STREB AGAIN

[Delboy]

  Got my STREB at last, well, actually it arrived about a month ago now but I've been so busy playing it I didn't get around to shouting about it 'till now.
It's fantastic, and so easy to handle and play. Mine is number 48. Steve Rouse delivered it in person, as he does with all the instruments he makes I believe. That man is a genius. Thanks Steve, I love it.

Just had a thought, if mine is number 48 where are the other 47?
Perhaps we could start a list to see how many owners use this forum.

[Alison Scott]

Just had a thought, if mine is number 48 where are the other 47?
Perhaps we could start a list to see how many owners use this forum.

I think you'll find that a few of us are here. Mine is no. 22; Steve's clearly been busy! I use mine when I have to play silently (especially when staying away from home), and when I want different sounds (especially for Christmas carols). I had intended to use it to accompany my singing because I could sing in any key, but my singing is still rubbish with the melodeon.

[upmine3]

I've been wondering about these Strebs.

1) What is the action like on the keyboard does it feel like springs and levers or do they feel like electric buttons?

2) Do the bellows give the same pressure as a normal melodeon ie harder push more volume?

3) I know you can pick different sounds like Violin and such but does the melodeon sound actually resemble the real thing?

4) Can you adjust the cents Dry/Wet?

Cheers.

[theSmoiler]

3) I know you can pick different sounds like Violin and such but does the melodeon sound actually resemble the real thing?

As far as I can recall, the melodeon sound was sampled from my friend Heather Hazell's old (she now has a newer one) Castagnari Tommy - so it should sound like one! I've played Neil McCritchie's Streb - custom made to resemble a Castagnari Lilly - but I can't remember now. Nick Whiteley was playing his at ECMW this weekend - but not sure it didn't still sound 'electronic'.

Diane 

[TomB-R]

Errr... Correct me if I'm wrong but if it's a midi melodeon doesn't the sound just depend on what you send the midi signals to?  

[Clive Williams]

3) I know you can pick different sounds like Violin and such but does the melodeon sound actually resemble the real thing?

As far as I can recall, the melodeon sound was sampled from my friend Heather Hazell's old (she now has a newer one) Castagnari Tommy - so it should sound like one! I've played Neil McCritchie's Streb - custom made to resemble a Castagnari Lilly - but I can't remember now. Nick Whiteley was playing his at ECMW this weekend - but not sure it didn't still sound 'electronic'.

Diane 

Steve now has quite a library of melodeon samples; some convincing; some less so! My favourite is still the Hohner Club sample which is a sample of my 1920's C/F Hohner Club, dry tuned. My melodeons are also responsible for the Castagnari Mory samples if you ever come across them. I also like the one-row samples (Lester, were they your boxes?) and the Pokerwork, I think, is quite uncanny.

Cheers,

Clive (No. 14!)

[Clive Williams]

Errr... Correct me if I'm wrong but if it's a midi melodeon doesn't the sound just depend on what you send the midi signals to?  

Well, you can send the signals to a midi keyboard if you like, but the built-in synth has a whole bunch of melodeon samples on board and there are built in speakers too... so the whole thing can be stand-alone; no wires needed!

Cheers,

Clive

[Clive Williams]

I've been wondering about these Strebs.

1) What is the action like on the keyboard does it feel like springs and levers or do they feel like electric buttons?

2) Do the bellows give the same pressure as a normal melodeon ie harder push more volume?

3) I know you can pick different sounds like Violin and such but does the melodeon sound actually resemble the real thing?

4) Can you adjust the cents Dry/Wet?

Cheers.

1) Yep, they're electric switches, but they don't really feel like it in live use. They are however, bl**dy quick to respond.

2) It's pressure sensitive; the harder you push/pull, the louder things get.

3) Personal opinion really! There's a sound sample on http://www.streb.co.uk/ you can listen to which uses the club sample, Liverpool Hornpipe. See what you think?

4) Not directly, but you can have different samples - e.g. mine has a dry tuned hohner club sample, and a wet tuned hohner pokerwork sample.

Cheers,

Clive

[HallelujahAl]

t'aint natural - none of it!
AL (in early morning grumpy old git mode - if anyone wants a sample please contact)
 

[Delboy]

I've been wondering about these Strebs.

1) What is the action like on the keyboard does it feel like springs and levers or do they feel like electric buttons?

2) Do the bellows give the same pressure as a normal melodeon ie harder push more volume?

3) I know you can pick different sounds like Violin and such but does the melodeon sound actually resemble the real thing?

4) Can you adjust the cents Dry/Wet?

