The KeyWI: An Expressive and Accessible Electronic Wind Instrument

This paper presents the KeyWI, an electronic wind instrument design based on the melodica that both improves upon limitations in current systems and is general and powerful enough to support a variety of applications. Four opportunities for growth are identified in current electronic wind instrument systems, which then are used as focuses in the development and evaluation of the instrument. The instrument features a breath pressure sensor with a large dynamic range, a keyboard that allows for polyphonic pitch selection, and a completely integrated construction. Sound synthesis is performed with Faust code compiled to the Bela Mini, which offers low-latency audio and a simple yet powerful development workflow. In order to be as accessible and versatile as possible, the hardware and software is entirely open-source, and fabrication requires only common maker tools.