How Do You Quieten A Drone Note?

[Daddy Long Les]

I was just playing Amazing Grace in G on my Lachenal English concertina and I thought that a low G drone would be a really nice thing to have.

 

Not too much trouble to do but the problem is that the drone note is too loud. Is there a clever way of making this note softer so that it doesn't drown the melody out?

 

Incidentally the balance is better on my Marcus than my Lachenal. The Marcus is louder and newer and of course, has accordion reeds.

Edited October 5, 2015 by Daddy Long Les

[RP3]

You have accidentally touched on a common complaint with concertinas -- but not always in a drone context. Frequently low notes on a concertina (English, Anglo, Duet) will tend to drown out higher pitched notes. Finding an instrument with good balance between high and low can be a challenge. Also certain notes are sometimes more resonant than their neighbors which can drown out the higher melody notes.

 

Anglos can have a separate button or buttons tuned specifically for drone usage, and I believe these can be "adjusted" to not drown out melody notes through adjustment to chamber size or switching out valves types, but doing so reliably is more an art than a science. Your English is a different matter all together since you have to use one of the regular buttons as your "drone". Trying to change the volume of that one note can mess up its balance with the rest of the low notes which you would not want.

 

Put another way, you may have to find an instrument with better balance to achieve your goal -- unless the G is too loud for its neighbors and needs to be "softened up" anyhow.

 

Good luck,

 

Ross Schlabach

[Daddy Long Les]

You have accidentally touched on a common complaint with concertinas -- but not always in a drone context. Frequently low notes on a concertina (English, Anglo, Duet) will tend to drown out higher pitched notes. Finding an instrument with good balance between high and low can be a challenge. Also certain notes are sometimes more resonant than their neighbors which can drown out the higher melody notes.

 

Anglos can have a separate button or buttons tuned specifically for drone usage, and I believe these can be "adjusted" to not drown out melody notes through adjustment to chamber size or switching out valves types, but doing so reliably is more an art than a science. Your English is a different matter all together since you have to use one of the regular buttons as your "drone". Trying to change the volume of that one note can mess up its balance with the rest of the low notes which you would not want.

 

Put another way, you may have to find an instrument with better balance to achieve your goal -- unless the G is too loud for its neighbors and needs to be "softened up" anyhow.

 

Good luck,

 

Ross Schlabach

Thank you Ross. I'm definitely going to use my Marcus for this sort of thing. You can hear the drone in action in this video (second performance) :-

[StuartEstell]

Also, consider using a different note -- you could use a drone note higher up the instrument, i.e. above the melody, rather than below it, so that the drone note is not as strong and obliterative...

 

Another trick is to play the tune the first time without the drone, and then introduce it the second time. The ear will fill in the blanks!

Edited October 13, 2015 by StuartEstell

[Daddy Long Les]

Also, consider using a different note -- you could use a drone note higher up the instrument, i.e. above the melody, rather than below it, so that the drone note is not as strong and obliterative...

 

Another trick is to play the tune the first time without the drone, and then introduce it the second time. The ear will fill in the blanks!

Yes, that's a good idea. Thanks Stuart!

[Bullethead]

@StuartEstell

So, the higher notes being quiter than the lower ones is normal? I was afraid I was doing something wrong .

[StuartEstell]

I'm wary of wading into the muddy waters of acoustics as I don't really understand it all that well. So a qualified "yes", in the hopes that someone else will answer your question with greater authority