right lile nger ( ), and blow into the mouth-
piece again: you now hear a D3.
Connue raising your ngers one by one, from boom to top, blow-
ing into the mouthpiece each me so as to hear the notes you play.
When only your le index nger remains in the front of the Sylphyo
( ), you are playing a B3.
17
Playing the Sylphyo
Finally, raise your le index and touch the le middle nger key ( ),
then blow into the mouthpiece: you just ended the C major scale with
aC4 (Cnote on the fourth octave).
VIDEO youtu.be/8YTuDTQgfWw
TPlaying the C major scale
The ngerings are very close to the modern recorder, and if you are
familiar with it you will quickly be able to play any note in the chromac
scale. There is one addion though: the le lile nger key raises any
note by a semitone (for example, C3 will become Db3).
NOTE
If you are used to another wind instrument, you might want to try out another n-
gering mode. You will nd ngerings adapted from the saxophone, the ute, the
clarinet, the trumpet, the bagpipe, and many others.
To change the ngering, check out the Keys secon of the Sengs menu.
One of the later secons of this guide describes all the available nger-
ing modes.
Shake vibrato
To emphasize specic notes in your melody, you might want to apply vi-
brato while playing. Vibrato is a common performance technique where
the played pitch slightly varies in a periodic fashion, introducing a feel-
ing of movement and expression.
18
C
C♯
B
D
A♯
To make a vibrato, repeatedly and slightly shake your Sylphyo away
from and towards your mouth while playing a note.
VIDEO youtu.be/0S-sE7vTMIY
TUsing shake vibrato
Usually, electronic instruments only allow you to control vibrato at a
xed rate or intensity, but with shake vibrato you can control all aspects
of your vibrato. Just vary the speed at which you shake the instrument.
Ineral mode
Using ineral mode, you can also make music without blowing into it,
just by moving your Sylphyo around.
Shake to move
Acvate the ineral mode by gently, but rmly shak-
ing your Sylphyo from top to boom (shake-to-move),
while maintaining contact with the slider using your
thumb. You should see a white line with the capon IN-
ERTIAL MODE on the boom edge of the performance
screen.
19
Playing the Sylphyo
Tilt for slow variaons
Now, slowly lt your Sylphyo from the vercal to the
horizontal posion. You should start hearing sound at
a 45° angle, and it should reach its maximum intensity
when the Sylphyo is horizontal. In ineral mode, the
elevaon angle of your Sylphyo (how you lt it) always
replaces the intensity of your breath in the control of
sounds.
Shake for fast aacks
Tilng is ne for slow variaons, but you can also pro-
duce fast aacks using the same gesture that acvates
ineral mode: shaking the Sylphyo from top to boom.
The intensity of the aack will be proporonal to the
velocity of your movement.
To stop ineral mode, just blow into the Sylphyo.
VIDEO youtu.be/gREmnvqR8
TUsing ineral mode
INERTIAL MODE AND SHAKE VIBRATO
While in ineral mode, the shake vibrato behaves a lile bit dierently: you must
shake the Sylphyo laterally.
Elevaon, roll, and compass control
Aside from ineral mode, you can also move your Sylphyo around while
playing to get all kinds of dierent eects on your sound.
20
Other manuals for Sylphyo
1
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