Subject: Update Ver3: Piano Accordion for The Recycled Muso
From:
The Fooles Troupe
Date: 22 Dec 03 - 02:10 AM
The Piano Accordion for The Recycled Muso
Version 3 Design.txt
This Opus is Copyright - © Robin Hayes who asserts his International Claim to be recognized as the Author of this work. This version is still in Development.
A Brief History of Constructions.
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Pietro Deiro is credited with adding the Piano Style Keyboard in about 1920. You may find very old boxes, and these may have metal end plates, not plastic. They may well be worn out, or in need of extensive maintenance due to wear and tear, and you may think you need a forklift! You can get portable holder stands, which you just sidle up to these days. These may not be the most suitable instruments for The Recycled Muso, unless you intend Historical Re-enactment.
Those made with nitrate shells about the period of WWI - WWII were no better than ones made after the 1980's. Rolf Harris had his Piano Accordion explode into flames on stage under the heat of the lights - thus this doubtless was a nitrate plastic covered box. After the fire it was still playable!
Acetate (when used for film stock it was called "safety film") plastic covered ones came later - it seems that modern ones don't use nitrate - exactly what they use I don't know, but there are many different types of plastics nowadays.
After WWII in Italy, many Accordion Makers had worked in airplane factories, and some of those workers now knew much about making things in aluminum and crafting streamlined shapes. The peak of perfection in construction - "The Golden Days" - was in the 1950's - 1970's.
Until the 1950’s, makers made the Keyboard Keys with their long side key to key edges squarish: since then, they have been made more beveled. This earlier arrangement can slow down Keyboard Glissando (Slide).
Fashions have changed. The style of Keyboard called "Waterfall" has keys with curved front edges, and is indicative of an older instrument, mostly prior to the 1940's. Incidentally, this type of Keyboard is thus immune to damage caused by the straps getting caught under them when packing the Instrument in the storage case! Most modern instruments have a squarish front or are slightly lipped like many Piano Keyboards Key front edges.
Piano Accordion Design Philosophy.
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The design philosophy of the Piano Accordion is based on the same basic principles as the much older Pipe Organ, and copied by the later period Reed Harmonium which proceeded the Piano Accordion; where each Keyboard Key is connected to potentially more than one Pipe, and each Pipe Rank is allowed to speak in potential combination with each other Pipe Rank through the action of Register Switches.
Each Pipe Rank in the "Unison" Register produces a note at the designed pitch of the keyboard - called the "8 Foot Pitch". This term refers to the particular length of the pipe for a particular pitch in the Pipe Rank. The octave below is called the "16 Foot Pitch" and the octave above is called the "4 Foot Pitch" - you may hear these references in the Piano Accordion world.
Other Pipe Ranks produce pitches at other relative intervals both of multiple octaves and other partial octave intervals to generate differing sound envelopes when used in varying combinations, the further exact details of which are outside the scope of this Opus.
The Piano Accordion uses Reed Ranks instead of Pipe Ranks.
Piano Accordions have only potential Lower, Unison and Higher Octave couplings, and the Reed Ranks switched by the Register Switches are referred to as the "L-M-H" (Low-Medium-High) combination for that Register Switch. The M pitch is the "Unison" or "8 Foot" Pitch. The L rank is tuned an octave lower than the M ranks. The H rank is tuned an octave higher than the M ranks.
The Master Switch for each of the Keyboard and Bass Sides always enables all Reed Ranks on that side.
Small Piano Accordions may have no Register Switches. If the number of Reed Ranks is one or two (for both Keyboard or Bass Sides), the effort and expense of providing Register Switches is often considered pointless as the instrument is just "balanced" to give one particular sound. As the size and thus the consequent extra facilities of the instrument is increased, a greater range of satisfying effects can be achieved by varying combinations of the various Reed Ranks through Register Switches.
Each Reed Rank in the "Unison" Register produces appropriate notes at the designed pitch of the keyboard. There may be more than one "Unison" Reed Rank, but then the notes from each Reed Rank are not tuned to precise identical pitch. The difference in Pitch between two speaking reeds results in a "beat frequency" of a rate equal to the difference in cycles per second (or Hertz - Hz) between the two pitches. This is called "Tremolo" in this Opus. If there are three speaking Reeds nearly equal in pitch, a richer and more complex sound results.
