I got this thing to find "my key" for singing, so I could then buy an acoustic box for that need. I suspect I won't have just one key though. Figured I'd never need below an F/Bb/Eb, but just dialed it down to E/A/D to be able to sing "Louisiana Two Step" with a bit more cajones in my voice. And I may go lower.

I had not noticed the sort of digital buzziness to the tone (most noticeable when playing multiple octave voices together, voices of the same octave doesn't matter much), until one of the dancers mentioned "what's up with all these digital accordions? I hate the sound. It's rough on my ears." And after that, I started hearing it.

So, once before I had gone on the hunt to find something to tame the piezo sound of an electric fiddle I have, and chanced upon a compressor/sustain pedal that helped a little, though I never bought that and went another route instead.

But, the sustain idea stayed with me. What better way to smooth out a sawtooth wave form but with a bit of sustain. The Boss CS-3 combined with the Boss AC-3 (Acoustic Simulator) had a slight bit of promise, but, upon continually trying it out, it really ended up giving the thing more of a calliope sound.

The other pedal I got for evaluation is the "Philosophers Tone" pedal, by Pigtronic.

This actually accomplishes the job a bit, though have to watch too much compression making the notes too staccato in some instances. And also emphasizing the digital flapper noise a bit too much when no note is playing, making it sound like a loud pop.

It's a smoother sound, though it is up to the individual ear. And I haven't tried it live with others listening.

I'd be interested if others have tried it, or do try it.

Or what other things you've tried.

I'm currently struggling with trying to combine the Hammond B3 sound with the accordion sound. I don't know WTF it is with me and assimilating the contents of manuals. Seems I had that set at one point, then put the accordion down for a few months, and now I'm an imbecile again, can't figure the manual out again.

Maybe I should set the accordion to the key of D/U/H.

Interesting, and I wonder about that buzziness; found that more often with cheaper class AD/DA converters in synthesizers and especially an internal master clock timing signal of lesser quality can cause distortion in the high frequencies; makes quite a difference on sound quality. Maybe Roland cut corners on using lesser converters, and we'd have to wait for an FR-18 MKII or XL version. The same happened with other Roland equipment in the past, this way these guys can resell their "junk" once again to the same customers; you'd want the best model if you're a serious musician. PS i have an old Akai DR8 8 track recorder, only 16bit, bit it sounds great when it's slaved to an external wordclock from another source like an Alesis masterlink or other. Maybe there is a modification possible for the FR 18? Alas my hearing is not as good anymore, but maybe some of you young-ones can share an opinion on this subject. Test the FR 18 through a HiFi PA, thus not a budget Mackie or Peavey or even a Yamaha digital desk system. - Nout

I'm going through a Yamaha MG12/4fx mixer to a JBL Eon 15 speaker.

Perhaps someone else would not notice the buzziness. I didn't at first, I was so enamored with the new toy.

Another thing this box is good for is writing midi code, and thus generating a score for use in creating lead sheets. Particularly useful on original stuff.

I had not noticed the sort of digital buzziness to the tone (most noticeable when playing multiple octave voices together, voices of the same octave doesn't matter much), until one of the dancers mentioned "what's up with all these digital accordions? I hate the sound. It's rough on my ears." And after that, I started hearing it.

==doesn;t make sense really
you didn;t hear it at first in quiet and home
now this dancer heard it in some noisy place over a PA while dancing?

==i;d have to hear it to know what it was

==possibly also PA operation was a factor also>?


==i;d guess it was more of an " that accordion sound you picked, sounds weird to me"


==more than ''every sound out of that box is "buzzy" because i happen to have noticed it was digital''



So, once before I had gone on the hunt to find something to tame the piezo sound of an electric fiddle I have, and chanced upon a compressor/sustain pedal that helped a little, though I never bought that and went another route instead.

But, the sustain idea stayed with me. What better way to smooth out a sawtooth wave form but with a bit of sustain.

==now you are redesigning the waveform>?




The other pedal I got for evaluation is the "Philosophers Tone" pedal, by Pigtronic.

This actually accomplishes the job a bit, though have to watch too much compression making the notes too staccato in some instances. And also emphasizing the digital flapper noise a bit too much when no note is playing, making it sound like a loud pop.

==compressors are very hard to set up right, even if you know what you want

==interesting problem, but i can;t help without hearing

wle

==doesn;t make sense really
you didn;t hear it at first in quiet and home
now this dancer heard it in some noisy place over a PA while dancing?


I wasn't using my box at that point. I started using it again after she said something and it was noticeable to me, but not when I was just playing MM or MMM. If I played LMM or whatever, it showed up.

And it became noticeable to me on the other performers box.

My thoughts in a nutshell.

1. Roland's synthesis, I noticed, seems to show more distortion and "digital artifacts" the more notes are played at once. As opposed to Korg, where the more notes are played the more "real" it sounds.

2. The more stomp boxes, or processors you add, in general, the more noise you get. AND the more complex your signal chain, the more likely you are to have a failure or fault at a gig.

3. If you want it to sound more like the dancers expect, try the following. Do not use any effects, it can just muddy your sound and make it nondistinct.

Use your third octave EQ and create a very steep high frequency rool-off. Start very high and keep lowering the frequencies (pulling down sliders) until you find sound you want.

If you insist on using effects, do the following to simulate the "internal" mic sound. Create a reverb setting using the following.
. high frequecy rolloff. (none)
. hall type medium
. pre-delay none
. reverb time extremely short

Part of the "Zydeco" internal mic sound is the mic picking up the reeds ringing after you have stopped playing a note. Using this type of (very unnatural) reverb setting, you can simulate this and "smooth out" the sound.

