MIDI accordion sound expansions BUT on the computer

[Airy]

Many times we had questions / discussion here about sound expansions, sound (UPG) editing and external sound expanders (which BTW may come as part of arranger or sequencer hardware). But I didn't find many messages talking about the computer as a sound (expanding) source.

In a recent thread initiated by @Tom ("Fr4 keyboard velocity") we briefly touched the difficulties which are implied in controlling the sound AKA expression of computer sound software, often called "sampler", "sample player" or in general "virtual instruments". To collect some info and experience is the idea of this thread. Hope, some can contribute...

 

[Airy]

Let me start with a nice video which is meant to be a review of such a "virtual instrument". But because the author talks profoundly about the advanteges and limitations of this particular sound set and compares it to a different one I think this is a nice introduction of what is possible and what not. Enjoy..!

 

[Airy]

The next video is a somewhat shallow presentation of a virtual accordion library by Eduardo Tarilonte. "Library" means here it contains many different instruments (accordion, bandoneon, folk accordon, etc) like the different sets of the Roland's V-Accordions. And briefly he shows another virtual accordion by Ilya Efimov.
Unfortunately the presenter doesn't have much knowledge about accordions or their related music in general. This makes the video kind of superficial for us MIDI accordion players. But it presents a variety of sounds.

Another insight you may take from this video is that these libraries are primarily made für digital composers / producers or keyboard players. Like there are pseudo-physical buttons (controllers) which switch the playing style to "staccato" or emulate a "bellows shake". This is probably not very useful if you want to control the instrument with a "real" bellows accordion like the Rolands', it may even come in the way. But understandibly the market of keyboard players who wish to mimik an accordion sound probably is much bigger than the market for accordion players who want to mimik an accordion sound.

Eduardo Tarilonte's Accordions 2: Demo & Review

This is demo and review of Eduardo Tarilonte's Accordion 2, a suite of famous virtual accordions. I am using Cubase Pro 10, and running the sample library th...

www.youtube.com

 

[Mr Mark]

I have recently purchased the Accordions 2 with the idea (after much research) that it was the best available sounds for emulating accordions electronically. I guess you could say I wasn't happy with the stock sounds in my Roland. And while the sounds are pretty good, I have had some troubles configuring my Roland to work with them, one of the main issues is that I think these are sampled mostly from a shortened keyboard so a lot of my keys end up producing no sounds at all. The other thing is trying to get the right sound to closest emulate my acoustic accordion - so I end up having to load separate clarinet banks so I can tune one with a similar musette. I also have to load separate banks for the bass side. After too many banks my computer can't handle it .

So for the most part I just run my Roland into Fruity Loops and trigger the Blue3 VST Hammond C-3 out into my actual Leslie 860. Sounds freaking fantastic!!!...but again, am going to have to program the chord section of the bass differently as the balance isn't quite right.

Hopefully in the future I can tweak the Accordions 2 better. In the meantime it would be nice to hear some feedback on other samples out there as I shelled out quite a bit for Accordions 2 so won't be buying any others any time soon. I think the key feature for any of these is actually to be able to tune a certain set of reeds the way one likes it for musette purposes, otherwise stock musette settings are largely useless unless they happen to be what you want.

Others I looked at were; La Parisien...Sonokinetic...Xperimenta Project La Harmonica...Virtual Acoustics Guerrini Superior 2 and a couple others that for whatever reason were incompatible with my setup so didn't take notes on them. I would love to hear others feedback on these, I mean, I have no intention of replacing my Acoustic accordion but practicing with my Roland with headphones on would be so much better with better samples.

 

[Alan Sharkis]

The next video is a somewhat shallow presentation of a virtual accordion library by Eduardo Tarilonte. "Library" means here it contains many different instruments (accordion, bandoneon, folk accordon, etc) like the different sets of the Roland's V-Accordions. And briefly he shows another virtual accordion by Ilya Efimov.
Unfortunately the presenter doesn't have much knowledge about accordions or their related music in general. This makes the video kind of superficial for us MIDI accordion players. But it presents a variety of sounds.

