Most here know that I picked up a Beltuna Leader V accordion last year with the LIMEX MIDI system in it.
Amazing accordion, not so good MIDI system... incredible acoustic mic system by LIMEX.
After I had made my first recording with the Beltuna, I noticed that the right hand was given a very "strange" stereo effect. When listening live over speakers, it was a somewhat nice effect, but when listening to the song through headphones, the effect drove me nuts, a kind of random back and forth from left to right every note... I hated that effect, but at least there was a solution.
I don't use the MIDI side on the Beltuna, if that is what I want, I use the 8X, but for a nice tightly controlled acoustic sound, the Beltuna was almost there... but it was MONO not STEREO.
Now, if you are a LIMEX dealer, there is a way to change what is sent to what output jack, and I really wanted a separate output for the L/A channels for the sake of control. There are actually about 6 variations available so, it was doable, though I needed to change the screen because my current one was an old serial model and I needed one with a mini-USB jack. I also needed the proper software AND I needed the procedure.
For all 3, I was fortunate enough to find a good man in the Facebook LIMEX page who helped me a lot.
Bottom line I not only improved the sound quality of the output on the Beltuna, but also went full stereo capability in the settings that I programmed it to. Before CH1-2 were the outputs for the L/R mics, L/R electronics and the vocal mic... all in MONO. CH3 was for sending effects like reverb.
This is the screen in the software that made all those changes happen:
After I was done replacing the screen unit and reprogramming the LIMEX system, I had CH1 as acoustic left hand, CH2 as acoustic right hand with INCREDIBLE separation between the 2 and CH3 was the L/R hands of the electronics, something that so far I've used 2 times only for test purposes.
This level of separation is amazing, but in real life something that I would never use in an accordion recording, BUT absolutely need for the sake of control. Now *I* am in control of the signal and how much separation and placement within the stereo image I want for each hand, and the only sacrifice made was the loss of control of the integrated voice mic, something I would never use anyway.
I had 3 benefits come out of this experiment:
1 - It had a good raw sound before but with the replacement of the screen, a light annoying high-pitched whine that came out of the screen area disappeared.
2 - I had near perfect left/right separation between left and right hands of the acoustic accordion
3 - There was some slight line noise that I could remove in post processing previously, but that disappeared with the addition of the new screen.
So now I am loving on my 'Tuna even more, with greater control in post of the stereo image, cleaner sound, less noise and I am really admiring the quality of the LIMEX mic system, even though I am no great fan of it's MIDI capabilities.
With this level of quality available, I cannot see anyone NOT want to use the accordion mics when recording, they are just that good and can easily be made even better with small touch-ups.
A short 2 minute video showing the before and after:
Amazing accordion, not so good MIDI system... incredible acoustic mic system by LIMEX.
After I had made my first recording with the Beltuna, I noticed that the right hand was given a very "strange" stereo effect. When listening live over speakers, it was a somewhat nice effect, but when listening to the song through headphones, the effect drove me nuts, a kind of random back and forth from left to right every note... I hated that effect, but at least there was a solution.
I don't use the MIDI side on the Beltuna, if that is what I want, I use the 8X, but for a nice tightly controlled acoustic sound, the Beltuna was almost there... but it was MONO not STEREO.
Now, if you are a LIMEX dealer, there is a way to change what is sent to what output jack, and I really wanted a separate output for the L/A channels for the sake of control. There are actually about 6 variations available so, it was doable, though I needed to change the screen because my current one was an old serial model and I needed one with a mini-USB jack. I also needed the proper software AND I needed the procedure.
For all 3, I was fortunate enough to find a good man in the Facebook LIMEX page who helped me a lot.
Bottom line I not only improved the sound quality of the output on the Beltuna, but also went full stereo capability in the settings that I programmed it to. Before CH1-2 were the outputs for the L/R mics, L/R electronics and the vocal mic... all in MONO. CH3 was for sending effects like reverb.
This is the screen in the software that made all those changes happen:
After I was done replacing the screen unit and reprogramming the LIMEX system, I had CH1 as acoustic left hand, CH2 as acoustic right hand with INCREDIBLE separation between the 2 and CH3 was the L/R hands of the electronics, something that so far I've used 2 times only for test purposes.
This level of separation is amazing, but in real life something that I would never use in an accordion recording, BUT absolutely need for the sake of control. Now *I* am in control of the signal and how much separation and placement within the stereo image I want for each hand, and the only sacrifice made was the loss of control of the integrated voice mic, something I would never use anyway.
I had 3 benefits come out of this experiment:
1 - It had a good raw sound before but with the replacement of the screen, a light annoying high-pitched whine that came out of the screen area disappeared.
2 - I had near perfect left/right separation between left and right hands of the acoustic accordion
3 - There was some slight line noise that I could remove in post processing previously, but that disappeared with the addition of the new screen.
So now I am loving on my 'Tuna even more, with greater control in post of the stereo image, cleaner sound, less noise and I am really admiring the quality of the LIMEX mic system, even though I am no great fan of it's MIDI capabilities.
With this level of quality available, I cannot see anyone NOT want to use the accordion mics when recording, they are just that good and can easily be made even better with small touch-ups.
A short 2 minute video showing the before and after:
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