Are there disadvantages to installing condenser mics to the inside of the accordion?

[Ventura]

well this thread has matured and hashed things out pretty thoroughly
so i am gonna finally fall back to Rock and Roll and serious OOmPah
stuff like those big fat German Volksmuzik songs/Marches and such

meaning an inside the bellows mic has one fault that is a deal breaker
if you want to play that stuff seriously with huge and controllable
amplified acoustic sound

inside the bellows can't give you a good enough stereo Mic separation

for loud you really need to truly separately process the Bass reeds.. zero reverb..
three tone controls LMH on the mixer channel at least and even better some
outboard serious Bass processing like an octaver or focused EQ/booster..
in other words if you wanna rock your left hand reeds, they need their
own space in the Mix, and your PA equipment should also be able to
support this with seriously selected 15" LF drivers if you can handle the investment
and the schlepping them around.

admittedly few of you will ever need to play acoustic accordion at concert level
volume, and even if you do may have a Bass player in the band and so barely
need your bass reeds, but if you wanna blow their minds and hold your own
at a "battle of the Zepplin Cover bands" some weekend in Valkenburg, then
unscrew the bass strap, take the plate off, and mount something good
inside the bass chamber.

remember, the best defense is to just blow them off the stage

 

[Alan Polivka]

well this thread has matured and hashed things out pretty thoroughly
so i am gonna finally fall back to Rock and Roll and serious OOmPah
stuff like those big fat German Volksmuzik songs/Marches and such

meaning an inside the bellows mic has one fault that is a deal breaker
if you want to play that stuff seriously with huge and controllable
amplified acoustic sound

inside the bellows can't give you a good enough stereo Mic separation

for loud you really need to truly separately process the Bass reeds.. zero reverb..
three tone controls LMH on the mixer channel at least and even better some
outboard serious Bass processing like an octaver or focused EQ/booster..
in other words if you wanna rock your left hand reeds, they need their
own space in the Mix, and your PA equipment should also be able to
support this with seriously selected 15" LF drivers if you can handle the investment
and the schlepping them around.

admittedly few of you will ever need to play acoustic accordion at concert level
volume, and even if you do may have a Bass player in the band and so barely
need your bass reeds, but if you wanna blow their minds and hold your own
at a "battle of the Zepplin Cover bands" some weekend in Valkenblick, then
unscrew the bass strap, take the plate off, and mount something good
inside the bass chamber.

remember, the best defense is to just blow them off the stage

What you say, Ventura is totally true, of course. However, there is a little bit more to the story ...

Aside from trying to save a small amount of money by installing only one mic instead of several, the main reason IMHO for putting a mic inside the bellows is to get the deepest possible bass response. Due to the acoustics of an accordion, the deepest bass sounds are stronger (relative to higher frequencies) inside the bellows than they are outside the bellows in the LH button chamber. With today's elaborate EQ devices, this may be moot, since a good EQ device should allow you to compensate for the difference satisfactorily This was more significant back in the days when crystal mics were the only choice and affordable EQ was not as sophisticated.

For those accordions of mine that still have crystal mics, I have the bass mic inside the bellows and the treble mics under the grill. Cutting out the highs on the LH mic (via EQ/tone control) allows me plenty of amplification separation between LH and RH while obtaining the advantage of deeper bass. For my purposes, this works OK as long as I don't need too much RH amplification and mainly just need bass boost. If I need a lot of RH amplification, I play the RH of a crystal mic'd accordion into an external microphone and avoid the crappy sound provided by crystal mics on the RH. I'll still use the LH internal mic for good bass in this case.

Another point about a mic inside the bellows is that the sound it produces is significantly different than what you get with an external mic, because the sound inside an accordion is different inside vs. outside the bellows. The RH reeds sound more like a harmonica inside the bellows. So, a mic inside the bellows does not produce an accurate, natural representation of what the RH sounds like outside the accordion. This is another reason why an inside-the-bellows mic is better for bass than treble.

 

[Ventura]

interesting about the tonal difference

and i guess crystal elements are less wild for feedback inside..

but i switched to the green bullet element early on for bass and
have always had at least 2 boxes set-up for high volume and
thunderous bass, though now that we have the Rolands with the
Tuba Mix man it is hard to beat that for Oktober

 

[Alan Polivka]

interesting about the tonal difference

and i guess crystal elements are less wild for feedback inside..

but i switched to the green bullet element early on for bass and
have always had at least 2 boxes set-up for high volume and
thunderous bass, though now that we have the Rolands with the
Tuba Mix man it is hard to beat that for Oktober

Yes indeed, I get a lot of use out of the Tuba/String Bass mix on my Roland at Oktoberfests.