EWI -- Cool ... what is it?

I've been playing Akai's Electric Wind Instrument (EWI) for many years. It's incredibly fun to play and sounds awesome. It's both a synthesizer and a MIDI controller, which means that it can sound like almost anything, because in addition to its built-in synthesizer sounds, it can also be used to control other electronic instruments including samplers and soft-synths on a computer or iPad.

The expressive control on the EWI is amazing. The mouthpiece senses breath pressure (how much air is being blown through the instrument) and bite pressure (squeezing the mouthpiece with lips or teeth), and those controls can trigger changes in loudness, intensity, vibratro, growl and other effects. In addition to controlling what notes are being played, the player's fingers and thumbs can also be used to perform pitch bend, portamento/glide, and many other functions that can be programmed to the various touch controls.