Description and details of sample-based instruments by Akkordica Virtual Accordion, Bandoneon, Concertina, Harmonica and Melodica VST VST3 Audio Unit. EXS24 and KONTAKT Sample Libraries (Windows/Mac)
Akkordica VST VST3 Audio Unit Plugins: Virtual Accordion, Concertina, Bandoneon, Harmonica and Melodica

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Piano Accordion: A piano accordion is an accordion equipped with a right-hand keyboard similar to a piano or organ. Its acoustic mechanism is more that of an organ than a piano, as they are both wind instruments, but the term "piano accordion"—coined by Guido Deiro in 1910—has remained the popular nomenclature. It may be equipped with any of the available systems for the left-hand manual. Anglo Concertina: The Anglo or Anglo-German concertina is a member of the concertina family of free-reed instruments. The Anglo originated as a hybrid between the English and German concertinas. The button layouts are generally the same as the original 20-button German concertinas designed by Carl Friedrich Uhlig in 1834. Strasser Accordion: In 1919 a forester by trade, Anton Strasser chooses a physically less demanding profession following a war injury. Aged 22 he begins his second apprenticeship – this time as an accordion maker – under Robert Zechner. In 1926, on completing his apprenticeship he establishes the Strasser accordion company in an abandoned garage in the Austrian city of Graz. Around 1939, Increasing sales necessitate a move to larger premises. Anton Strasser modernizes his business, emphasizing the change with a new company logo and slogan: “Harmonica production with electric machines”. All kinds of accordions were built: Schrammel accordions, chromatic accordions with buttons and keys, and, in particular, that traditional diatonic alpine accordion, the “Steirische Harmonika”. With their lightweight construction and the many technical improvements made by Anton Strasser, the company’s instruments soon count among the most popular accordions far beyond Strasser’s home town, with exports to the Netherlands and the USA already gathering pace. Hohner Accordion: Since 1857, HOHNER has been crafting the highest quality musical instruments in the World. They make harmonicas, accordions, melodicas, recorders and guitars to name a few. The German Harmonica and Accordion Museum in Trossingen, which houses the famous HOHNER collection, is quite simply unique and tells the HOHNER history like no one else. More than 25000 different harmonicas, lovingly preserved by curator Martin  Häffner, make up the largest single collection on the world. But the museum doesn‘t only exhibit musical instruments, it also shows rare  films, recordings, sales displays, advertising posters and much more. The  exciting story of Matthias HOHNER, his rise to fortune and the assimilation of his numerous competitors is all documented in the main museum building. Special exhibitions are shown in the new premises a short distance away in Bau V, a huge former factory building on the original HOHNER factory site. Musette Accordion: The word musette was originally the name for a bagpipe-like instrument played in the courts of France's upper classes during the 17th and 18th Centuries. Eventually it fell out of favor with the privileged population and was picked up by the country's rural peoples, especially those in the central Auvergne region. When the Auvergnats moved to Paris in search of work in the early 1800s, they brought their folk music to town, many of them opening cafés that catered to factory workers and their families. It was in these cafés that Sunday dances, or bals musette as they came to be known, began to be held. In the 1870s, another wave of immigrants began to pour into Paris, this time largely from Italy. The uprooted Italians settled into the same working-class neighborhoods as the Auvergnats, and brought their own musical instrument with them: the accordion. The instrument was at first vehemently rejected by the earlier inhabitants, but after a period of often violent resistance the Auvergnat musicians came to embrace the "box of thrills, and it eventually became the scene's dominant instrument. Soon, the fare being played at the café dances began to reflect the city's diverse culture, mixing the styles of the French countryside with Italian cantos, Manouche gypsy music and Polish and German waltzes, polkas and mazurkas. This galvanizing, cross-pollinating period is acknowledged as the birth of the true musette style. Harmonica: The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. There are many types of harmonica, including diatonic, chromatic, tremolo, octave, orchestral, and bass versions. A harmonica is played by using the mouth (lips and tongue) to direct air into or out of one or more holes along a mouthpiece. Behind each hole is a chamber containing at least one reed. A harmonica reed is a flat elongated spring typically made of brass, stainless steel, or bronze, which is secured at one end over a slot that serves as an airway. When the free end is made to vibrate by the