Roland Aerophone GO AE-05

Ended up choosing this model after weighing in the price, size, features and compatibility with 3rd party software vendors. Have not had to regret the decision!

The physical layout enables practising sax fingerings and test out tunes easily, quietly and fast. Since the Aerophone is a MIDI device, you can use it with various music production software and thus tweak the sounds to your liking. The included soundbank is suitable mostly for practise sessions, but it fits the bill for quick tryout sessions on the spot. I haven't used the internal speaker much, since the output is really flat and narrow, but it's a nice addition to have as well if you need to quickly demo a tune for someone else and don't have an external speaker to connect to.

Pro's:
- small and lightweight
- follows standard sax keying
- breath control pretty linear
- enables long practise sessions anytime, anywhere
- USB MIDI output

Con's:
- breath and bite control not exactly analogous to a real sax
- some key presses not always registered
- a bit plasticky

Overall extremely happy going for this model!

If you want to use this as a stand alone electric wind instrument; look at the more expensive models.

The sounds are "ok" for practice and play, but don't hold up in any professional capacity.

If, however you use it as a breath controller for a DAW with good breath controllable instruments / VSTi... then suddenly you have something that sounds great, and is a lot more expressive than just a normal keyboard.

I played saxophone when i was younger, and i wanted something to bring back the experience of a wind instrument in my music production. The Aerophone Go works great as something to just play with when I'm traveling and just want to practice or just jam. But when i hook it up to my DAW and match it with something like the SWAM instruments or other great plugins, then suddenly i can get really good sounding woodwind or brass in my tracks, with more natural breath feel. I LOVE IT!