Odisei Music Travel Sax 2

PRACTICE ANYTIME, ANYWHERE, AND IN COMPLETE SILENCE TO THOSE AROUND YOU!

The world of wind synths and digital saxes climbs to even greater heights with the release of the smallest and lightest electronic sax in the world.  The Travel Sax is perfect for sax players as the keywork imitates the layout, feel and action of a real saxophone, making it incredibly intuitive from the first moment you pick it up!

Designed by Odiseimusic of Barcelona, the Travel Sax is intended to be the perfect practice tool to enable saxophonists to be able to practise when you’re simply not able to play your saxophone.  It is incredibly lightweight, compact, and portable and can literally be taken anywhere without restriction.  

The Travel Sax features 72 onboard sounds, and these can all be customized through the bespoke App; and it gets better – within the App, you can program altissimo fingerings, change the breath sensitivity and even record and track your practice sessions!  The Travel Sax also acts as a bluetooth receiver such that you can play music from your phone (backing tracks/YouTube etc) and it will send to the device.  Plug in some headphones and you will hear a mix of Travel Sax and backing track, allowing you lose yourself for hours in your own sound-world!

The Travel Sax has also been designed as a midi controller, allowing you to connect seamlessly to all of the most powerful DAW’s on the market.  

What REALLY counts for sax players who are considering buying this as a practice tool is that the key action is smooth and realistic, allowing you to immediately have the same playing experience as you would do on a regular saxophone.  The Travel Sax not only incorporates adjustable stainless-steel springs to achieve this goal, but also a system of LIGHT SENSORS to determine the triggering of each note.  The sensitivity of this system has been set to 90% which nicely mimics the experience we have when playing a saxophone.

Features

• 72 onboard sounds
• Breath sensor
• Bluetooth transmitter/receiver
• Zero Latency
• Stainless steel key springs (adjustable)
• Midi controller via USB-C
• Compatible with DAW software
• Sounds/effects customizable via bespoke App
• Compatible with all mouthpieces
• built-in speaker

Included with your Travel Sax 2

• Compact carrying case
• Alto sax mouthpiece
• Tenor, Soprano and Baritone extenders
• Charging cable
• Mouthpiece pouch
• Cleaning cloth

Staff review

I am very grateful to the dedicated team at Odisei music who have created these wonderful pieces of technology.  I really believe that this is a unique new tool that has come on to the saxophone market which could be a saving grace for many a sax player around the world. 

During the run-up to making the YouTube video of the Travel Sax 2 I have had two travelling experiences where I have been able to test it in the field!  Firstly, a small family trip to the Cotswolds, and secondly, a trip over to Paris – on both occasions the device performed as it was intended to; playing silently set on my hotel room bed one evening, and on the other trip practising while travelling on the Eurostar!

On first viewing, it almost seems quite shocking, how small, compact, and light it is.  As I explained in our video, there is an element of getting used to having both hands much higher up and closer to your face.  Once you realise that you can still play in a relaxed way with this new position things start clicking into place.  On top of this, because it is so light, you can kind of get away with playing in more relaxed positions, shall we say!  I had a few sofa sessions, and I didn’t feel like my lack of correct posture particularly affected me.

On the technical front, there are some crucial things that I need to mention, as they have the effect of making this a very user-friendly practise tool, rather than some which is awkward and clunky.  Firstly, the use of stainless-steel springs gives you a more realistic saxophone-like playing experience. Personally, I found that I needed the Bis key to be slightly lighter as this is the way my sax is setup, and by following the helpful guidance videos that are available on the app, I was able to easily clip out the key, bend the spring, and re-insert it, creating a lighter spring action.  This ability to customize the playing feel really gives it a unique twist and makes it stand-out from other devices on the market. 

And the second crucial aspect that contributes to making the experience more realistic is the use of light sensors for the key action, rather than the usual touch sensors – it’s been explained to me by the designers that each note kicks in ‘at 90%’ movement of each key, which I definitely feel has a massive impact on the response, and for me it sets it apart from the Yamaha digital saxes which can feel quite unresponsive by comparison.

I also love the simplicity of using the Travel Sax.  Once you have set-up the Bluetooth connections you can very easily send backing tracks from your phone to the Travel Sax, create a mix within the unit, stick on a good pair of headphones and lose yourself in your own little sound-world – and because the whole set-up is so discrete, the person sat beside you on the train is none-the-wiser!

Jim Cheek