Another insight you may take from this video is that these libraries are primarily made für digital composers / producers or keyboard players. Like there a physical buttons (controllers) which switch the playing style to "staccato" or emulate a "bellows shake". This is probably not very useful if you want to control the instrument with a "real" bellows accordion like the Rolands', it may even come in the way. But understandibly the market of keyboard players who wish to mimik an accordion sound probably is much bigger than the market for accordion players who want to mimik an accordion sound.

Eduardo Tarilonte's Accordions 2: Demo & Review

This is demo and review of Eduardo Tarilonte's Accordion 2, a suite of famous virtual accordions. I am using Cubase Pro 10, and running the sample library th...

www.youtube.com

I must agree with you. I've tried a few of them, and none of them really satisfied me when connected to my midi accordion. I haven't tried them with my Roland FR-4x yet. But they make more sense to me when I'm using my controller keyboard. One of my concerns with using the Roland harkens back to a time when computers were slow and software even slower, Back then, if I wanted to use a midi accordion as an input device I had to find a way to filter out a constant stream of CC11 messages coming from the bellows pressure transducers, or they'd overrun the software, resulting in gaps in the tracks. Today, I imagine the software and the computer can handle it. If not, and if there's no way to turn those messages off in the Roland, I still have my MIDI Solutions Event Processor and I can use that to filter out the CC11s. Of course, that would result in (ugh!) every note having the same volume, which I could correct later with a great deal of effort. (What a mess!)

 

[Alan Sharkis]

I must agree with you. I've tried a few of them, and none of them really satisfied me when connected to my midi accordion. I haven't tried them with my Roland FR-4x yet. But they make more sense to me when I'm using my controller keyboard. One of my concerns with using the Roland harkens back to a time when computers were slow and software even slower, Back then, if I wanted to use a midi accordion as an input device I had to find a way to filter out a constant stream of CC11 messages coming from the bellows pressure transducers, or they'd overrun the software, resulting in gaps in the tracks. Today, I imagine the software and the computer can handle it. If not, and if there's no way to turn those messages off in the Roland, I still have my MIDI Solutions Event Processor and I can use that to filter out the CC11s. Of course, that would result in (ugh!) every note having the same volume, which I could correct later with a great deal of effort. (What a mess!)

Hmmm. I looked it up in the 4x Reference manual. There IS a way to turn of transmission of the CC11s.

When all else fails, RT_M

 

[Tom]

Interesting, thanks for the info guys.

I'm not near as far into the VST as you all are.

Here's what I have found works with the Fr4x (for the record):

Free VSTs:

Spitfire Audio LABS. Free, works with Reaper (DAW). Has lots of weird sounds and does have drums and general midi percussion. Interesting to combine LABS sounds with Roland sounds. You can put the bass side in free bass mode to access all the percussion. Or try the interesting combinations with the chord buttons! Unlike the Fr8x, the Fr4x does not have access to gm percussion on the treble (or bass side), apart from the "drums" function that gives you 4 sounds combined with bass and chords, 2 push and 2 release.

Numa Player. Works with Reaper or as a standalone player. Has 3 accordions, which can be combined with other synth voices. Probably not as good sounding as purchased accordion sounds but there they are.

Free VST Host:

NanoHost. A simple host for opening a VST without a DAW. Nice thing is it works with LABS and has a record to WAV file feature for opening in Audacity.

Yes, the Fr4x puts out the controls but these softwares don't seem to mind.

Just my experience, yours will vary!

 

[Mr Mark]

I will have to look at some of these this weekend, something less CPU intensive would be great.

I should have mentioned I am using a Roland FR3s to trigger Accordions 2 samples in Kontakt (I can open Kontakt in Fruity Loops but for some reason I have yet to troubleshoot, it goes pretty haywire before long and becomes digital noise jargon, that and I cannot trigger different banks).

