Home › Forums › Help/Technical Questions › MicroSynth and STM with mic’d instruments (accordions)?
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April 29, 2013 at 1:13 pm #82968tomfabinskiMember
Do musicians use your effects pedal with microphone input? Specifically, a mic’d accordion (or harmonica)? I’m interested in running an acoustic accordion through your Stereo Talking Machine and/or MicroSynth pedals. Since the accordion reed and guitar string are both vibrating metal, the pedals should produce similar tonal effects (except for the different attack envelopes of the two instruments and their pitch-bending abilities – although a pitch-bending pedal could change the reed’s pitch, too).
If I mute the acoustic sound of the accordion reeds with internal baffles, I should be able to produce a mostly electronically processed sound with an internal microphone (versus the sound from your pedals merely added to the naturally vibrating sound of the unprocessed reeds.)
How would your Talking Machine and MicroSynth handle polyphonic chords? Or if I held one note down and introduced a second note – would each note have its own “envelope?”
The only alternative to mic’ing an acoustic accordion would be to have guitar-like pickups on each reed (if that were even possible.) And with 82 different reeds on just the right hand of one 41 key accordion reed block, the wiring mechanics get overwhelming. But with just one reed block outfitted with pickups, one wouldn’t need additional reed blocks tuned to different octaves or tuned musette – because your pedals could do all that harmonic changing.
By the way I’ve got a Roland digital accordion which I love. But I’m looking for something different and I’ve always envied what guitarists can do with effects pedals. The Roland sounds great just the way it is even though I could send its output into effects pedals. (To my knowledge, Roland doesn’t have an effects buss on even their newest accordion – the FR8.) But I’m really focussing on using effects pedals on an acoustic instrument.
Thanks,
TomApril 29, 2013 at 9:32 pm #118993StubbornBardMemberI’ll hookup my mic to my effects and play through my accoustic sometime soon and let you know how it goes.
April 30, 2013 at 2:29 pm #119008CryabetesParticipantHey there Tom. Hoping I can help you out with a few of your questions.
Quote:How would your Talking Machine and MicroSynth handle polyphonic chords? Or if I held one note down and introduced a second note – would each note have its own “envelope?”Unfortunately, no – since the sound is essentially your 82 reeds summed into one electrical signal by a mic, variances in amplitude (volume) would cause either of these to retrigger their envelope, occassionally on note changes but more likely in the middle of a long sustain. The Microsynth would either shoot for the average pitch or fluctuate between the multiple pitches, likely retriggering each time it decided one was loud than the other. Bumping the mic would also probably retrigger notes.
A digital synthesis pedal (freeze, superego, HOG2), you’d likely have better results on, but again, you wouldn’t have note-by-note processing available.With the roland digital accordion you have, you’ll likely have a midi out jack that you could use to drive a synthesizer (I’d reccommend a roland xv-2020 on the cheaper end of things, and the sky basically being the limit on the more expensive end – a moog taurus III? Korg RADIAS? Alesis Andromeda? A modular eurorack with a midi note to CV converter?) and you’d be able to get the note by note processing. Adding a cheap multieffects unit like a roland SP404sx, korg kp3, or Alesis ineko (or single pedals, if you want to go that route) would allow you basically free reign over any sounds you want to make.
Quote:The only alternative to mic’ing an acoustic accordion would be to have guitar-like pickups on each reed (if that were even possible.) And with 82 different reeds on just the right hand of one 41 key accordion reed block, the wiring mechanics get overwhelming. But with just one reed block outfitted with pickups, one wouldn’t need additional reed blocks tuned to different octaves or tuned musette – because your pedals could do all that harmonic changing.this is more dependent on how you’d wire the pickup – individual pole pieces on each reed (or, god forbid, individual pickups on each reed) would be a nightmare, but if they’re all basically in a row or two, one or two long pickups would be capable for getting vibrating metal to turn into electrical current.
May 2, 2013 at 5:25 pm #119016tomfabinskiMemberCryabetes –
Thanks. So, if I understand correctly, guitar effect pedals (and particularly the Stereo Talking Machine and Micro Synth) are monophonic and they are triggered by each new, louder volume change. That is, every time the pedal senses more amplitude, voltage or volume, the envelope re-starts which is why these pedals work best on a monophonic, plucked (picked or strummed) guitar (or harp). And which is why they will perform differently if the instrument is wind (clarinet or voice for example) where the initial attack may be slow and increase and continually re-start the envelope or if the instrument is polyphonic (accordion) where the pedal envelope doesn’t know which tone to process since it’s monophonic.
Which is not to say that the result will be undesirable but only that it will be less predictable. And so, the only way to really know what the processed sound will be is to get a pedal and experiment.
Tom
May 2, 2013 at 6:08 pm #119017CryabetesParticipantundesirable only because these are rarely subtle effects. You could get around some of the issues with dynamics control pedals (non-expressive distortions, limiters, compression). Personally I’m more curious what you could do with a Ring Thing than a Microsynth.
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