This may seem complex at first, but the "Unison" Reed Ranks can be a single one (M), two (M-M), or more rarely three (M-M-M). The amount of the difference in pitches is responsible for the character of the sound: very close settings are called "Dry" - further apart are called "Wet"; different styles of music are traditionally associated with different Tremolo Tone Characters. The actual details of this are beyond the scope of this Opus.
The Double Reed Rank setup (M-M) is called the "Tremulant" or "Tremolo". They may be tuned "Unison - Slightly Sharp" or "Slightly Flat - Unison" or more rarely "Slightly Flat - Slightly Sharp". Each has a particular character, especially when used in combination with the L & H Reed Ranks. Any Reed Ranks not in Unison may be controlled via Register Switches to allow different characters of Tone Color, allowing a wider range of music types to be played on the same instrument.
The Triple Reed Rank setup (M-M-M) is traditionally called the "French Musette Setting" as it attempts to reproduce a sound similar to the traditional Corn-musette reed instrument (a type of Bagpipe) which was common in France at the time of the spread of the Piano Accordion. The Corn-musette or Cornamuse was largely replaced in France for musical purposes by the Piano Accordion, which is why the "Traditional French Accordion Sound" is what it is!
The Three Musette Unison Reed Ranks are usually tuned "Slightly Flat - Unison - Slightly Sharp", but other combinations are discussed elsewhere in this Opus. The various Unison Reed Ranks may be controlled via Register Switches to allow different characters of tone, allowing a wider range of music types to be played on the same instrument, and if the instrument has L or H Reed Ranks as well, may be used in various pre-set combinations with them.
Some non-Unison Reed Ranks may be "detuned" by a few cents. See the Definition of "Chorus Effect". When combinations of these upper and lower Octave Reed Ranks are selected with the M (Unison) Reed Ranks, you will obtain a richness of sound due to a slight beating. Apart from the fact that it is almost impossible to precisely tune or keep perfectly in tune mechanical reeds which generate harmonics, the Piano Accordion is often deliberately tuned so that some pitches are very slightly sharper to give a richness and brightness of sound.
Very rarely, because of the weight and size drawbacks, you may have a custom built instrument with a Reed Rank tuned a third or some other interval above the Unison Rank on the Keyboard, which will produce similar sound envelope effects as on the Pipe Organ, where such an arrangement is very common. This is beyond the scope of this Opus.
How many Reed Ranks?
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Piano Accordions are classified by the number of Reed Ranks both in the Bass and Keyboard Sides. A "4/5" will have 4 Keyboard Reed Ranks and 5 Bass Side Reed Ranks - this is a fairly normal standard for a "Full Size" or "Professional" level Instrument.
Most common discussion is concerned only with the Keyboard Side; usually on smaller and medium sized Piano Accordions there may be no Bass Register Switches, or only two options "High" & "Low" or "Soft" & "Loud", in which case there is little point in worrying too much about it. The main concern is with the Keyboard side, the number of Keyboard Reed Ranks being used as a handy method of classifying the instrument.
Thus a "Single Reeder" is obviously a Unison tuned usually physically small instrument. Very old Instruments may be much larger and heavier.
A "Two Reeder" may be "Tremolo" (M-M) or "Octave" tuned (L-M) or more rarely "High Octave" (M-H).
A "Three Reeder" can be (L-M-H) or (L-M-M) - the (M-M-H) is not as common. The (M-M-M) by itself is rare, as the "French Musette" usually only appears in a 4 or 5 Reed Rank instrument.
A "Four Reeder" starts to get physically heavy: it usually comes with a large Bass Side Reed Rank selection, and is usually tuned (L-M-M-H), but other selections are possible, especially if custom made to order.
A "Five-Reeder" is a very big and expensive instrument tuned (L-M-M-M-H) with a very large Bass Side selection with many Bass Register Switches, and perhaps up to a dozen Keyboard Register Switches.