In doing so all sounds come out of my PC, because as far as I am aware the FR3s does not have the capability to change sounds within, unlike a lot of the newer Rolands.

 

[Tom]

Hi Mr. Mark, I had the same grief with Native Instruments Kontakt, both the VST in Reaper and the standalone player (with the Fr4x). I'm not saying it won't work, but I could not get the configuration to work. I've got the LABS and the Numa player, probably not going too much farther.

 

[Matt654]

Hi,

is there any progress in connection of Accordions 2 with digital accordions ? I am owner of Bugari Evo and i am trying to find the most realistic accordion (folk) sounds on the market and look that Accordions 2 is so far the best but not sure i will be able to configured it with Kontakt

 

[Chris Laarman]

Hi,

is there any progress in connection of Accordions 2 with digital accordions ? I am owner of Bugari Evo and i am trying to find the most realistic accordion (folk) sounds on the market and look that Accordions 2 is so far the best but not sure i will be able to configured it with Kontakt

If you mean "Accordions 2" by Eduardo Tarilonte, then using it on computers with or without Kontakt shouldn't pose any problem. I see requirements "AAX Native, AU, Mac, NKS, Standalone, VST2, Win" at Best Service. I don't know AAX, but AU is the native audio unit format of Mac computers, NKS means that the product adheres to the Native Instruments Kontakt Specification(?), standalone may be clear, VST2 is the pre-latest version of Cubase add-ons, Win points to computers running Windows. - So the computer-side is almost covered. The beauty of NKS is, that even its controls are standardized - in such a way, that when you have a keyboard controller from Native Instruments' Komplete Kontakt S-series connected (and its helper software installed), you can see all NKS software in the touch screen of that keyboard and use the controls there without "MIDI learning".

However, all this may be useless to you if your aim is, to get those sounds into your Bugari Evo. But someone else may be able to help you further there.

 

[Airy]

Hi,

is there any progress in connection of Accordions 2 with digital accordions ? I am owner of Bugari Evo and i am trying to find the most realistic accordion (folk) sounds on the market and look that Accordions 2 is so far the best but not sure i will be able to configured it with Kontakt

Hi Matt,

I'm an "NI Kontakt" owner / user since 2005 (version 2), although I haven't used that particular accordion library, yet.
My experience is that most Kontakt libraries are primarily made for (regular) keyboard players. That means:

• The volume of the virtual intrument is controlled by the "velocity" with which the player hits the key.
  On the EVO (although I haven't played one either) this should be similar to how you play the piano or mallet sounds on your EVO.
• The sound color on the other hand is either continuously controlled by one of the keyboard's rotation knobs or sliders (eg "modulation wheel") or switched (on/off) by hitting certain regular keyboard-keys which are outside the note range of the particular instrument.
• Sometimes the keyboard/piano pedals (eg sustain, damper etc) come into play.

This works mostly perfect for "regular" keyboard player who are used to this type of controlling sounds. It is not so suited (to say the least) for e-accordion players who "only" have bellow pressure and registration buttons to influence the sound.

The good is that the mentioned keyboard's "note velocity or "modulation wheel" positions are just digital MIDI data as are the EVO's or Roland's bellow pressure or switching registrations. So you may / should be able to remap one to the other.
But this may not be right away possible within the free / default "Kontakt Player" software which comes with the above library (and most higher price commercial Kontakt libraries). For reconfiguring theses MIDI data streams you need either

• The "full" version of Kontakt which is another 200 $ or so.
  And some patience and/or MIDI processing skills to do this.
• An external MIDI reprocessing tool which is available as standalone hardware or little software apps. For the latter there are even free apps available (Mac and PC), for iOS they are fairly cheap.
  The need for some patience and skills persists!
• You can re-configure the e-accordion to send the right MIDI data which the library can interprete directly. This is possible to a certain degree with the Roland's, I don't know about the EVO. From my experience this is - even if it can be done - enough to roughly test the sounds or layout a tune but not enough for a close-to-real simulation of an acoustic accordion (behavior).

