Alan Sharkis
Well-known member
Re: Bellows shake on a digital accordion:
Re: Bellows Shake on a digital accordion
- Thread starter Alan Sharkis
- Start date
Well… that was a waste of time… lol
If anything they proved how HARD it is to do mediocre bellows shakes on a 4x. Though I have seen Pesaturo do much better on a 7X.
If anything they proved how HARD it is to do mediocre bellows shakes on a 4x. Though I have seen Pesaturo do much better on a 7X.
breezybellows
Well-known member
I competed in the digital accordion category in the Italia award competition. The winner played a Bugari Evo and did a very good bellows shake. I'm not able to locate the video now. I'll try to find it.
No need, I bet it won’t be as good as Pesaturo’s… lol
breezybellows
Well-known member
It was actually really good.No need, I bet it won’t be as good as Pesaturo’s… lol
breezybellows
Well-known member
Found it. I thought the bellows shake was executed tastefully, just like the orchestration.No need, I bet it won’t be as good as Pesaturo’s… lol
It's not entirely easy to tell because the audio is kind of laggy, so you have to focus mainly on the sound. He uses bellows reversals with very good effect with the orchestral patches. However, there are few reverses of the kind I'd consider fast enough to call bellow shake. On those the start appears problematic. One at 0:50 works so-so, one at 3:10 definitely has a starting hiccup, the one at 3:50 works as intended.
Now make no mistake: those are orchestral patches producing a violin tremolo. You don't get to do anything similar with an acoustic accordion. So this is not as much "how do bellow shakes work with the Evo?" as much as "how useful are bellow shakes on the Evo as a means to control orchestral patches?". Namely, can we employ this accordion-specific technique in a useful manner when controlling non-accordion sounds?
Regarding bellow shakes, Hrustevich provides kind of a reference point with his Vivaldi rendering (Winter?). There is an early contest recording with ridiculous balloons all over the stage. And there are recordings at a more mature age. The kind of rendition that the Evo delivers would likely transfer kind of the enthusiasm of the early recording. The more recent recordings, however, have finesse, articulation, deliberation, transparency.
And I have my doubts that a player could attune themself to the response of the Evo to a degree where they can bring across that level of control. Of course that is kind of idle speculation since the acoustic players that manage that are not exactly growing on trees either, so it is kind of spurious to muse about singletons.
Given the state of the Ukraine energy net, Alexandr Hrustevich would probably be the wrong person to ask: many people here get a digital accordion in order to be able to put in more practice hours. But for him, the acoustic one can likely work the longer hours.
Its very slow, not fast enough to really stress the electronics. Pesaturo does "Lady of Spain" speeds on his 7x, I have no idea how he does it, what settings he has, etc... but he matches 90% of what he can do on an acoustic. He even did a demo 3 and 4 corner bellows shakes on his digital fairly well, and thats something that I don't see ANYWHERE else.
Squeezeplay
Active member
that “ bellows shake “ isn’t really a bellows shake. I use a shake several times a night every time I play out, which is two to three nights a week. THAT ain’t one. Curiously I think Cory learned from Alex M. How to do it….Alex did a video about it.
Accordion Eric
Newbie
Accordion Eric
Newbie
But he knew how to do it a year earlier at 1:25. Apparently, if you want to bellows shake on a digital, you need to have an EVO or at least need to know the settings used. They should be similar on the Roland.
Squeezeplay
Active member
Yup learnin how to polka
I find it rather staggering just how holed-up the Evo sounds here compared to the acoustic one.
Accordion Eric
Newbie
That was a cool video. I am curious as to the settings though, this was on the Roland with Alex, correct? the EVO video with Michael Bridge shows very little bellows movement leading up to the bellows shake and then it sounds almost like an acoustic. I have only been able to get close by having a light bellow setting on my digital, but that then requires more bellows movement while playing and makes it hard to jump into a bellowsshake without perparation and focusing on getting ready a few bars before you want to shake. Is that a custom setting or is it able to be replicated using the factory settings?
If you can do it on the EVO. I would be very surprised if you could not do it on the 8X.
Yes, thats the guy, but again, nowhere near as quick as I heard him do it in real life at a seminar a few years back.
Squeezeplay
Active member
Yup, when you hear them side by side, the Roland doesn’t sound very “ real “ does it ? I have a Roland, and it takes some getting used to, BUT the people listening at the dance, can’t tell the difference, because they have nothing to compare it to. I still actually prefer an acoustic with MIDI fitted. That being said, I have a Musette box, and a dry one……with the Roland you sort of have both wrapped up in one. So usually it goes to the job. It’s “ passable “ accordion sound wise.
davidplaysaccordion
Active member
I love my 4x. It’s not an accordion, more of a fancy electronic keyboard, it it’s a load of fun and people don’t really care when listening to it. As for bellows shake though, I gave up trying!
Something like this?Yes, thats the guy, but again, nowhere near as quick as I heard him do it in real life at a seminar a few years back.
Yup, thats getting closer but those were short bursts, he's done longer ones at the seminar and then switched from singles to doubles, triples and quadruple shakes all within the same piece. You can tell that his 7X is really well used, makes me wonder if he has several skined in the same way... I know he has at least 4-6 or more 7X's in his collection.