WARNING: if you use a cheap digital reverb, you will get distortion, like Larry mentioned, in the high frequencies.

Have fun!
DP

This particular pedal actually unmuddies the tone. In the process, it does hide or smooth out some of the reed vibration sound that the instrument is trying to emulate, and that is what I am wondering how it sounds to others.

It has a blend knob to allow tapering the unaffected signal with the compressed signal, but there is still some effect even when there is supposedly no processed signal dialed in.

This pedal is pretty quiet. No noise that I can detect. Other reviews of it generally say the same.

I'll also try some of the things you suggested. I think I did try the graphic equalizer on it, but I don't remember that it did what I wanted.

Run a single pitch through an Agilent Spectrum analyzer
in order to decompose the spectral content.

Then, apply a fast Fourier Transform and digitally
filter out the offending harmonics.

Then, re-digitize at an adequately high Nyquist frequency
and apply digital filtering or very steep analog
filtering, being particularly mindful of any
incidental phase noise distortion.

And .. Voila! Sounds just like metal and wood!

(Point, being, you're kind of stuck with the fundamental
sound that the engineers gave you ..)

But, best of luck in your experiments!

--bn

I have been completely satisfied with mine. I settled on this particular accordion because I was conflicted between buying a triple row, or a chromatic button accordion. A triple row would limit me to the keys I can play in, and a CBA would take me a while to learn. When Roland's customer service rep explained to me that I could program the keyboard to a chromatic tablature, it was a no brainer, for me.

There are twelve accordion presets available, but I only use two of them. The "Cajun" setting isn't really Cajun, instead, sounds alot like Clifton Chenier's accordion. The "Alpine" setting is a fat LMMMH setting and sounds like the honking Gabbanelli's that I have heard.

All of the nuances of an accordion such as valve flutter, wind velocity are built into it. It is true that while played alone, an accordion player will notice that it is electronic, but most listeners do not notice. When played in ensemble, it is very convincing and sits well within the mix. The wetness of the tuning and the amount of reverb are completely customizable. When Chris Miller played fiddle with us a couple of weeks back, he commented that it sounded very good in the mix.

I don't see it as a lifetime instrument, for me, but it will definitely get the job done until I am comfortable enough to purchase a real CBA.

Do you have any pointers on setting up that CBA configuration? Seems that was discussed on here one time by Larry, and he seemed to think it didn't work.

I wouldn't mind trying some CBA myself. Awfully hard for me to interpret Chenier's stuff over to the diatonic. Have to rely on Rockin' Dopsie as my interpreter.

I printed out a CBA keyboard layout, then started on my outside row with the C3 and just followed the keyboard. It is just a three row CBA. The fourth and fifth rows are duplicates of the first and second. They allow for alternate fingerings, but I'm not worried about that, right now.

As a sidebar, I haven't found an Clifton songs that couldn't be duplicated on the three row. You have to think outside the box and stay away from 1st and 2nd position. 3rd and 4th position open up some really cool opportunities.

sell it and buy a real piano accordion, also food for thought,

if you were running your power by a gas generator, it will create the hum you're talking about through the PA. Experienced that annoying issue a couple of times, but you don't really hear it unless you're not playing. Another thing to consider is going to a professional sound engineer to learn how to set your PA right. Best thing I ever did. Rule 1 set your gains first, and you never run out of slider.

I am very happy with mine. I was trying to learn a couple of Chris Ardoin tunes (Master Key) and found he was playing on an EAD. No problem. I like the Hammond B-3 sound mixed with the Accordion. I don't know which voice I ususally play it through but tonight I will check out the "Alpine" voice. I may be using that. I try for the biggest fattest sound I can find with all stops open. Two biggest advantages next to covering every key, which is huge, is being able to practice through headphones and no feedback at gigs. Plus it is a very fast box to play.

"I had not noticed the sort of digital buzziness to the tone (most noticeable when playing multiple octave voices together, voices of the same octave doesn't matter much), until one of the dancers mentioned "what's up with all these digital accordions? I hate the sound. It's rough on my ears." And after that, I started hearing it."


I have not noticed digital buzziness. I often play mine through headphones and I have always noticed how clean it is - maybe TOO clean. I kinda like the light reverb that they add to the sound - only noticeable in headphones.

Maybe the problem you are having is that the gain might be too high on your mixer and it is starting to clip. Does you board have a little light that goes on when clipping is occurring?

Does running your accordion output through a DI box then to the amp help?..might be a ground effect issue?

We have a mando player with an internal pick up fitted to the instrument, who plays through an LR Baggs FX and a DI unit but he still gets a buzz....and our electric bass player still gets a hummm from his Fender...very annoying but can't seem to stop it.

I think a lot of it is just stuff that happens when you gig...the various venues emit variable interferences....or so the electronic geeks tell me. Unless the buzz is way outa control I say just get on with it, pump up the volume and entertain the punters!

The only time I can see it being an issue is in the recording studio..but those engineering guys have ways and means of fixing that.

It's not the hum of line interference. It just seems like something else, like an artificial waveform.

It could be a number of factors. I'd have to hear more of them being played live (hey Dana, when's your next gig?).

Ok, here's part of the problem. I haven't recently gone through all the sets on the instrument. I was just using the set that is in place when you fire up the machine. I was using the third button, pressed twice, to red, and it is not so great. some of the others sound pretty smooth.

I only dial it up to where it clips a little, then I back it down a bit.

Through the headphones it sounds ok enough. through my mixer, no effects, and then into my Eon 15, I can detect some graininess.