Speaking about "live perfoming":

• If you don't care too much whether the virtual accordion sounds (expressiveness, modulation and pitch variation by bellows pressure, etc) are "as natural and realisic as possible" you may reach this goal with not too much experimentation and configuration.
• If you don't want / need to do live performances at all with your computer based sound libraries but only want to MIDI-record your performance and than afterwards produce a "high fidelty" sounding audio track - with simulated top microphones and perfect and noise free room-ambiance then these software libraries are first choice!
  If you happen to have a decent DAW software and some skills in post producion especially with MIDI tracks you can easily exchange the MIDI controller data from the accordion to fit the particular library and manually erase and add data to enhance your performance.

To summarise, I'm pretty sure the above sound library is a great choice ...

• If you either are already a somewhat experienced / skilled MIDI producer.
• Or if you have time and patience and are willing to learn. I will try to do my best to help (disclaimer: not so much in these summer months!) and there are responsive and good forums for Kontakt users.

Other sources of help:

• The distributor of that library "Best Service" offers an online try-before-you-buy option. But this is "online only" which may not be responsive enough the check the proper interaction with a MIDI-accordion - I didn't try it myself.
  https://www.bestservice.com/en/try-sound.html
• You can download and use the Kontakt Player software for free, together with a "test-set" with some try-out-sound-examples. You'll need to register and probably install a whole bunch of unneccasary software (advertisement giveaways) but it maybe worth it to get a hands-on experience with Kontakt (Player). Maybe there are even some accordion-ish sounds to test the communication with your EVO (church or tone wheel organs or not-so-lush synthesizers will do as well).
  https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/bundles/komplete-start/

 

[Ventura]

WoW

that sounds like a lot of work just to play some accordion sounds

don't forget, the quality of the speakers connected to the Computer
running all this software and sound stuff will have a significant bearing on the
quality of the sound it creates

no matter what the sound source, whether inside the Roland/EVO or
something in a Module or in a Computer, the expressiveness you are
able to bring to bear to control any of those sounds is limited by the
instrument/device you are playing/using as controller

personally i find it difficult to imagine much use for Computer based accordion
sounds, as playing gigs (playing for people) is the raison d'etre

i guess those of you who do a lot of private recording or scoring for Films
and such make good use of these DAW's and available sounds, but wouldn't
most any producer who needed an Accordion for a session want someone
like Frank Marocco and an acoustic accordion ?

so what is the purpose/use of something like "Accordions 2" by Eduardo Tarilonte ?
and if it doesn't naturally accept Bellows/controller 11 as opposed to Key Velocity
wouldn't that kind of kill it's potential right off the bat ?

i dunno

 

[Airy]

...
that sounds like a lot of work just to play some accordion sounds
...

THAT was not the impression I intented to leave . But because some readers left a critical comment on Kontakt oder VSTs for MIDI accordion (see above) I just wanted to draw kind of the "whole picture". And my comments were rather general for this type of sound expansions because I didn't try "Accordion 2" myself, yet.

And I could not find at a short glance through the manual if CC11 is already set as the relevant volume/expression controller. There was a mention though that CC 11 (any CC # actually) can be used to controll "bellows shake" which again shows the keyboard-player-approach.

But for a MIDI experienced guy/gal this should be a no-brainer. Everything else may happen in between...

