So, on the recommendation of some respectable texts about MIDI orchestration, I picked up a Breath Controller – the Yamaha BC3.  So far, after fooling around with it for about an hour, I can see that it will take a bit of practice to become “good” at it.  Since the BC3 cannot determine pitch, you need to do an interesting little dance between the keyboard and your breathing through the device which is not always the easiest thing to do!  However, I’ve found that it can be extremely expressive when it comes to subtle changes for patches that use a cross-fade between different velocities (such as the excellent Symphobia sustained strings, for example).  For this, I assign the BC3 to CC#1 as opposed to the standard Breath Controller CC#2 and the results are impressive!

I’ll check back in again when I have experimented some more with hopefully some “best practice” tips!

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