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Review ‘Best of Accordions’
WersiClub UK.Focus
Best of Accordions Sound Package
A personal review by Ken Belton
A personal review - for two reasons. Firstly, as I have previously mentioned, the Piano Accordion
was the first musical instrument I took an interest in and learned to play on at the age of 21, a bit of
a late starter you might say!! Secondly, at one stage I owned a Hohner Morino IV Piano
Accordion, which is almost identical (minus one set of reeds) to the Morino V which is one of the
instruments sampled for this package, and although this was quite a few years ago I can still
remember the sounds and general layout of this instrument.
I taught myself the basics from a mail tuition course of twenty lessons but I don’t really remember
ever advancing much beyond about the tenth, (reading and books not being a strong point of mine)
and I never really had the patience at that stage (regrettably) to learn about all those black dots.
This however was compensated for a little by the realization that I had unwittingly stored up in my
memory loads of tunes which I had obviously accumulated from a very early age from listening to
music on the radio programmes that my parents had on at that time.
After getting the hang of what the black and white keys were for and the sounds they produced it
was not then to difficult to tap into this pool of old tunes and transfer them to the keys. Of course it
was not note perfect, it was just how I thought the tunes went, just as my playing still is today I’m
afraid.
Being inexperienced with any type of instrument at that stage, to me an Accordion was just an
Accordion full stop. However, it seemed I had a good enough ear to recognise that the Accordion
that I had did not sound the same as the ‘guy with a feather in his hat’ who played at an Austrian
restaurant that I went to now and again.
The reason for this of course, as he explained to me, was the tuning of the reeds. The reeds of his
Accordion had been specially tuned to suit his country’s musical culture. I now realized that there
was not just one Accordion but many, all tuned to suit a particular country’s musical styles and
traditions. This, for me, made them far more interesting and now leads me, finally, on to the
package itself.
About the ‘Best of Accordions Sound Package’
Within the package eight different types of Accordion have been sampled that all have their own
particular type of sound which is mostly attributed to the ‘tuning of the reeds’ The list on the next
page are the instruments that have been sampled.
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Review ‘Best of Accordions’
Please note. For those of you with far more experience of the acoustic Accordion than I have, the
heading Sound definition is only a general guide to help distinguish one type from another, as of
course the Morino V, for example, is capable of accommodating many other types of music other
than just the ‘Scottish sound’ I have listed.
Accordion Make
Manufactured
Sound Definition
Hohner Morino V
Germany
Good Scottish Sound
Weltmeister Supita 1
Germany
German Sound
?
Alpine Tyrolian
Mengascini (Holland Akkordion)
Italy
Dutch
Cavagnola Mussette American
France
Latin American
Cavagnola Musette 2 Voix
France
French Musette
Cavagnola Musette 3 Voix
France
Richer French Musette
Alpine Akkordion
Schweizer Orgli
(Swiss Organ - I think!)
Very good sound for the ‘Cuckoo Waltz’
The Sounds and Registers
Within the OAS sound database we have many Accordions already but I have to admit that I rarely
use them as the type of sound that I look for from an Accordion is just not there. Ok, I know you
can tweak and edit the sounds but even then for me, it is sill not quite right somehow.
For me, the sound samples in this package are absolutely spot on. The Hohner Morino V is exactly
as I remember my own instrument sounding. In fact whatever type of music I wish to play now, be
it Scottish, German, Dutch, French etc, I have the authentic sounds that I have wished for at the
touch of a button or register with no editing or tweaking whatsoever. Absolutely brilliant!! The
Accordion sound will definitely be a part of my presets again from now on.
Aftertouch can be used very effectively with these sounds. The acoustic Accordion’s volume is
controlled by the amount of pressure that is applied to the Bellows. Pressing the keys at the
beginning or end of a musical phrase has much the same effect as pushing the Bellows harder
without the need to alter the volume pedal position.
The registers work very well and are very responsive and clearly marked and will be much
appreciated by those who are familiar with using Accordions.
Another very interesting feature of the registers is the sound produced when a coupler is pressed.
No two sounds are alike and, more interestingly, returning to the same register after pressing
another does not produce exactly the same sound every time. From my own experience this is
what happens when registers are pressed with an acoustic Accordion.
