As far as I know there is no reliable conversion from Hz to cents. There are one or two comparison charts online, but these seem to have been devised for tuning steel guitars (country music etc). I could be wrong there of course. I also believe that the conversions vary depending on which octave you are in. One thing that has never really interested me much with the accordion is the technical side. I wish I had the patience to read it all and understand it, but I just want to play and listen to others playing. From what I've read there is a school of thought that accordions sound better if they are tuned slightly sharper than a piano. It's that "slightly sharper" bit that seems to cause us all the problems. Add to that the fact that no two players will produce exactly the same sound from the same box, and it all gets a bit wearing (for me). However that same issue perhaps makes listening more interesting.
As far as cents go, what passes for strong musette in one country would be regarded as too dry in others. 20 cents might be enough for Italians, but here in Scotland you can be looking at 27, which I find far too grating on the old "oreilles".
The French tuning categories are pretty fussy and create many grey areas, and Jos Barille's digi might be "modern" for all I know. You'll often see French accordions on sale described as "americain" (petit vibration). The retailer may be trying to take advantage of the fact that the instrument might actually sound like a cross between one tuning and another. It's not really an exact science and that's why I'd never buy another instrument without trying it out first. My pitch recognition is not the best, and I could not rely on a shop description.
The gypsy player's swing tuned Cavagnolo is about as dry as you'll hear. You (I) can just make out there are two reeds, whereas the second clip is a Borsini with quite pronounced americain tuning.
Believe it or not, swing was actually banned for a while from the bals musette, on the basis that it was not French in origin. Players like Gus Viseur persevered to the point where they actually had competitions in the dance halls between swing and musette bands, with the results being recorded on the good old "clapometers" of the time! Gradually swing became an accepted part of the musette repertoire, so players often chose one style or another and stuck to it. Others could switch from one to the other as the audience demanded, often using two instruments.
The most prominent figure in all of this was Jo Privat, who had been a devout musette player, but altered his sound so that he effectively bridged the gap between the two styles. He eventually devised his own tuning, which was dry with that little bit of "vibration", just to give it a slight edge. Despite being a prolific player of jazz and gypsy influenced material, his playing always reflected the fact that he had learned to play on a diatonic. That old valse musette tempo was always there, and it was that which made him unique. As he got older he tended to get deeper into the gypsy or manouche vein, and I never appreciated his playing as much as I did previously, when he was playing a sort of hybrid style.
Sorry, I know these posts have come light years away from Matt's original subject. I should have maybe started another thread here.
