MIDI Progress

[David Barnert]

On 3/16/2025 at 1:02 PM, Steve Schulteis said:

The sound is produced with the sound font linked in Don Taylor's signature on this forum.

 

41 minutes ago, Steve Schulteis said:

Would somebody who owns an instrument with a nice "average" concertina sound be willing to record samples according to my requirements?

 

Why not stay with Phil’s sound font (as modified by Don)? It’s a perfectly good classic Wheatstone (baritone Aeola, IIRC).

[RAc]

1 hour ago, Steve Schulteis said:

That actually raises a good question. I'm planning to write a basic cross-platform synth app to accompany this device. What should the default voice be? I love the sound of my hybrid G/D Edgley, but it's hardly typical. Would somebody who owns an instrument with a nice "average" concertina sound be willing to record samples according to my requirements?

I'd like to throw in the fun spoiling remark that the main criterion for choosing a sound font in this case should not be what pleases the ear but what it ergonomically best - after all, the main use case will be attached headphones or in-ear plugs, so you may want to look into sound fonts with an overtone spectrum that does not tax hearing at extended usage too bad. Just my 0.02.

 

About the connectors you mentioned earlier: I have switched to micromatch (eg Micro-MaTch 0,050-Steckverbinder-Baureihe - TE | Mouser) and found them to be the best solution for this connection requirement.

[Steve Schulteis]

7 hours ago, David Barnert said:

Why not stay with Phil’s sound font (as modified by Don)? It’s a perfectly good classic Wheatstone (baritone Aeola, IIRC).

 

6 hours ago, RAc said:

I'd like to throw in the fun spoiling remark that the main criterion for choosing a sound font in this case should not be what pleases the ear but what it ergonomically best - after all, the main use case will be attached headphones or in-ear plugs, so you may want to look into sound fonts with an overtone spectrum that does not tax hearing at extended usage too bad. Just my 0.02.

 

RAc makes a solid point, and this is part of why I don't want to use Phil's sound font. It has some harsh high frequencies that stand out to me when using headphones.

 

Another consideration is that I need something that I can publish under an open source license and include with a commercial product. There's no explicit license on Phil's sound font, so I would need to get permission. 

 

I also want some extra samples. In addition to wanting to minimize the amount of pitch shifting that's necessary, I've had a request to provide (optional) button noise in my synth for extra authenticity.

 

 

6 hours ago, RAc said:

About the connectors you mentioned earlier: I have switched to micromatch (eg Micro-MaTch 0,050-Steckverbinder-Baureihe - TE | Mouser) and found them to be the best solution for this connection requirement.

 

Thanks for the tip! I'm hoping the SKEDD connectors work well, because they don't require a part on the board, which helps reduce costs (each unique part number adds $3 per board it's used on, in addition to the cost of the parts themselves). If they don't pan out, I'll definitely consider micromatch next.

Edited November 23 by Steve Schulteis

[RAc]

That is interesting, Steve, it looks as if skedd connectors can be looked at as single piece micromatches, as this comparison shows: ANE014: USB 2.0 with REDFIT IDC SKEDD Connector - element14 Community . So I would assume that if the skedds do not work for you, the micromatches won't either (unless of course the weak point of the skedds turn out the unsoldered contacts under strain). 

Edited November 23 by RAc

[Michael Eskin]

Demo of three concertina custom instruments in my ABC Transcription Tools.

I'm happy to provide the Edgley custom instrument for any MIDI concertina projects.

You can download it here:

https://michaeleskin.com/custom_instruments/edgley_concertina_custom_instrument_4sep2025.zip

The custom instruments are just a .zip file containing per-note .wav format samples of the instrument.

They can be built manually or using my Custom Instrument Builder utility at:

https://michaeleskin.com/tools/custom_instrument_builder.html

 

 

Edited November 23 by Michael Eskin

[Roger Hare]

6 hours ago, Michael Eskin said:

...I'm happy to provide the Edgley custom instrument for any MIDI concertina projects etc...

Off-topic - nothing to do with MIDI concertinas, but...

 

...I'm equally happy to 'shanghai' that Edgley custom instrument and use it with my everyday ABC files.

 

I am a complete idiot for not realising earlier that the custom instrument functionality allows me to use other than the default Grand Piano when operating in offline mode. That's always been a major disincentive to using offline mode, but now that disincentive has simply 'gone away''...🙂

 

Ta!

Edited November 23 by Roger Hare

[Michael Eskin]

2 hours ago, Roger Hare said:

Off-topic - nothing to do with MIDI concertinas, but...

 

...I'm equally happy to 'shanghai' that Edgley custom instrument and use it with my everyday ABC files.

 

I am a complete idiot for not realising earlier that the custom instrument functionality allows me to use other than the default Grand Piano when operating in offline mode. That's always been a major disincentive to using offline mode, but now that disincentive has simply 'gone away''...🙂

 

Ta!

Roger, probably best we not hijack this discussion and take this offline to a private conversation, but I will mention this for the benefit of others:

You can use any of the instruments available in the tool in offline mode if you opt-in to it in the Settings. 

You just have to make sure the notes for the instruments you want to use are loaded while online. All instruments and notes played get stored in a browser-local database.
 

There are easy to use features in the Notes Database Management dialog to ensure that all the notes for all the instruments you want to use offline are stored in the database.

 

There is extensive information as well as demo videos of all of this in the User Guide:

https://michaeleskin.com/abctools/userguide.html#app

Happy to provide guidance if you have questions.

Edited November 24 by Michael Eskin

[Cathasach]

Finally, a controller for my new game Concertina Hero.