About this TED 10’46 conference on digital accordions, some remarks:
Some half time (5’40’’) is used to impress the audience with a virtuoso/champion playing a Monti piece. Second part of the video is showing minimal bellows movements, the player doesn’t give any technical explanations on the difference in music style and playing styles, the electronics/sensors… He just plays some accordion, and invites someone in the audience to touch the “magic” box. In total it's a 9 minute show and 1 minute (?) of pep talk.
I’ve watched some TED conferences in the past, and usually they also present some powerpoint presentations showing technical details
Isn’t a TED lecture supposed to learn something new to the audience? This is just a mini recital and a show. I have learned nothing about the technology of digital accordions in this video…
An open minded attitude to analyzing the functions of a music instrument, implies opening digital accordions and have clear views on:
All the inside and outer side parts of the accordion
A clear view on the details of the ways the processor(s) are the input signals
PBM (physical behavior modeling)
DBS (dynamical bellows systems or DBM dynamic bellows modeling)
A comparison of the math and programming in digital accordions, digital V-guitars, digital pianos, digital wind instruments, …
TED conferences are great to watch online, they are brief and presented by experts. However, I’d like to see a more in depth analysis of digital and midi accordions.
A classic promotion technique used in these commercially inspired lectures, is the use of music champions / celebrities / salespeople, used to impress or overwhelm the audience.
Let’s be careful not to confuse an open mind attitude with showtime and special effects.
A classic trick is to use a virtuoso to promote your digital accordions, such as this person or a Ludovic Beier and other virtuosos. This sales trick can be used to silence some bad mannered amateurs posing too many annoying questions about the technology. When accordion champions speak, amateurs should shut up and listen in total (blind?) admiration? Don’t think so.
When analysing digital accordions, we should separate the music instrument from the player. We are not studying the accordion players, we want to have a closer look at digital and midi accordions. An accordion virtuoso may be able to easily camouflage some possible flaws in digital accordion technology and the way these accordions react to finger and bellows actions.
Videos of beginning amateurs on digital accordions can show these, because they have less experience in adjusting/adapting/correcting/mimicking bellows movements.
If (in some remote virtual universe) I would produce low quality sportshoes, an Olympic 100 meter champion still could help boosting my business, by becoming a spokesman for my brand to market and still make a success of my sportshoes brand.
First we should dig up all the online or offline patents, read and analyse the contents.
Added with video material, live audiences and trials of digital accordions, and most of all inside views of the processor(s), hardware, sensors inside digital accordions.
By the way, I’m open to digital music instruments. My post on the Dualo is exactly on what might be the implications of digitalization in music instruments, compression of size, touch sensitive buttons, the question of the impact or not of bellows movements, etc.
I might even be more consequent and futuristic in asking myself, what parts of a digital accordion are really essential and necessary to obtain the same musical sound effects?
How different or similar is math in V-guitars, digital pianos, digital accordions? Music instruments with a completely different shape and body. Could they play the same music styles with the same sound effects? Eg playing a musette waltz on a digital piano, or a V-guitar with touch sensitivy technology ?
Because if so, this would mean dimensions, form and shape of case/bodies are less relevant in digital music instruments.
PS: I'm not against digital accordions or midi accordions. I just want to filter out the promo talk, and bring in some more documents to analyse.
I know digital accordions are a commercial succes, and especially in a modern rock band or heavy metal and other genres. Digital technology and amplification is essential when the accordionist is playing outdoors at a large audience music festival.