Other custom combinations may exist: makers will make other tunings on special request, but these custom built instruments would be expensive and rare.
A few instruments may look like Piano Accordions, with white keys only, often in an apparent "stack" of three white keyboards, or with a black key between each white key. These are not Piano Accordions, but in fact a form of Button Accordion. The distinguishing feature is that they do not have a proper Piano Keyboard, but Button actuators arranged in a way that looks a bit like a Piano Keyboard. The excess black keys mean that you will have a Two Row Button Box - the "stacked" all white keys style will be a Button Box of how ever many rows of the white keys there are.
There are Accordions made with Quarter Tone tunings: some of these may have been modified after original sale for Arabian or other music. They will usually have Quarter Tones on either push or pull, and normal Semitones on the other.
A very few early Piano Accordions were built with a Keyboard for both hands, but it was rapidly discovered that the Left Hand was constrained in motion as it was working the Bellows, so that the full flexibility of the Right Hand was not available to the Left Hand. The Left Hand, however is easily capable of dealing with the Stradella Bass System, as well as the Register Switches.
Some modern Piano Accordions were designed with in-built electronic organs (Cordovox), and some recent ones have had MIDI installed. Most of the Physical Techniques discussed in this Opus are not applicable to those Electrical or Electronic parts of these Instruments, as these Bellows Techniques will work on Acoustic Reed Assemblies only.
Some styles of Button Boxes have a Stradella Bass Side. Most of the Bellows and Rhythm Techniques discussed in this Opus may be applied.
It is true that some types of Button Boxes (no Piano Keyboard) may have up to 7 Reed Ranks on the Right Side, but the total number of Reeds in this style of instrument is proportionally far less than in a Piano Accordion because of their construction style. They sound different notes on the pull and push, and have relatively only a few Bass Keys, being a Diatonic instrument designed to play in only a few Major & Minor Keys. This is unlike a Piano (or a Chromatic) Accordion which is designed to play in many more keys, Major and Minor. However some of the Bellows and Rhythm Techniques discussed in this Opus may be applied.
A Concertina comes in two types:
1) English: same note in both directions:
2) Anglo: different notes in each direction of bellows movement. Most only have one Reed per note, and the Reeds are not organized in Ranks or Banks in the same way as a Piano Accordion, but some of the Rhythm Techniques discussed in this Opus can be applied.
Cassotto Tone.
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The Cassotto Tone is produced by a special "Tone Chamber" which gives the Keyboard Reed Ranks mounted therein a more mellow sound, reducing the intensity of some of the higher pitches. It also makes a slight improvement in response time of lower pitches, by increasing the loading or impedance of the physically larger Reeds. Only rarely are all the Keyboard Reed Ranks in the Chamber: usually it is only the Bassoon Reed Rank, but sometimes the Clarinet Reed Rank is also there. Even more rare are Cassotto Bass Side Reed Ranks.
Horns.
~~~~~~
Some boxes have trumpet like devices attached to the Bass Side: these are mainly Germanic Button Box instruments. They provide better impedance matching for the lower pitches, and give a fairly distinctive horn-like "Om-pah!" sound.
Straps for the Instrument.
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Are the straps on the instrument proper Accordion straps, or something "home-made" - how wide, what padding, back-straps, etc? If you get cheap straps, then you at least will be able to play it, but you may find it less comfortable that you think after a while. Better quality straps cost more.
The bigger and heavier the box, the better quality straps you need - so they don't break and drop it on your toe - that doesn't do the instrument much good either. Sweat is the enemy of leather straps, time and wear that of plastic ones.Occassional application of a good quality leather dressing are advisable.
The bigger and heavier the box:
a) the wider the straps and more padding you need. The more padded and wider ones cost more.
b) the more chance you may need back straps. They usually come with the ones intended for bigger instruments.
The Keyboard: Key Sizes And Widths.
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Full Size Standard Piano Accordion Keyboards have 24 White Keys and 17 Black keys - a total of 41 Keys. The standard Pitch Range for the 8 ft Reed Rank is from the F below Middle C - the second line from the top in the Bass Clef - to the note designated as "a''" - the space on top of the fourth ledger line above the Treble Clef. The range is thus between Three and Four fully Chromatic Octaves.
