midi concertina

[jggunn]

I was wondering if anyone had seen the demonstration of the Anglo midi concertina on YouTube. I contacted the maker in Ireland to ask if they planned an English version, but although one is in fact planned for the future, the Anglo will be on the market in 2013 for about $450. It was not clear to me exactly how it is contructed, but it appears that the sound generator is inside the instrument itself and that one only needs to connect the instrument to an amplifier. The website is midipulse.com.

[Don Taylor]

I was wondering if anyone had seen the demonstration of the Anglo midi concertina on YouTube. I contacted the maker in Ireland to ask if they planned an English version, but although one is in fact planned for the future, the Anglo will be on the market in 2013 for about $450. It was not clear to me exactly how it is contructed, but it appears that the sound generator is inside the instrument itself and that one only needs to connect the instrument to an amplifier. The website is midipulse.com.

Very interesting but I wonder why it has to look like a cheap kiddie toy.

[Jody Kruskal]

I was wondering if anyone had seen the demonstration of the Anglo midi concertina on YouTube. I contacted the maker in Ireland to ask if they planned an English version, but although one is in fact planned for the future, the Anglo will be on the market in 2013 for about $450. It was not clear to me exactly how it is contructed, but it appears that the sound generator is inside the instrument itself and that one only needs to connect the instrument to an amplifier. The website is midipulse.com.

I listened to the sound samples on the web site... horrible! Lots of artifacts and no dynamics, yuck!

[David Barnert]

Is

the video you're talking about?

 

There are, of course, other choices of MIDI concertinas, and these include English:

 

http://www.s-wave.co.uk/controller.html

http://www.concertinaconnection.com/wakker%20midi.htm

http://www.accordionmagic.com/MIDI.html

 

They are generally more expensive and don't include onboard synthesizers, however.

[Anglo-Irishman]

Very interesting but I wonder why it has to look like a cheap kiddie toy.

 

Logical! A midi instrument is a toy, not a real instrument, after all! The sound clips on the site prove this quite conclusively ...

 

Cheers,

John

[Dirge]

I played a midi duet a while ago and thought it was great. I could immediately play faster yet as accurately as a std concertina, and i could sound like any instrument I wanted except a concertina, but I have a real one of them. The bottom line was, though, that I didn't buy it. I say and believe that I would still love it but don't have the spare money at the moment...I wonder now if you're right John; subconsciously I see it as a toy? Not quite serious? I must sit down and have a proper talk with myself.

[gcoover]

..and i could sound like any instrument I wanted except a concertina, but I have a real one of them.

 

Well said!

[jggunn]

Well, there are several things that might be said in response to those who replied to my first post. The Anglo I mentioned does look a bit awkward and is limited in what it can do and the sounds that are included. What accordian magic does, and I assume quite well from what I have heard, is to take a concertina shell and implant midi components. The parts for doing this are quite available at a low price, but the task of doing it would be very daunting for me and probably most people. The Wakker midi is probably a very high class device, but there is no place to try it out, and my last contact with Wim indicated that they are not really making it at this time. But it is no toy. I think at this point the best bet, which I intend to buy within the year, is the S-Wave, which is not widely available and requires a special order. I believe that this is what Dirge tried out and liked, and Simon Harbord owns it and has given it high marks. It can be played through the IPAD and the available apps such as Thumbjam, and Michael Eskin has provided Thumbjam with an actual concertina patch. I find it quite interesting to play tunes with Michael's apps for the IPAD and and using Thumbjam for the sounds, and I think the S-Wave offers great possibilities for using the concertina as a midi controller for playing a variety of instruments as well as transposing on the English and having the capabilities of, for example, a baritone as well as playing like a violin. Simon is the only person I have found who actually owns an S-wave, but I would like to hear from anyone else who does. The maker is Dean Onyon in the UK who a very pleasant person to deal with.