Cheers.

I can only agree with Clive here, especially the response time. The response is instant as there are no reeds to get moving. Also you need very little bellows movement as all you are doing is creating a positive or negative pressure for the sensor inside to recognise and change the note for a particular button. The only limit to the speed of playing the Streb is yourself, how fast can you move those fingers!
Mine is a 2.5 row model in standard form, no special requests were made during construction.

Cheers all
 

[Lester]

1) What is the action like on the keyboard does it feel like springs and levers or do they feel like electric buttons?

They feel like electric buttons because they are electric buttons, but this is not a bad thing, it is just like a really good melodeon with a very fast action. The attack curve of tghe notes vs. bellows pressure is also selectable from anumber of different predefined curves.

2) Do the bellows give the same pressure as a normal melodeon ie harder push more volume?

The bellows work by having a hole on the bass end where the air leaks out, the size of this leak is adjustable to give you the feel you like from really leaky knackered old Hohner to really tight brand new Costalotti.

3) I know you can pick different sounds like Violin and such but does the melodeon sound actually resemble the real thing?

The melodeon sounds are amples of real melodeons, various from a Club to a Mory. They sound most successful, to my ear, when played through a sepaarte sound system. You can spend an infinite amount of time playing with the reverb and chorus to set the sound as you like.

4) Can you adjust the cents Dry/Wet?

Nope.

[ladydetemps]

Does the volume go all the way up to 11?

[Bananayogi]

[Québécois]

t'aint natural - none of it!
AL (in early morning grumpy old git mode - if anyone wants a sample please contact)
 

MIDI instruments can never replace the real thing. They are interesting beasts but cannot replicate the full mechanical feel of key action and reeds reacting to air pressure.

It's like digital pianos. I like my digital piano, it gives me a close approximation of what a real acoustic piano can do, but it will never sound  like one. On the other hand, it never needs tuning, it's lightweight so I can move it without risking to cause damage to the house or the piano itself, I can use headphones if I feel like playing late at night, I can record tunes, play all sorts of sounds, etc.

[Delboy]

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[Alison Scott]

My go at the exam questions:

1) What is the action like on the keyboard does it feel like springs and levers or do they feel like electric buttons?

They feel like buttons; but to some extent it just feels like a melodeon with the fastest action ever. I don't think this is a particular drawback to the Streb.

2) Do the bellows give the same pressure as a normal melodeon ie harder push more volume?

There's a pressure-sensitive switch. It feels like real bellows except that all the air goes out through a valve. You can adjust the pressure at which the sound starts, and the pressure curve, in software, to match your personal playing style. The thing I find weird is that the response is different when you press several notes at once to what would happen if you press several notes on a real melodeon. For example, you can't stop playing the bass in order to punch out the treble, that sort of thing. It's not *bad*, it's just different.

The sound response of the Streb is vastly more like a melodeon than, say, a melodeon sample on a midi keyboard would be. It's also a whole lot more portable than a midi keyboard plus amp and speakers; one of the really nice things about the Streb is that it reminds you what a fantastic music-making form factor the melodeon is.

3) I know you can pick different sounds like Violin and such but does the melodeon sound actually resemble the real thing?

Yes and no. Other people have explained that there are numerous melodeon sound samples; the melodeon sound samples are jolly good and give you quite a lot of options (I think there are even more samples than there were when I got mine, but mine has, at least, a Mory, a dry-tuned club, a Pokerwork, a Hohner one-row and a concertina). But there is a limit to how much an electronic instrument is ever going to sound like an acoustic one.

4) Can you adjust the cents Dry/Wet?

[Lester]

Don't buy a Streb if you want a melodeon with reeds it hasn't got any.
Don't buy a Streb if you want something that plays exactly like a melodeon it doesn't
Don't buy a Streb if you want something that sounds exactly like a melodeon it doesn't

In fact if you want the above buy a melodeon.

If you want something to play with that:

• makes interesting noises
• makes everyone smile
• has a "melodeon capo"  so can play in most any key
• you can play to your hearts content at night in hotel rooms or when everyone is a bed because it has headphones
• allows you to dabble in the black arts of half step tuning
• allows you to dabble in alternative keyboard layouts

And if you have got a bit of time I calculate, taking all the variable in to account, there are ~ 5,000,000 different combinations of settings so at one a minute you only need about 9,500 years to try each one   

[upmine3]

[Falseknight]

Can you use one to trigger external modules?  A rock Hammond voice strikes me as possible being good fun!

[Alison Scott]

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Alison Scott