The "Home Key" of the Piano Accordion is C Major, so the bottom F is provided to allow many tunes to easily drop down to the Fourth of the Scale Below the Tonic.
The Full Size Piano Accordion Keyboard Keys are about 3/4 inch wide - slightly smaller than Standard Pianoforte Keys. In "Ladies", "Student" or "Miniature" Sized 41 Key Instruments, the keys are made narrower, in one of 11/16, 5/8, or 9/16, inch widths. There is no industry Standard Correlation between the widths and the "Size Names".
Reduced Reed Rank and Register Switch facilities are often provided on smaller instruments - usually with the normal 3/4 inch size Keys. Since the length of the Keyboard is reduced with fewer than 41 keys, there is little pressure to "squeeze" the Key Widths - these are often called "Short" Keyboards.
37 keys: the usual for 80 or 96 Bass Instruments. This has 3 Octaves usually from "G" to "g''". Other ranges are possible, sometimes from F. Anything is possible with custom made Instrument.
34 Keys: Most common for 48 Bass. Usually from "G" to "e''", just under 3 octaves, although other ranges are possible, some no doubt by custom request.
Fewer Keys:
The smallest would doubtless be the generic Chinese "Hero" style Boxes, which start from 17 Keys (10 White, 7 Black) Single Treble Musette Sound Reed Rank with 8 Basses. There is also a "Hero" Dual Treble Reed Rank (M-M) 8 Bass with 22 (13 White, 9 Black) Keys - a range of "G" to "e'" which is quite playable for a wide range of Folk & Trad Tunes.
Other sizes such as 25, 26, & 30 commonly exist and are usual for the 16, 24, & 32 Bass Size Instruments. These shorter keyboards may also occur among Instruments with more Basses. There never was any real standardization among the different Manufacturers in different Towns, let alone Countries, so other numbers of Keys may be found.
The Stradella Bass System.
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Invented in the Italian town of Stradella in the early days of the instrument before the Piano Keyboard addition, the Stradella Bass System rapidly became the most popular common "Standard" left hand system on Piano Accordions, because of the ease of use for simple Rhythm Patterns common to Classical Music and much Folk Music.
It relies on the "Circle of Fifths" musical principle. Each succeeding diagonal row of buttons moving from left to right is a fifth higher than the one to the left. 20 rows allow one to play the I - IV - V chord pattern (and many others) for any Major Key without moving the left hand around much.
There is only a single octave of Bass Notes available on the Left Side - that is 12 separate semitones. There are also only a series of 12 individual pitch placings of chords in each horizontal row: the pitches "wrap around", and the relevant Buttons are ganged. You will notice on many instruments that the ganged buttons drop at the same time as the one you are pressing.
Not all instruments have the same "lowest pitch" Bass Note - it depends on the size of the instrument. How many Keyboard Keys there are will determine the lowest pitch on the Keyboard, and instruments are "balanced" to match left and right sides for this, as well as the tone colors and loudness of both sides.
A standard 120 Bass Keyboard is 41 keys, with a bottom note of F below Middle C. Smaller instruments have less, and tend to reduce in a fairly standard way, but there are exceptions.
The "Home Row".
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This is the second row from the top on a 120 Bass Accordion. This is also called the "Fundamental Bass Row" to distinguish it from the "Counterbass Row". Small indentations or bumps are always made on the "C" Bass Note Button to mark the "Home Button". Most instruments will also have the "E" (4 diagonal rows to the right) and the "Ab" (4 diagonal rows to the left) Bass Note Buttons similarly marked. Some Instruments may have fancy sparkly objects embedded therein.
The "Counterbass" Row.
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The top row in a full 120 bass Accordion is the "Counterbass" Row - tuned a Major Third diagonally above the "Home Row". C "Counterbass" is E. This allows Major Key Scales to be played fairly easily. Not all small Piano Accordions have this row, in which case the top row is obviously then the "Home Row". Rarely, there may be a third Bass Row tuned a Minor Third from the "Home Row" (C "Counterbass" is Eb) - this is always the very top row if it exists, and is what creates the 140 Bass Accordion. It allows the Minor Keys to also be played in more easily, but this addition has never been as popular as the normal "Counterbass" Row.