 

[Ventura]

........I think the key feature for any of these is actually to be able to tune a certain set of reeds the way one likes it for musette purposes, otherwise stock musette settings are largely useless unless they happen to be what you want.

i read back through this thread to try and better understand, then noticed your comment..

so Mr. Mark, specifically addressing Musette

i was working on an Italian set (FR4x) and did shifts 8 through 14 as Musette
i already did a set for comparing and listening to the raw waveset tones and
then some basic Musette shifts in a French set, but there are a LOT of Italian reeds
available so now i am getting more into complex Musette mixtures

there are a TON of adjustments you can bring to bear rather easily with the editor
and because of the way you can also adjust relative VOLUME of each individual
reedfootage you set to "on" AND you can vary the intensity of the relative
Musette effect with a slider AND (WheW) you can also feather the end result with
several flavors of Chorus AND control THAT intensity as well

i am gonna say right now there is no other system, whether in the real word or
Virtually, that gives you the chance to not only attempt to simulate known
Accordions near correctly, but also a way to craft a Musette in ways impossible in
the real world of a Factory or R&D workshop

now on the surface you have the "spread" anywhere from Dry/jazz through Nosebleed

you can do M- and M+ alone, or add M (M1) at the exact a-440 middle
then you can drop the volume of the M down relative to M- M+
and then
add the 16' Voice an octave up, to create a second M (M2)

the M2 can be "in cassotto" so it gives a sweeter "lead" tonality
to the overall mix, and you can boost the relative volume of it in the Mix
meanwhile M1 is NOT in cassotto, so it "mixes" it's frequencies as you
would desire from tradition, but by varying it's volume a bit lower, allow for both
the typical Meuette, but leaves just enough room for M2 to give the overall
sound a nice "shine" for quick passages and lead lines

you can't do that with a real accordion

you can also take an M reed from a relatively "modern" Scandalli reedset
like you would find in a Super 6, but use the 3 out of chamber M's
from an old old hubcap grill Scandalli that was owned by a Parodi smoking
Sicilian guy down at the produce Yards with a Musette that bounced off
the Brick walls of the Market and percolated across the wavy cobblestone yard.

ha

do THAT with any other system

you can even add the Piccolo reed just a tiny bit of Volume to kind
of imitate the M H faked tuned musette sometimes done on
an LMH accordion

what i am saying is, look closer Mr. Mark, i think you can find
Musette happiness if you start digging in with the editor

and don't forget to add a dash of Chorus near the final tweaks

the extended reedsets for Dallape have a lot of potential for flavoring
reed-mixtures when you look at mixing reedtypes for new
overall Musette blends that never existed in the real world

 

[John M]

Ventura, I make many adjustments with the 8X PC Editor. I'm sure I am not using all of the features.
I Use the "Tone Selection", "Effects" "Sound Edit" and "Controller" tabs in the Editor. I do not use the "MFX Edit" or the "MFX Control" tabs. Am I missing some important features by not using these? What does the MFX acronym stand for?

 

[Tom]

i read back through this thread to try and better understand, then noticed your comment..

so Mr. Mark, specifically addressing Musette

i was working on an Italian set (FR4x) and did shifts 8 through 14 as Musette
i already did a set for comparing and listening to the raw waveset tones and
then some basic Musette shifts in a French set, but there are a LOT of Italian reeds
available so now i am getting more into complex Musette mixtures

there are a TON of adjustments you can bring to bear rather easily with the editor
and because of the way you can also adjust relative VOLUME of each individual
reedfootage you set to "on" AND you can vary the intensity of the relative
Musette effect with a slider AND (WheW) you can also feather the end result with
several flavors of Chorus AND control THAT intensity as well

i am gonna say right now there is no other system, whether in the real word or
Virtually, that gives you the chance to not only attempt to simulate known
Accordions near correctly, but also a way to craft a Musette in ways impossible in
the real world of a Factory or R&D workshop

now on the surface you have the "spread" anywhere from Dry/jazz through Nosebleed

you can do M- and M+ alone, or add M (M1) at the exact a-440 middle
then you can drop the volume of the M down relative to M- M+
and then
add the 16' Voice an octave up, to create a second M (M2)

