I have used the Expressionmate on gigs as part of my rig since 2002. It is still functioning (although with some minor problems) after going through 100's of gigs. One disadvantage is it adds to the setup time and I have not been able to streamline the process of connecting midi, power supply and breath control. I have often considered purchasing a kurzweil for the convenience of simply plugging in the ribbon. Although I have a spare , I do keep a look out for used ones. They are getting really rare and expensive. Since I use it all of the time I have pretty much learned how to program it. The manual is confusing but the charts of the various functions eventually give one an idea of how to tame it.
One advantage of the ribbon is that it can sit just above my keys and I do not have to reach to the left to grab the wheels. So its less awkward. Another advantage is I can play basslines in my left hand and pitch bend with my right.
To Jerry's point(hi Jerry!) of using the ribbon as a fingerboard.... I find it hard to use it that way because you have to be extremely accurate in your finger placement to play in tune and there is no way to make the ribbon respond to pitch just being "close enough". But with practice one could get more accuracy. The ribbon is somewhat delicate, it's not hard to break the connection inside the membrane. This happened to me and when I took it to an authorized kurzweil repair person he was not able to repair it. I have been extra careful since then to protect the surface.
As Reesekeys pointed out , the brain is very useful even without the ribbon attached. There are switches and pedal inputs that can do many of the functions of the ribbon. I have an expression pedal set up to do a number of jobs. For example plugging in my Roland dp 8 could act as a sustain pedal, a volume pedal, patch changer, a bend or vibrato pedal.
To Markyboard's comment, I found a website where it was used in a modular rig and there is some details of how the RJ45 phone plug was manipulated.Here is the link:https://modularsynthesis.com/modules/DJB-011/djb011.htm
