And since the Pitch Trim could be externally controlled by MIDI, you could have the tuning of each unit changing continuously based on the external MIDI control signals. For example, with three instances, you not only could have, say, 36 notes per octave, you could have any tuning based on parallel tunings of three sets of 12-note tuning. Additionally, using the Pitch Trim control on each instance means that you can assemble any tuning based on detunings of any set of 12 pitches. This is just a small example of the flexibility that can be produced. Additionally, since the synth is an Audio Unit, you can run two examples in parallel, and adjust the level of the ‘clarinet’ register by hand to any level of beating between the clarinet registers on each instance, and this will produce any kind of “musette” timbre that can be found on any accordion. These can not only be selected with the traditional accordion register symbols (the circles with horizontal lines and circles), but also the sound-levels of each of the three registers can be adjusted manually, or controlled with external MIDI control. The accordion has a full range of accordion registrations, with three registers in three octaves (called ‘bassoon,’ ‘clarinet,’ and ‘piccolo’ in accordion-speak). And at 9.99 Euros, I’m not only aesthetically pleased, my wallet is smiling as well. And since I grew up playing accordions, and then spent my adolescence immersed in the world of electronics, I’m pretty hard to please if there is going to be a combination instrument – well, I am pleased. The beautiful sampled timbres of the Titano, and the electronic music capabilities of the apeSoft line combine to make an inspiring instrument. The hybrid of these two vocabularies makes an instrument that is much more powerful than either instrument on its own. In addition, Alessandro Petrolati has added a whole library of digital capabilities from his apeSoft line of synthesizers and sound processors. Principi has a company, which specializes in sampled accordions (and a new vintage electric piano, available for both computer and iOS instruments), and Vintage Accordion for iOS uses the same sample set – of a vintage 1960s Titano Accordion from Castelfiardo, Italy – used by their computer sampled accordion product. Finally, late last year, Alessandro Petrolati, of apeSoft, and Paolo Principi, of Psound, brought out Accordion Vintage, and my accordion dreams were fulfilled. When I moved to the world of the iPad, sampled accordions and reed organs were high on my list of interest. So the desire to explore the free reed (the basis of the sound-making of the accordion, as well as the harmonica, sho, reed organ, khene, and many other similar instruments) was there. Years later, I was studying electronic music performance with Pauline Oliveros, who had also started out playing accordion and continued her explorations on the synthesizer, and she showed me how the accordion could produce a whole family of beating timbres. This prepared me, many years later, for work with synthesizers, which occupied a very similar basic timbral world to the accordion. Additionally, the timbre of the accordion seemed to imprint itself into my musical imagination, so that my idea of a normal musical tone was not a piano, or a guitar, but an accordion. This slightly smaller size enabled me, when I grew up, to play wider interval stretches, which gave me additional abilities when I got involved in free improvisation. Eventually, we both graduated to 120-bass Giulietti accordions, mine a bit smaller than his. Very shortly thereafter, they stopped playing accordion, but I kept at it, and within six months, my father began playing the accordion as well. I saw my cousins playing the accordion and I was hooked. The Author Rob Howard, is renowned for his series of books titled An A to Z of the Accordion and Related Instruments, Volume 1 through Volume 4.I started out (at the age of 6) playing the accordion. This book is a limited edition, A4 sized, 60 pages, and in hardback. ‘Vintage Accordion LPs, EPs & 78s on CD’. ‘Uniform Keyboard’, ‘Coming up to date…’, and ‘Castelfidardo – Epicentre of the Accordion World!’, ‘19th Century Literary figures and the accordion’, Most of the 300 pictures are of instruments from the large and magnificent collections owned by Ken Hopkins (Northern Ireland) and Caroline Hunt (Scotland), as featured on her famous calendars. Email Rob Howard: Accordions is a unique book - a beautifully illustrated all-colour history of the accordion, in its various forms, from the early years of the 19th Century right up to the present time. Author Rob Howard has most generously made the book free of charge to those who email him for a copy. Print copies sold out and now this book has been made available in eBook format only (.pdf format) able to be sent to you by email.
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