the M2 can be "in cassotto" so it gives a sweeter "lead" tonality
to the overall mix, and you can boost the relative volume of it in the Mix
meanwhile M1 is NOT in cassotto, so it "mixes" it's frequencies as you
would desire from tradition, but by varying it's volume a bit lower, allow for both
the typical Meuette, but leaves just enough room for M2 to give the overall
sound a nice "shine" for quick passages and lead lines

you can't do that with a real accordion

you can also take an M reed from a relatively "modern" Scandalli reedset
like you would find in a Super 6, but use the 3 out of chamber M's
from an old old hubcap grill Scandalli that was owned by a Parodi smoking
Sicilian guy down at the produce Yards with a Musette that bounced off
the Brick walls of the Market and percolated across the wavy cobblestone yard.

ha

do THAT with any other system

you can even add the Piccolo reed just a tiny bit of Volume to kind
of imitate the M H faked tuned musette sometimes done on
an LMH accordion

what i am saying is, look closer Mr. Mark, i think you can find
Musette happiness if you start digging in with the editor

and don't forget to add a dash of Chorus near the final tweaks

the extended reedsets for Dallape have a lot of potential for flavoring
reed-mixtures when you look at mixing reedtypes for new
overall Musette blends that never existed in the real world

Man, I'm glad we have people like yous guys figuring this stuff out. Way over my head. Plus sharing your expertise with us guys. My nonno (grandfather) used to smoke those Parodis. Ugg. I much prefer this guy:

 

[Mr Mark]

Hi,

is there any progress in connection of Accordions 2 with digital accordions ? I am owner of Bugari Evo and i am trying to find the most realistic accordion (folk) sounds on the market and look that Accordions 2 is so far the best but not sure i will be able to configured it with Kontakt

I have been able to configure Accordions2 with Kontakt using a Roland FR3s but have no experience with a Bugari Evo.

Having said that the sound isn't fully tweaked due to lack of time, but hope to find some before the end of the year! So I can't speak to the depths of much but it does work. To this end I will really need to have a fair amount of time and patience set aside to do so; I would tend to think anyone relatively new with these things should expect the same.

 

[Matt654]

Hi teams,

i would like to share my experience/settings with :
1. V3 Sound Accordion Master XXL
2. "Accordions 2" by Eduardo Tarilonte
I am using Bugari Evo digital accordeon.

1. V3 Sound Accordion Master XXL : this is not configured for digital accordion usage. MIDI worked immediately but sounds not properly configured + quality of sounds is not what i expected. Summary : Not good at all.

2. "Accordions 2" is my recommendation. I had to configure my Bugari Evo a bit but it was not a rocket science ( bellow are described steps).
Observation :
a. it sounds like real accordion ( of course it is not perfect but i really like it ).
b. There are options to enable "surrounded" sounds for a key pressing for left and right side which is nice. It makes feelings that the sound is more real.
c. Each voice is possible to de-tune if needed ( personally i don't use it ).
d. The best part, i think, is options/knobs for configuring the each of the reeds volume for the register(you can add e.g. more/less bandoneon etc.).

I would like share also some observation for improvement :
a. each sound lasting/running only certain time and then the sound is off, it means the sound is not playing in the loop. Reason is that sound was recorded until bellows reached their full capacity. I found it like not big issue as usually i don't play the sound for longer than real bellows would reach the end however i would welcome to have the loop switch to turn on in GUI .
b. not sure why but all sounds plays on +- 10% of their volume capacity immediately when a key is pressed even my bellows were not move. I would turn it off or at least to have switch in GUI for that too.