Major & Minor Chords at your Fingertips.
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In the Chord Buttons or "Harmony" section, which consists of any other Rows diagonally below the "Home Row", they are arranged in the diagonal top down order: Major, Minor, (Dominant) 7th, Diminished 7th. Smaller instruments of less than 120 bass buttons (6 diagonal rows) omit some of these rows, starting from the bottom diagonally up, as these rows are used less frequently in some styles of music, and are usually used less by beginners.
You can quickly see for yourself how easily the system allows a basic Rhythm accompaniment to be generated.
"Folk and Trad Music" can usually get by well enough with just the three Bass, Major and Minor Rows, and for more complex Bass note runs the Counterbass Row can be helpful. The Major Dominant 7th Row is not as essential as you might think if you have a Guitar background, because if the MajDom7th note is really needed to be sounded, you are most likely playing it on the keyboard as part of the tune, or in a chordal "Vamp" anyway!
Incidentally, there were two alleged Manufacturing Standards for selecting the Reeds Speaking when the Seventh and Diminished Chords are being built. The earlier Standard was to include all of the relative Pitches I - III - V - VII: the later recommended Standard (and we're talking around the 1950's) dropped the Dominant (V), leaving only the I - III - VII Pitches - all that is necessary to distinguish the Chords.
The dropping of the relative Dominant (V) Pitch may give a clearer, less muddy sound. A Repairer could trim out the Dominant (V) Pitch Selectors, but it means totally disassembling the Bass Machine, and damages a valuable Historical Instrument. There is usually little point, as the older Instruments are mostly heavier anyway. Because of lack of real "enforcement" of any "Standards", Manufacturers went their own way regardless.
How Instruments Shrink.
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The normal full 6x20 120 Bass layout:
Bbb, Fb, Cb, Gb, Db, Ab*, Eb, Bb, F, C*, G, D, A, E*, B, F#, C#, G#, D#, A#.
Which translates into what one would more normally recognize as:
A, E, B, F#, Db, Ab*, Eb, Bb, F, C*, G, D, A, E*, B, F#, C#, G#, D#, A#.
The keys marked * have the standard touchie-feelie marks to identify the standard Home Positions.
Some manufacturers differ - including special requests by individual customers, but normal common reduced sizes should be as follows.
The "8x6" 48 Bass Accordion has 8 horizontal rows of 6 Buttons and is fairly widely available. It can only play in a limited range of Musical Keys centered around "C", and is intended as an "Advanced Learner" Instrument to teach the playing of all 6 rows.
It is perhaps not very suitable for the Recycled Muso wanting to play Folk/Trad music Styles, unless one is going to play only in the restricted range of the available Musical Keys.
Since a I - IV - V pattern is fairly common, only the Musical Keys of F, C, G & D would be available. If a I - II - IV - V pattern is desired, there are fewer available playable Musical Keys. Of course one could just not play the Bass Side.
Bb, F, C*, G, D, A.
A 5x16 80 bass should have the following "Home Row" Keys:
B, F#, Db, Ab*, Eb, Bb, F, C*, G, D, A, E*, B, F#, C#, G#.
A 6x12 72 Bass should drop off two on each end leaving you:
Db, Ab* Eb, Bb, F, C*, G, D, A, E*, B, F#.
A 4x12 48 bass with C/Bass, Bass, Maj, Min, Rows:
Db, Ab* Eb, Bb, F, C*, G, D, A, E*, B, F#.
There are smaller, fairly standard ranges: 12 Bass, 16 Bass, 24 Bass, 32 Bass, 40 Bass. The Chinese even produce a "toy" (M-M) 8 Bass, but it is capable of useful Music, even if its Volume and Tone Color are a bit restricted - the cheap plastic straps should be replaced with real ones if you want to take this instrument seriously at all.
So now let's see you try to play a simple tune on the 48 bass with the I - II - IV - V pattern in the Key of B Major...
The physically smaller instruments do have some limitations.
