Can anybody recommend a good Piano Accordian sample ? Particularly the 'French' type ? Cheers.

Hi, there used to be a good one on the old proteus world module, which may be available somewhere!!!?? sorry cant be more specific...Dave

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My head hurts!

Try this:

http://www.sampletekk.com/proddetail.php?prod=PMIDELIVER-011-FORMAT

Many Thanks, This Looks Good, Cheers.

with a bit of tweaking the accordion int he world instruments section of the included sounds of logic ain't too bad...

something i was messing around with the other night actually...

http://files.me.com/leethorpe/jzm9dn.mp3

(about 30 odd secs in)

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Apple Certified Technician. One half of http://www.turnbacktospring.com

I have been using the PMI accordions for a long time, but just saw this on the best service website:

http://www.bestservice.de/detail1.asp/best_service/accordions/de

Seems a lot more controllable than the PMI ones, which basically sound ok, but you can't do realistic swells or anything like that

AND you can get 30 Euros off with the Sound on Sound promo code (see SOS home page top news story re Best Service)

Ben

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The large print giveth and the small print taketh away

Quote RoastBiff in France:

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Can anybody recommend a good Piano Accordian sample ? Particularly the 'French' type ? Cheers.

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The 'French' sound you're after is what accordionists call 'wet' tuning - for each note played, there are 3 reeds deliberately out-of tune with each other.
This might work: load your fave accordion samples into 3 samplers, copy the midi to all 3, and tune one sampler flat and another sharp - probably 25 cents or more....
... or you might just find some good 'wet' samples

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Real strings online

That's a great idea, Many Thanks

Thank for the Tip, I'll check it out.

Quote Fat Cat Strings:

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Quote RoastBiff in France:

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Can anybody recommend a good Piano Accordian sample ? Particularly the 'French' type ? Cheers.

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The 'French' sound you're after is what accordionists call 'wet' tuning - for each note played, there are 3 reeds deliberately out-of tune with each other.

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I bought a cheap Melodica (which is basically a single reed accordion without bellows) which can sound quite 'French', especially with the right kind of chorus/pitch detune effect applied.

The advantage over a sample is that you get the natural 'swells' of an accordian by breath control.

A versatile, expressive, and unfairly neglected instrument in my opinion. Best 40 quid I ever spent!

Hello,
This is Tari, the producer of Best Service accordions. If you are looking for a French musette accordion you will find a double reed and a single reed musette. You can also use some multi to combine both. Also included a full left hand basses set.
Apart of the sound, the bellows expression you can achieve is unmatched yet.Please, check the videos at Best Service website.

Best regards,

Tari

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www.samplelibraries.com

Hi,

I notice that you have concertina in the list of sampled instruments. Could you give me any details of the type of concertina used?

Thanks in advance,

Chris

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Put the fun back into dysfunctional.
Mr Punch's Studio

Hi Chris,
This is a pic of the concertina I recorded. It is a 20 buttons one, although it has been chromatically mapped. I chose this one because it has the tone I was looking for. The one of the old concertinas.



Thanks for you interest,

Tari

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www.samplelibraries.com

Ah, that's what I was afraid of. It's a German concertina using accordion reeds and so not really suitable for my purpose. True concertinas, usually of English make (though Jurgen Suttner in Germany is an honourable exception and there are others in the US and Australia) use a very different type of reed resulting in a very different sound. I've never found a decent commercial concertina sample yet. I guess I'm going to have to learn how to do it myself ...

Thanks very much for the response. I hope the above doesn't sound very rude, I'm just a concertina obsessive, as my website the Concertina FAQ demonstrates.

Chris

In the end, I bought a f***ed up German accordion at a boot sale for a fiver. A bit of prodding and poking (thank god the bellows were ok) and it works fine. I can play it, up to a point, but sometimes sample notes/chords/swells where the key I'm playing in proves a little difficult to play on the real thing, since some of the keys still stick.

There's only one problem. The jazz musician's definition of a gentleman is 'someone who owns an accordion, but chooses not to play it'

I think there's some truth in that ...



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http://anotherfineday.bandcamp.com/ http://anotherfineday.co.uk http://apollomusic.co.uk

I think a little defence of accordians is appropriate here, especially of the piano variety where most of the problems lie before we get into the definitions of perfect pitch, etc. You can play good music on a piano accordian. It is puzzling to me that so many players make this horrible, slushy, ultra legato, over-chorded ... sound on the instrument, but I've heard it played well and it's great when it is. Diatonic button accordians and concertinas don't seem to have the same problems, fortunately.

Chris

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Put the fun back into dysfunctional.
Mr Punch's Studio

Quote ConcertinaChap:

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Ah, that's what I was afraid of. It's a German concertina using accordion reeds and so not really suitable for my purpose. True concertinas, usually of English make (though Jurgen Suttner in Germany is an honourable exception and there are others in the US and Australia) use a very different type of reed resulting in a very different sound. I've never found a decent commercial concertina sample yet. I guess I'm going to have to learn how to do it myself ...

Thanks very much for the response. I hope the above doesn't sound very rude, I'm just a concertina obsessive, as my website the Concertina FAQ demonstrates.

Chris

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No problem Chris
I plan to add more instruments for next volume, so I note down your advice about the English concertina (I play accordion since I was child). The demos which feature concertina are "Circus Dream" and the first part of "Road to Kemper". Anyway I don't think that this concertina sounds like an accordion at all, it has a very different timbre, much more sweeter, perfect for Celtic tunes for example.
Apart of the sound, which is about tastes, the playability is great. As I told you in the prior mail, the videos show very well that.

