Timbre.... Can Anyone Help?

[David S]

Thanks folks for your helpful and thoughtful comments. I will try switchng the reeds in position which will also reverse their direction and will settle both the push / pull question and also the actual location. Thank Again, David

[Johann]

I suspect every EC or Duet or PA or CBA player has made the same sound checks, and I'd be interested to hear if any have noticed any difference in push versus pull tone. I have not. And I'd say that buyers of quality instruments have a right to expect the same tone coming and going.

 

More or less there is always a diffence for push and pull, but i dont expect everone to notice this.

 

The diffence in sound is in most case mainly not related to the reed itself.

If reeds are consructed and nery equal in curfing and stiffness ther is still some little diffence in soundqualyty.

[paperpunchr]

If swapping the reeds doesn't change the effect, it's probably the usual situation on an Anglo where you have duplicate notes in the inner row and outer row, and the openings are, respectively, physically on the outside edge past the buttons and under the palm or the wrist...differences in internal resonance due to reed chamber shape and location of air opening, and also differences in the "escape route" for the sound come into play.

 

I take advantage of this timbre difference where I can in Irish music to play a same-note triplet ornament where the three notes alternate between the two buttons, and you can hear the triplet more distinctly because of the timbre change...if you don't play a lot of triplets on those particular buttons, it's just part of the territory and you have to live with the difference, at least on most Anglos.

 

Doug

[David S]

At last I have found the time to swap the reeds over in position (which also changes Push to pull) and I find that the different timbre is still present in the same position but with the changed reeds. So the reed is eliminated as culprit, and, as other 'duplicate notes sound identical on push and pull (and silmilar notes in different positions on my other Wheatstone are also identical) the 'problem' must be with the chanber / airhole, so I'll just have to live with it. I suspect that I am much more aware of the difference than someone listening, although my son (a recording engineer) picks it up every time! Problem will be eliminated eventually when Steve D builds me a new concertina! Thanks for all your comments; hope to meet some of you at Stowmarket at the beginning of September.

 

David

[Doug Barr]

Problem will be eliminated eventually when Steve D builds me a new concertina! Thanks for all your comments; hope to meet some of you at Stowmarket at the beginning of September.

 

David

 

I think you will find this tonal difference in any concertina and you will learn to ignor it or use it to your advantage. I sometime use the softer, more mellow notes when playing airs and it can make a big difference. Don't think of this as a flaw. most instrunents have the same think going on. Before becoming total obsessed with the concertina my main instrument was the sax, and there are many different fingerings for many notes all with thier own characteristics. Have fun with it. Doug

[paperpunchr]

Problem will be eliminated eventually when Steve D builds me a new concertina!

 

David

 

 

David,

One way (actually two...maybe three, I'm brainstorming here) I can think of to eliminate the timbre difference would be to either go to a Midi electronic concertina, ...or if you want to stay physico-pneumatic-acoustic, redesign the lever layout to put the two reeds side by side in the same physical location... or have two buttons/levers, one in each row, mechanically connected so they are both working one pad over one reed. Then you'd get the same exact tone quality from either button...

 

 

Other than that you're going to have some degree of difference.... You can look at it as a problem, or you can look at it as an opportunity to introduce another variation into your playing.

 

Cheers!

Edited August 27, 2007 by paperpunchr

[Frank Edgley]

This could be a situation where the pad over one hole is raising slightly more than over the other, allowing more sound etc. to come out. You could try putting another button damper under the button of the "brighter" note. This would reduce the sound and brightness of that note. Just a suggestion, one easily done and undone.