To better understand this in laymen terms, the accordion has the capacity to utilize an external source to create various sounds through amplification?
More or less.
Is it reasonable to assume the right hand would also be a recipient of the sound capabilities?
If the owner described it as a "bass MIDI", no. While there is no inherent reason not to have MIDI capabilities on the treble side as well,
a) it is more expensive to have both
b) what do you need an expensive Jazz accordion for if you produce all of your sound electronically?
The bass MIDI serves two functions:
a) it gives you more variety for the accompaniment sounds when using a MIDI expander
b) it allows you to control the harmonies of a MIDI arranger module (those typically include a MIDI expander) that gives a complete rhythmical accompaniment, making it feasible to deliver a full dance track as a single performer. Of course a really good player can do so with just an expander (or even just an accordion), but an arranger delivers constant speed by itself, and has a lot of rhythmic patterns and drums and fill-ins that dancers are accustomed to.
The treble MIDI essentially only does different sounds, and it makes people question why you are playing an accordion in the first place.
It appeared like there is a microphone output as well: that would be independent from the MIDI and will likely just cover the treble side (but it's more likely to also have bass than the MIDI is to also have treble).
If so, I would assume that I would need to purchase some type of external module along with the firing cable that Excelsior offers to facilitate the whole thing, should I become interested in moving in that direction.
I don't know the Excelsior setup. The connector has way more pins than what would be needed to carry a MIDI signal, so I expect that at its other side there must still be some box/device creating MIDI. If that's all it does, you'll still need an expander and/or arranger on top. Let's hear from the Excelsior experts in the forum first what is up here.
One thing an arranger is nice for is practising to maintain speed. It's actually pretty fun to work with, but you'll need a keyboard amp that can do the full sound spectrum from a double bass to cymbals justice. The same kind of amp would likely work on the microphone output of the accordion for reaching an audience.
I'm not a techy guy, so please excuse my questions, and thank you for trying to explain this to me.s
Interestingly, the person I purchased the accordion from only owned it a short period of time. He communicated to me that he actually traded another accordion for it from a pastor in Germany that wanted the piccolo function that this accordion did not offer. I'm assuming therefore that this accordion is actually a product of Excelsior Germany.
Excelsior is an Italian company. In particular specially configured accordions are more likely to have been produced in Italy than anywhere else.