Best,

Tari

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www.samplelibraries.com

Well FWIW, here's a couple of mine:-


The left hand one was made by Steve Dickinson and is a 40 button anglo concertina, the right hand one was made by Colin and Rosalie Dipper and is a baritone anglo concertina, i.e. an octave lower than the other one.

PM sent so that we can continue this discussion off the board. I suspect we'd find it fascinating but very few others would.

Cheers,

Chris

Edited by ConcertinaChap (29/09/09 09:37 PM)

Quote ConcertinaChap:

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PM sent so that we can continue this discussion off the board. I suspect we'd find it fascinating but very few others would.

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Please don't, I'm enjoying it! The free reed instruments are all fascinating in my book.

Makes a refreshing change from the ubiquitous guitar talk which clogs up this forum...

Edited by beatmunga (29/09/09 09:58 PM)

Our pleasure. Here's another item of concertina porn to brighten your morning ...



Chris

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Put the fun back into dysfunctional.
Mr Punch's Studio

His is bigger than yours !

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http://anotherfineday.bandcamp.com/ http://anotherfineday.co.uk http://apollomusic.co.uk

Geoff Crabb (the last surviving member of the Crabb family (of Crabb Concertinas, which makes him the last surviving member of any of the old concertina makers) tells of how the firm were commissioned to make a concertina for a music hall performer who apparently wanted to play it while skipping over the bellows. The resulting five foot bellows lasted just a couple of minutes in the hands of the player before he tripped over and crushed them beyond use. An early example, perhaps, of the technology not being up to the user requirement.

Chris

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Put the fun back into dysfunctional.
Mr Punch's Studio

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm lovin' this thread.

I hereby formally request that SOS start a 'Squeezebox Technology' forum.

Note to Mods: PLEASE don't delete this thread AGAIN due to my perceived arse-iness.I really DO love the free reeds. I once dated a Bandoneon. Granted we split up in the end, but only because she admitted that I just didn't push all her buttons.

PS: Sorry for the use of the term 'squeezebox', ConcertinaChap. I believe that you concertina chaps find this term derogatory.

No offence intended!

Like when the public call guitarists 'pubic plank-spankers'.

Keep on bellowin'!

Quote beatmunga:

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PS: Sorry for the use of the term 'squeezebox', ConcertinaChap. I believe that you concertina chaps find this term derogatory.

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In the US they do, for some reason, but in the UK they don't. When the newsgroup rec.music.makers.squeezebox was founded (which I was quite heavily involved in at the time) we Brits just couldn't understand why the American players were so uptight about the name. Still can't for that matter.

Sorry, it has been a fun thread but I'm going silent on it now because we're getting a little bit distant from Mac Music at this point.

Cheers,

Chris

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Put the fun back into dysfunctional.
Mr Punch's Studio

Quote ConcertinaChap:

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Geoff Crabb (the last surviving member of the Crabb family (of Crabb Concertinas, which makes him the last surviving member of any of the old concertina makers) tells of how the firm were commissioned to make a concertina for a music hall performer who apparently wanted to play it while skipping over the bellows. The resulting five foot bellows lasted just a couple of minutes in the hands of the player before he tripped over and crushed them beyond use. An early example, perhaps, of the technology not being up to the user requirement.

Chris

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I think more a case of the user not being up to the user requirement ...

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http://anotherfineday.bandcamp.com/ http://anotherfineday.co.uk http://apollomusic.co.uk

FYI -

I've loved the education I have been getting here.

Also, I've a lovely Hohner alto melodica here. It's been one of my tricks to layer it with sampled brass for a bit of human feel. Triple tracked, it made a lovely accordianish sound for a rendition of 'drunken sailor' I did (don't ask, agency work). It's nice to know that I'm not the only one who has seen the potential of this underrated instrument, underrated much like the accordian - except cheaper and easier to play, a cheat really.

Since some people seem to be enjoying the free-reed porn (), I may as well post a picture of my instrument (ahem...)



It's a Lachenal New Model English concertina, ca. 1920, 60-key treble with raised steel ends and six-fold bellows. The bellows are original and in pretty mint condition. I'm thinking about having the ends polished to make them shiny again. It's sitting atop my Soundcraft 328 mixer, currently used for location recording duties.

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James Percival
Ondes Audio

Well OK, one more bit of concertina lore, since it's relevant to James' post. He has a nice English concertina (the Lachenal New Model was close to the top of their range with only the Edeophone above it), but in this context "English" doesn't mean the place of origin but the type of concertina. The first concertinas were invented by the scientist Charles Wheatstone (who was very interested in sound and also invented the word "microphone", though he didn't mean quite what we understand by the term today) in around 1830 in London. He devised the reeds, the shape and mechanism, the layout of the notes and coined the name "concertina". When later types of concertina were invented, Wheatstone's became known as the "English" concertina to distinguish it.

The English concertina can fairly lay claim to be the only native English musical instrument, and was invented by the man who did a lot of the fundamental research that sound recording is based on. That's not a bad heritage for James' instrument.

Chris

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Put the fun back into dysfunctional.
Mr Punch's Studio

ConcertinaChap,

You are the Steven Fry of the free-reeds and I for one hope you stick around this thread which started as a valid Mac sampler query but which has mutated by natural selection into an absolute humdinger!

We salute you, Sir...

Long may you continue!

I reference to Charles Wheatstone, here's a Wiki For those who wish to delve deeper...

Click here

Fascinating chap.

And to JohnnyT, if you are a melodica fan, I take it that you have checked out the master, Augustus Pablo...

"Jah Light" is a personal favourite.

All hail the hooters!