Basic Scales using the Counterbass Row.
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C Major Scale:
C, D, C counterbass (->E), F, G,
F counterbass (->A), G counterbass (->B) C.
C Minor Scale:
C, D, B counterbass (->Eb)**, F, G,
F counterbass (->A), G counterbass (->B), C.
**[a stretch, but mastered with sufficient practice!] - you can also use the Eb key directly.
That extra Counterbass Minor Third Row (which gives the Standard 140 bass Instrument) would be useful here, but there was never sufficient demand, so very few such instruments were sold. Probably most players needed to play less Minor Scale Music, or played less advanced Minor Bass Patterns.
The relative patterns are always the same on a Stradella Bass System for whatever Major or Minor Key you play in. With reduced size Bass Layouts, you may not be able to play a full scale in all the Major and Minor Keys as on a full size 120 arrangement, because some diagonal rows are eliminated.
Practice! Practice! Practice!
Now for the Major Scale you could play the E key in the "Home Row" instead, but the stretch back to the left to pick up the F key needs lots of practice to do easily - the "Home Row" A is only 2 to the right away from the G, and then the B is another 2 steps away to the right, but then that jump back to the left for the "Home" C is a killer!
Now if you are playing part scale Bass Runs in the C Major scale, you may substitute either one of the appropriate "Home" or "Counterbass" Row Keys as desired - whichever makes it easier.
Practice! Practice! Practice!
Noting the relative positions of the duplicated Bass Note Keys on the two Bass Note Rows, we can play almost any Bass Noted Chord (with two or more left fingers) with just the Bass Note Buttons if we practice those stretches. Some of the chords will be only available in inverted positions.
Not every player gets to this level!
Practice! Practice! Practice!
Free Bass Accordions.
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The previously mentioned difficulties with doing Bass runs is why the Free Bass extension was added to some Professional Level Instruments. This is just an extra set of Bass Note Buttons which work in parallel with the existing Stradella arrangement. They cover more than a single octave.
Free Bass Instruments are more expensive and much rarer, and usually have large numbers of Reed Ranks and Register Switches on both Keyboard and Bass Sides.
The Drone Sound.
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Useful for the "Church Organ" or "Bagpipe" Sounds.
You can use the Chord Button only, the Bass Button in the "Home Row" only, or both together, with various selected Bass Reed Ranks speaking to generate various Tone Colors. You can have a steady drone by moving the Bellows smoothly, or can pulse the Bellows in the one direction gently or strongly for Rhythmic Effects, or rapidly reverse the direction using "Bellows Shake" Techniques.
You can also use combinations of the Bass Buttons only: the one to the right of the Fundamental Bass Key Button will give you a I-V noted chord, the one to the left will give you a I-IV noted chord, and you can add in other notes in the Chord such as the Third of the Key, by using buttons in the Counterbass Row. Some stretching may be needed for some of these extra notes. As mentioned before, some of these chords will only be available in inverted positions.
You can also do a Drone using the Keyboard Side: useful for accompaniment.
On the Subject of Fingering.
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Recycled Keyboard Musos have a head start. The Keyboard fingering is exactly the same as that on a Piano, and is about the only thing the two instruments do have in common. The best advice for getting comfortable with proper Keyboard Fingering Patterns is to practice the 24 Scales - Major and Minor. Of course there are also Harmonic and Melodic forms of the Minor Scales, so there are really 36! There are practical exercise books especially intended for the Piano Accordion which contain Scales and other finger exercises: one old but very good one is called "The Complete Hanon for Accordion". Any good Music Shop should be able to look up in their Index of Books and assist. Some useful books will be available from online sources.
There are two main "Classical Accordion" schools of thought on Left Hand Fingering: see below. Indeed if you ask any player for advice on fingering you will get plenty!
My recommendation is to carry across the basic fingering practices used on the Piano. The basic idea there is to strengthen ALL the fingers equally and be able to spread the load among them all so that no finger is too weak to be of use. The same concept is used in Touch Typing on Typewriters and Computer Keyboards. On the Piano, Left Hand Scales and stretch and strengthening exercises are practiced exactly the same as for the Right Hand - normal practice exercises use both hands in mirror and counter fashions. This can't be done exactly the same on the Stradella System, which has its own specific Hanon Patterns.
