Origins
The Electronic Valve Instrument was invented back in the early 1970s by
Nyle Steiner. The first production instruments were using mechanical switches
in a handset connected to an analog synthesizer module, and they were sold
from 1975 to 1979 by the Steiner-Parker company. When the company had
dissolved, the instrument was produced by Crumar.
In the mid 80s, Steiner designed and built a number of instruments with a
more complex synthesizer and touch sensing for the keys. They were referred to
as Steinerphones, and and came in both brass and woodwind variety.
In 1987 a new type of EVI was licensed and sold by AKAI. This new version
together with its woodwind counterpart released at the same time, the EWI, was
using touch sensing for the finger controls and a programmable synth module
capable of sending MIDI for controlling other synthesizers. The Akai EVI was
discontinued due to not selling as well as the EWI that is still made by AKAI in
new incarnations.
For a while Nyle Steiner did conversions of then current model EWIs into
EVIs, until in 1998 when he started building and selling the MIDI EVI he had
developed. The MIDI EVI was built to work as a controller for MIDI equipped
synthesizers, with no sound synthesis capability of its own. For several years this
has been the controller/instrument of choice for EVI players, even when the
newer EWIs got alternative EVI fingering settings.
In recent years the MIDI EVI has become hard to come by. Steiner has
moved on to many other projects and interests, and so very few new EVIs are
being built. In 2012 he posted a YouTube video demonstrating a prototype for
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