Posted by: The Accordionist
Accordion + Arranger Nightmare! Help! - 10/18/04 08:02 AM
Greetings all -
I have recently been receiving inquiries asking if I had a setup for dances, rather than the usual acoustic background music I usually play. These requests have been so numerous that it has forced me to look into a new setup.
I had a Petosa Millennium digital reedless accordion with a Ketron XD3 arranger module and it didn't cut it. 32-note polyphony and no upgrades really frustrated me. Didn't like the styles too much either. It also was really expensive - $5000 for the accordion and $1500 for the XD3. I ended up selling the setup.
I have a really nice acousitc accordion that I would like to use as the centerpiece of my setup. I would like to either:
a) Use an on-board sequencer and program styles in a keyboard like the Tyros/PSR3000 and then run them in the background and play along with them with the acoustic.
b) Purchase a rack-mount tone generator that could play SMFs and mute the lead and play over them with the acoustic.
c) Purchase a cheaper ($2500) SEM Ciao reedless accordion and an older arranger module like the Korg i40m.
d) Use MP3s. ARGHHHHHHHHHHH!
I'm at a loss here. There aren't any really great solutions for an accordion OMB. That Petosa/XD3 setup was supposed to be State of the Art and it was comical. I would LOVE to buy a Tyros and pre-program the Styles but lugging a keyboard around to each gig and setting it up behind me is not ideal. A module would be much better as I could rack it and set it up quickly. It also would keep my differentiation as an accordionist and not a keyboardist.
I sure wish Yamaha, Korg or Roland made a nice rack-mount arranger module. Orla and Ketron make them but I'm done with those companies for reasons I won't go into here.
Then there are the MP3s. Or maybe even a laptop with some type of cheaper tone generator using Van Basco.
Any suggestions will be most appreciated.
Thank you.
Tommy
I have recently been receiving inquiries asking if I had a setup for dances, rather than the usual acoustic background music I usually play. These requests have been so numerous that it has forced me to look into a new setup.
I had a Petosa Millennium digital reedless accordion with a Ketron XD3 arranger module and it didn't cut it. 32-note polyphony and no upgrades really frustrated me. Didn't like the styles too much either. It also was really expensive - $5000 for the accordion and $1500 for the XD3. I ended up selling the setup.
I have a really nice acousitc accordion that I would like to use as the centerpiece of my setup. I would like to either:
a) Use an on-board sequencer and program styles in a keyboard like the Tyros/PSR3000 and then run them in the background and play along with them with the acoustic.
b) Purchase a rack-mount tone generator that could play SMFs and mute the lead and play over them with the acoustic.
c) Purchase a cheaper ($2500) SEM Ciao reedless accordion and an older arranger module like the Korg i40m.
d) Use MP3s. ARGHHHHHHHHHHH!
I'm at a loss here. There aren't any really great solutions for an accordion OMB. That Petosa/XD3 setup was supposed to be State of the Art and it was comical. I would LOVE to buy a Tyros and pre-program the Styles but lugging a keyboard around to each gig and setting it up behind me is not ideal. A module would be much better as I could rack it and set it up quickly. It also would keep my differentiation as an accordionist and not a keyboardist.
I sure wish Yamaha, Korg or Roland made a nice rack-mount arranger module. Orla and Ketron make them but I'm done with those companies for reasons I won't go into here.
Then there are the MP3s. Or maybe even a laptop with some type of cheaper tone generator using Van Basco.
Any suggestions will be most appreciated.
Thank you.
Tommy