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Author Topic: Surreal button accordion keyboard  (Read 3723 times)

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Michael Eskin

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Surreal button accordion keyboard
« on: February 03, 2015, 03:24:03 AM »

Doing some research for a friend on MIDI chromatic button accordions, I came across this:

http://www.jimlaabsmusic.com/accordions/accordion-electronics/orla-kx-10-button-accordion-keyboard/prod_5575.html

Never heard of anything like this before!
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triskel

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Re: Surreal button accordion keyboard
« Reply #1 on: February 03, 2015, 04:32:55 AM »

They're perfectly normal in France, I've come across them being played in Parisian cafés, brasseries etc. a few times.

Michael Eskin

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Re: Surreal button accordion keyboard
« Reply #2 on: February 03, 2015, 07:22:38 AM »

Fantastic!
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Kimric Smythe

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Re: Surreal button accordion keyboard
« Reply #3 on: February 05, 2015, 08:53:53 AM »

But you would still have to deal with Jimlaabs music http://www.topix.com/forum/city/stevens-point-wi/TO89AOA6AB6O4BI6D
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Chris Ryall

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Re: Surreal button accordion keyboard
« Reply #4 on: February 05, 2015, 11:19:17 AM »

That is a truly mega "continental button accordion" layout but some are that big. They are same note both ways, assume you've picked up on the stradella bass already.

Rows are set out in diminished scale, and a semitone apart. Yes the are 3, not five dim scales  ;) Your D, whatever scale is then a bit like a chess knights tour across the buttons. That's the hard bit.

Cleverly, you then only have to move right hand in by 2 rows … you are now playing in E. Then move a button (minor 3rd) along and you are in G ;) The fingering pattern is identical

The 4th and 5th rows aren't real on the keyboard, they just extend the lever, you press row 4 and row one also depresses, facilitating "same fingering". 3-row versions exist, but then you have to learn a sort of "folded" fingering for some keys.

I won't mention m0d€$ as per new Year resolution, but anyone who'd listened last year can now work out for themselves how to play in all 84 standard music diatonic scales, majors and minors :|glug
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triskel

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Re: Surreal button accordion keyboard
« Reply #5 on: February 05, 2015, 02:36:54 PM »

The 4th and 5th rows aren't real on the keyboard, they just extend the lever, you press row 4 and row one also depresses, facilitating "same fingering". 3-row versions exist, but then you have to learn a sort of "folded" fingering for some keys.

4-row versions are not uncommon in France either, though pretty-much unheard of anywhere else...

Nick Collis Bird

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Re: Surreal button accordion keyboard
« Reply #6 on: February 06, 2015, 11:34:01 AM »

The 4th and 5th rows aren't real on the keyboard, they just extend the lever, you press row 4 and row one also depresses, facilitating "same fingering". 3-row versions exist, but then you have to learn a sort of "folded" fingering for some keys.

4-row versions are not uncommon in France either, though pretty-much unheard of anywhere else...

Does that mean there are couplers as in an organ?
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Chris Ryall

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Re: Surreal button accordion keyboard
« Reply #7 on: February 06, 2015, 01:29:32 PM »

Thanks for that Nick.  I know the word 'surreal' is in our thread title, but this one has truly lost me!

Please add a smiley [ ;) to the left above the text box] if that was a joke; I'll ignore it in the usual way. Otherward clarification as to the relevance of organology would be much appreciated ::)   

A CBA has a single keyboard, if that helps?
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Nick Collis Bird

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Re: Surreal button accordion keyboard
« Reply #8 on: February 06, 2015, 01:31:33 PM »

Sorry Chris, didn't mean to confuse. I really thought that these machines had couplers. You push one and others go down at the same time. If it was a joke I really would have put a smiley on.
Sorry once again. :|bl
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Theo

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Re: Surreal button accordion keyboard
« Reply #9 on: February 06, 2015, 01:57:06 PM »

No couplers. Buttons on the inner two rows are permanently links to the corresponding outer row buttons.

The two parts to the keyboard are the exact equivalent of the L and R of a CBA so although unusual on an electronic keyboard it's really just the two ends of an accordion placed side by side.
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Nick Collis Bird

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Re: Surreal button accordion keyboard
« Reply #10 on: February 06, 2015, 02:04:56 PM »

Thanks Theo
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oggiesnr

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Re: Surreal button accordion keyboard
« Reply #11 on: February 06, 2015, 03:04:25 PM »

Available as a button keyboard (as above), accordion keyboard or standard piano.

The accordion versions have around 30 different accordion sounds as well as the standard GM MIDI files and full MIDI capability.  It's also an "arranger" keyboard so multi tracking, record to PC etc is part of the package.  US prices look around the $450-$500 dollar range.  Orla UK don't list this one but may be able to order in, they do stock the standard keyboard version.

Have fun  (:)
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Chris Ryall

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Re: Surreal button accordion keyboard
« Reply #12 on: February 07, 2015, 09:13:02 AM »

Final piece of navel ;) architecture on this particular quinquerime is that (ignoring slave rows 4 and 5) … the three active rows can be arranged in two ways. They are a semitone apart, buttons can run either DC#C or CC#D from outside to in. The latter is more common in Western Europe and called C system. The reversal seems to originate in Russia and termed "B". NB neither row is "diatonic" so this is not George's favourite BCC#. The rows rather play 4 note diminished chords, same push and pull. This one being electronic, I suspect it can be switched to either system.

Much debate on appropriate newsgroups as to which system is better for which music, and indeed occasional posts here showing CBAs played at speeds incredible to the ordinary melodeonista. Richard Galliano is probably the best known proponent in Britain.

[ed] Field recording: Patrick Rebaud, val d'Isère, 4 years back http://chrisryall.net/tunes/fast-waltz-reboud.mp3
« Last Edit: February 07, 2015, 09:23:23 AM by Chris Ryall »
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The Blues Viking

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Re: Surreal button accordion keyboard
« Reply #13 on: February 08, 2015, 03:47:28 AM »

But you would still have to deal with Jimlaabs music http://www.topix.com/forum/city/stevens-point-wi/TO89AOA6AB6O4BI6D

I dealt with Jim Laabs Music back when I knew no better, and would never do so again. The above link says it all.

TBV
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triskel

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Re: Surreal button accordion keyboard
« Reply #14 on: February 08, 2015, 05:46:34 AM »

Doing some research for a friend on MIDI chromatic button accordions, I came across this:

http://www.jimlaabsmusic.com/accordions/accordion-electronics/orla-kx-10-button-accordion-keyboard/prod_5575.html

Never heard of anything like this before!

There's a demo of it on YouTube, starting 2 minutes into the (German) video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tP9G_cM4umw

And some good tango playing on something similar here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpYqdrcouRA

Or some French bal de musette music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FPTMuz7SXI
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