Most of the fingering advice you will get is from people who play particular styles of music, especially particular Rhythmic Patterns. If you are trying to do something different, this advice may be of little use, as you may be working with different Finger Patterns.
With a very simple Om-pah-pah Rhythm, you can use:
#1) your middle finger on the Bass Row and the index finger on the Chord Row - Major or Minor.
#2) your ring finger on the Bass Row and middle finger on the Chord Row - Major or Minor.
Many people are tempted to use the #1 method as the index finger is normally the strongest if no method of strengthening them all has been undertaken. For very simple stuff, it works, and you can play a few tunes almost immediately. But, no pain, no gain!
Method #2 has serious advantages, and is advised by Professional Teachers. When crossing to a new Chord, having the index finger available means that one can more easily play without fumbling the common relative chord change patterns {the letters in brackets represent the Chord Buttons}
C, {C}, G, {C}
&
C, {C}, C, {G}
&
C, {C}, counterbass C (->E), {G}
for a start,
as well as the simple I III V bass run
C, counterbass C (->E), G, C. {C}, {C}
The Microphone.
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The Microphone is the natural enemy of the Piano Accordion, perhaps even more so than almost any other Musical Instrument. The Instrument was designed, and reached a high level of popularity before microphones became ubiquitous.
Many instruments have a non-uniform acoustical signature across the frequency range, as well as at a radial distance. Electrically amplified or generated instruments such as guitars are mostly a point source, even if the source is a string or column of air like a flute. The problem with these instruments is relatively easily solved by finding an appropriate point or number of placed mikes to capture the sound.
Instruments like an Electric or Electronic Organ deliver their output into loudspeakers, which are basically a point source output.
The Piano Accordion, and its close relatives, are similar to Pianos, Pipe Organs, choirs and whole Orchestras with multiple sources spread over an area. Multiple miking is normally used to capture the best result.
There are optimum solutions in opposite directions for miking an Accordion: they have advantages and disadvantages.
Monaural pickup provides a good method of capturing a flat stable sound, probably fine for background sound, or a TV ad.
Stereo or mixed down multiple miking keeps more of the subtle phase differences that are generated by instruments with multiple independent tone generators.
Expensive or Cheap Mikes?
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Differing classes and types of microphones have differing types of responses, and may overload giving distortion at differing levels - the Accordion is capable of generating a high acoustic level. Normally, it would be expected that more expensive equipment will give better results, but with particular instruments, certain mikes with known frequency responses will tailor the sound in predictable ways.
"Internal" Miking.
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"Internal" miking (this includes a mike fixed directly on the outside of the instrument) may pick up large amounts of action noise - rattling and clanking of moving parts. Internal miking will give a constant stable sound pickup if the player is moving around. If playing in an ensemble, internal miking will give a more predictable separate response in many cases.
Single miking inside an instrument gives a predictable output, but may have frequency response limitations, especially for one side or the other. There are professional setups that use one mike for each side with adjustable level balancing controls: some even have radio links.
The problem is that these will be at fixed distances from each Reed on whatever side they are mounted, so there may be limitations on the detected "phasing" effects discussed elsewhere.
"External" Miking.
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Background noise will seriously affect external miking. A single mike may lose some "precision placing" of the sound. A crossed stereo pair or mixed down multiple miking will give a predictable capture of phase differences. External miking will allow the player to move in and out of the mike's pickup pattern, thus providing controllable effects.
A Mike for all Seasons?
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So which method is best? It depends on which sound YOU want, from YOUR instrument. The full technical aspects of miking are well outside of the scope of this Opus, and you would be best to consult an expert, or someone who is obtaining satisfactory results for the type of Music you want to capture.
Intertwingularity is not generally acknowledged — people keep pretending they can make things deeply hierarchical, categorizable and sequential when they can't. Everything is deeply intertwingled.
— Theodore Holm (Ted) Nelson
The Piano Accordion for The Recycled Muso
Version 3 Design.txt
Update 31/12/2003
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sj