All to all : i would recommend the "Accordions 2" much.
Does somebody know to :
a. how configure the 10% volume to be turned off and only play when bellows are moved ?
b. transpose the Chord channel number 3 ? it means i can use Bugari Evo transpose feature but it works only for channel 1 and 2 (see attached picture)


Bugari Evo configuration (mostly all is by default but i changed the following):
2.7 menu (accordion edit / midi tx)
Note Tx : On
Octave : -1
(this will switch right hand an octave and then all 41 keys will produce sound)
Expression: Bellows

3.7 Bass Edit
Note Tx : On
Expression: Bellows

16.1 MIDI (default )
Accordion :1
Bass/Free Bass: 2
Chord :3

16.3 Global Settings MIDI
Bellows Tx: Supper
Chord Tx mode : D-mode
2nd Bass Out : Off

Note: The left hand (Bass + Chord) are split to two separated levels as i was not able to pick up one sound where Bass and Chords are automatically assigned to specific bass and chord buttons . It always played chord with bass buttons...

May be this input will help next accordionist...

With regards
Matt

 

[Airy]

Hi teams,

i would like to share my experience/settings with :
1. V3 Sound Accordion Master XXL
2. "Accordions 2" by Eduardo Tarilonte
I am using Bugari Evo digital accordeon.

1. V3 Sound Accordion Master XXL : this is not configured for digital accordion usage. MIDI worked immediately but sounds not properly configured + quality of sounds is not what i expected. Summary : Not good at all.

2. "Accordions 2" is my recommendation. I had to configure my Bugari Evo a bit but it was not a rocket science ( bellow are described steps).
Observation :
a. it sounds like real accordion ( of course it is not perfect but i really like it ).
b. There are options to enable "surrounded" sounds for a key pressing for left and right side which is nice. It makes feelings that the sound is more real.
c. Each voice is possible to de-tune if needed ( personally i don't use it ).
d. The best part, i think, is options/knobs for configuring the each of the reeds volume for the register(you can add e.g. more/less bandoneon etc.).

I would like share also some observation for improvement :
a. each sound lasting/running only certain time and then the sound is off, it means the sound is not playing in the loop. Reason is that sound was recorded until bellows reached their full capacity. I found it like not big issue as usually i don't play the sound for longer than real bellows would reach the end however i would welcome to have the loop switch to turn on in GUI .
b. not sure why but all sounds plays on +- 10% of their volume capacity immediately when a key is pressed even my bellows were not move. I would turn it off or at least to have switch in GUI for that too.

All to all : i would recommend the "Accordions 2" much.
Does somebody know to :
a. how configure the 10% volume to be turned off and only play when bellows are moved ?
b. transpose the Chord channel number 3 ? it means i can use Bugari Evo transpose feature but it works only for channel 1 and 2 (see attached picture)


Bugari Evo configuration (mostly all is by default but i changed the following):
2.7 menu (accordion edit / midi tx)
Note Tx : On
Octave : -1
(this will switch right hand an octave and then all 41 keys will produce sound)
Expression: Bellows

3.7 Bass Edit
Note Tx : On
Expression: Bellows

16.1 MIDI (default )
Accordion :1
Bass/Free Bass: 2
Chord :3

16.3 Global Settings MIDI
Bellows Tx: Supper
Chord Tx mode : D-mode
2nd Bass Out : Off

Note: The left hand (Bass + Chord) are split to two separated levels as i was not able to pick up one sound where Bass and Chords are automatically assigned to specific bass and chord buttons . It always played chord with bass buttons...

May be this input will help next accordionist...

With regards
Matt

Thanks Matt for sharing your experience and taking the time to post your EVO config changes!

Regarding the 10% volume minimum plateau: Do you use the Accordion 2 library with the free Kontakt Player or do you additionally have the Kontakt Editor / full version? I would assume that with the latter you may be able to override that default setting. But would be worth to ask the developer before upgrading.

My guess is that the library developer chose to have at least some sound, even when the respective controller (modulation or expression or however it is configured) is zero, because they want to prevent angry customers from harrassing the vendor support with „no sound coming, doesnt work, big ripoff - want money back“. The library was made for keyboarders who normally don’t expect to „move some bellows“ (move some controller) before any sound is coming.