Latest Midi Concertina

[accordionmagic]

Hi all,

 

Well here it is, my latest MIDI conversion; English 48 key No.5 completed today.

 

This one is truly stand alone and requires only a 9V battery and headphones to play. It has the built in expander as described previously but also a built in headphone amplifier so now you can play in the same room as your other half while they watch the tv!!

 

A PP9 rechargeable NimH lasts for about 60-90mins depending on the volume etc used.

 

There are now two specs available: the original 3 channel, 24 voice with volume and octave controls or a single channel, 48 voice with volume, octave, reverb and vibrato controls.

Anything else considered as usual though!

 

 

John Nixon now has the single channel version he prefers and has kindly submitted the following comment:

 

"There have been many exciting periods during my 74 years of involvment in music, but few, if any, could have matched that of my first experience with a newly acquired Midi Concertina, courtesy of Roy Whiteley's transformation of my 1859 Wheatstone 48 key treble . Some would say that Roy's work is a fitting tribute to that of other Englishmen whose expertise in sound engineering gave us something that has stood the test of time.

I certainly would have been very happy to have had a Midi Concertina to play during my busiest period of playing at 1,000's of gigs when I was much younger. Nevertheless, I will put the "MIDI" to good use with occasional gigs and some recording.

Although the playing of the "MIDI" has a close feeling to that of my Aeola, there are slight differences in the responses, but not enough to demand a change in technique. I did at first worry that I seemed to have lost a little accuracy of fingering, particularly when playing chords, but because I was enthralled by the sheer excitement at first trials, I took my eye off the ball somewhat. It wasn't until I saw the Guitar piece that Roy had Video'd that I realised I wasn't holding the instrument correctly. Because I always support the left end on my left knee when playing seated, I hadn't noticed the difference when compared with the Octagon of my Aeola.

Roy has produced a wonderfull setup for the selection of voices to my specification and the whole system has been developed with performances at live gigs in mind. There are now 48 instrument sounds to choose from and I would say that Piano , Classical Guitar, Church Organ , Flute & Vibes are really excellent whilst the rest are also very good.

The replacement of the flat ended bone keys with slightly domed Stainless Steel have at least equalled the feel of an Aeola

I must congratulate Roy for his refurbishing ability and the upgrading of the 4-fold bellows to 6-fold to give plenty of scope or easier phrasing.

I intend to give a progress report after using the instrument on a gig or 2. JOHN NIXON."

 

Thanks for that John.

 

Regards

 

Roy Whiteley

Accordion Magic Ltd.

[Chris Allert]

...

 

A PP9 rechargeable NimH lasts for about 60-90mins depending on the volume etc used.

 

...

 

There are now 48 instrument sounds to choose from and I would say that Piano , Classical Guitar, Church Organ , Flute & Vibes are really excellent whilst the rest are also very good.

 

...

 

do you have any plans to include a concertina patch in the built-in synthesizer? that would make this kind of instrument really useful to me.

 

i find that a daily 2-hour practice session helps me the most. any longer is counter-productive. any less and i don't get any better. would it be possible to add more battery life to an instrument like this? maybe something like the emergency gas-tank on old volkswagons would work. when the juice runs down, flip a switch to run off the other battery.

[Chris Timson]

My guess would be that Roy is buying in his GM modules, which (being GM) would have no provision for voices not in the base GM set. You can of course get external synth expanders which include sampler facilities and either make or buy a concertina sample. For that you would need the version of the concertina that drives an external synth, such as mine. Alternatively you could use the bandoneon GM patch, which sounds not entirely unlike an accordion-reeded concertina.

 

Personally, as I've said elsewhere, if I want a concertina sound I pick up a concertina. I pick up my MIDI anglo when I don't want to sound like a concertina!

 

Chris

[accordionmagic]

do you have any plans to include a concertina patch in the built-in synthesizer? that would make this kind of instrument really useful to me.

 

Currently, the built in expander supports 128 GM voices and 128 Roland MT32 voices although I suspect that some of these are actually shared between the two sets. The expander is 'bought in' from another company as a miniature unit that will fit into the limited space available inside a concertina, I do have the separate components (chips) from the same company but at this moment cannot justify designing a new expander. My hope is eventually to produce the entire workings of the MIDI as a one piece PCB i.e processor, expander and amplifier all in one instead of separates. At that point I would consider using the more advanced 'chip set' (it is available) that would allow sampling and storage of concertina sounds - from within the concertina!

 

At this moment in time there do exist concertina SF2 soundfonts that can be used with your PC and soundcard while using the concertina as a controller to play from.

 

Could it be that all you actually want is a concertina sounding 'electronic concertina' without all the MIDI stuff? hmmmm now let me think!

 

I find that a daily 2-hour practice session helps me the most. any longer is counter-productive. any less and i don't get any better. would it be possible to add more battery life to an instrument like this? maybe something like the emergency gas-tank on old volkswagons would work. when the juice runs down, flip a switch to run off the other battery.

 

Not a problem really, there are loads of alternatives and the same subject has cropped up with accordions. Basically the humble 9V PP9 is small, neat and light but yes it's not very powerfull and we dont actually need 9 volts! The problem is the alternative; 4 off 1.5V are big,ugly and heavy although they last for 10 times longer on a single charge.

You can have 2 - 9volt batteries and a switch or the 1.5V alternatives, take your pick.

 

PS There are some fantastic batteries on the market called LiPo batteries (Lithium Polymer) that are used in model aircraft etc but although vastly superior to Nicad, Nimh and Lithium ion, they are expensive and can be dangerous if not charged correctly so I'm sticking to those that everyone is familiar with for the moment.

 

Cheers me-dears

 

Roy Whiteley

Accordion Magic Ltd