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Review ‘Best of Accordions’
As players of the ‘Keyboard Orchestra’, which possibly is what our Organs should be referred to
as, we like to add various effects to our music including ‘Reverb’ and why not it all helps to create
a fuller sound that is easier on the ear than a totally dry sound with no effects. However, the
acoustic Accordion has no such effects, reverb is created by the surroundings the instrument is
played in. So to hear the true sound of the register shift and strictly speaking all of the other
sounds as well, just for a minute, go to Effects and alter the reverb to Off then listen to the
register shift and sounds again, when you will here a more authentic true sound.
Applying the ‘Main Accordions’ to the manuals
I will refer to the Accordion in the sound list that activates the registers as Main Accordions
Select Quickload then Sounds. From the Groups list” select Accordions. Then select any of the
Main Accordions from the Sound List (as in examples on page 2) then, with the exception of
Schweizer Orgli which is a sound sample only, the ‘Registers’ or ‘Couplers’ will appear at the
bottom of the Main Screen as in the example below.
The Main Accordions can be applied to any manual but is best operated from Upper 1 as when
your preset is selected the registers appear automatically. For myself I can see advantages also of
using them in some presets on Lower 2. In this case when the preset is selected the registers will
not appear.
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Review ‘Best of Accordions’
To activate the registers of the main Accordion when using on manuals other than Upper 1.
In the example below, the main Accordion has been assigned to Lower 2
1) Touch Lower 2 on the Main Screen and you then see the Main Accordion in the Sounds at the
bottom of the screen.
2) Touch the Sound Button that has the main Accordion on it and the registers will then appear.
3) It is also advisable, should you change any octaves from the default settings on the manuals you
have the main Accordion registers on, to go to the Selectors Advanced page and uncheck Reset
Controllers as each time a register is pressed or they are loaded from the Sound button onto the
manual, it is in effect loading another sound, and if the Reset Controllers remains checked it will
return the octave to default setting. When playing the instrument with the Reset Controllers
unchecked, the registers can then be loaded and operated and the octaves will be unchanged.
Applying additional sounds to other manuals
Each of the Main Accordions have additional sounds, ranging from five with the Alpine Accordion
to thirteen on the Hohner Morino ie. thirteen registers, thirteen sound variations. All of the sounds
can be loaded independently of the Main Accordions just like any other sound.
The Hohner Morino V is the only one that gives an indication in the sound list of what each sound
represents as regards the type of instrument intended, as in the example on the left below. This is
possibly because the Morino has the instrument written on or by the register and the others
possibly do not. The others are listed as numbers depending on how many registers each
Accordion has as in the example on the right below.
In the example on ‘page 3’ I have added additional sounds to all manuals from the Hohner Morino
V to create my own version of a ‘Scottish Accordion band’ This however is perhaps using the
Accordions to the extreme, whereas for the most part, a single appropriate Accordion sound would
more likely to be used to compliment other instruments in our arrangements.
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Review ‘Best of Accordions’
Basic Acoustic Accordion Explanation
For the benefit of those new to Accordions, each Dot on a register represents a set of Reeds.
Most of the instruments sampled have a total of four sets of reeds except for the Morino V which
has five sets and the Holland which has three sets. The Instruments are usually referred to as
2, 3, 4 or 5 Voice
Basically the lower reed dot is 16’ and usually termed as Bassoon. The centre reed dots are 8’
and termed as clarinet. The top reed dot is 4’ and is termed as Piccolo. The more dots that are
on the register the richer and fuller the sound will be when it is pressed.
The Cavagnola Musette 2 Voix and 3 voix also have four sets of reeds which is a little confusing
having given the explanation of the term Voice above.
Hopefully I am right when I say that the 2 Voix has two of the four sets of reeds tuned musette
and the 3 Voix has three tuned musette.
Summary
The appeal of this package I feel will be mostly continental Europe for which I am sure it was
mainly intended as the Accordion is still far more widely in use there than it is now here in the UK.
However for those that are possibly a little like myself with a background and keen interest in the
instrument, and are maybe looking for something a little more sound authentic, then ‘Best of
Accordions’ could definitely be worth a closer look for you.
If you have any questions regarding this package please feel free to contact me as it is possible I
may be able to help as I have the package installed on my Organ.
Ken
May 2009
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