player's air, it alternately blocks and unblocks the airway to produce sound. Melodica (Pianica): The melodica, also known as the pianica, blow-organ, key harmonica, or melodyhorn, is a free-reed instrument similar to the pump organ and harmonica. It has a musical keyboard on top, and is played by blowing air through a mouthpiece that fits into a hole in the side of the instrument. Pressing a key opens a hole, allowing air to flow through a reed. The keyboard is usually two or three octaves long. Melodicas are small, light, and portable. They are popular in music education, especially in Asia. The modern form of the instrument was invented by Hohner in the 1950s, though similar instruments have been known in Italy since the 19th century. The melodica is known by various names, often at the whim of the manufacturer. Melodion (Suzuki), Triola (Seydel), Melodika (Apollo), Melodia (Diana), Pianica (Yamaha), Melodihorn (Samick), Pianetta and Clavietta are just some of the variants. This can lead to some confusion, as many people will use different names as a blanket term to describe all of these instruments. Accordina (Harmonicon): The button accordina was invented and made by André Borel under the name ‘Chromatic Harmonicon’. Things change a lot in the free-reed world. Accordinas are reappearing since few years. It went unnoticed for a long time. Accordion-players ignored it and public did not even know it. This hybrid between accordion and harmonica was born from André Borel’s imagination, in the late 30’. Today, it is made again and people develop a passion for it, going against the fate which surrounded the story of this instrument. Bandoneon (Tango Accordion): The bandoneon (or bandonion, Spanish: bandoneón) is a type of concertina particularly popular in Argentina and Uruguay. It is an essential instrument in most tango ensembles from the traditional orquesta típica of the 1910s onwards. The bandoneon, so named by the German instrument dealer, Heinrich Band (1821–1860), was originally intended as an instrument for religious and popular music of the day, in contrast to its predecessor, German concertina (or Konzertina), which had predominantly used in folk music.[1]:16 Around 1870, German and Italian emigrants and sailors brought the instrument to Argentina, where it was adopted into the nascent genre of tango music, a descendant of the earlier milonga. Chemnitzer Concertina: Chemnitzer concertina is a musical instrument of the hand-held bellows-driven free-reed category, sometimes called squeezeboxes. The Chemnitzer concertina is most closely related to the bandoneón (German spelling: Bandonion), more distantly to the other concertinas, and accordions. Steirische Harmonika: The Steirische Harmonika is a type of bisonoric diatonic button accordion important to the alpine folk music of Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, the German state of Bavaria, and the Italian South Tyrol. The Steirische Harmonika is distinguished from other diatonic button accordions by its typically richer bass notes, and by the presence of one key per scale row that has the same tone on both compression and expansion of the bellows, called a Gleichton. The bass notes earn the distinction Helikonbässe because they use bigger reeds with duralumin reed frames and a special chamber construction that amplifies its bass tones to give it a loud sound reminiscent of a Helicon tuba. Melodeon (Diatonic Button Accordion): A melodeon or diatonic button accordion is a member of the free-reed aerophone family of musical instruments. It is a type of button accordion on which the melody-side keyboard contains one or more rows of buttons, with each row producing the notes of a single diatonic scale. The buttons on the bass-side keyboard are most commonly arranged in pairs, with one button of a pair sounding the fundamental of a chord and the other the corresponding major triad (or, sometimes, a minor triad). Diatonic button accordions are popular in many countries, and used mainly for playing popular music and traditional folk music, and modern offshoots of these genres. Bayan (Chromatic Button Accordion): The bayan is a type of chromatic button accordion developed in Russia in the early 20th century and named after the 11th-century bard Boyan.

With Akkordica you can choose from a wide selection of accordion, harmonica and melodica sounds, playing and feeling the traditional sounds as well as the new vast array built-in effects for the digital age.

 

 

 

The advent of the accordion is the subject of debate among researchers. Many credit C. Friedrich L. Buschmann, whose Handäoline was patented in Berlin in 1822, as the inventor of the accordion, while others give the distinction to Cyril Demian of Vienna, who patented his Accordion in 1829, thus coining the name. A modification of the Handäoline, Demian’s invention comprised a small manual bellows and five keys, although, as Demian noted in a description of the instrument, extra keys could be incorporated into the design. Numerous variations of the device soon followed.

 


 

1. Anglo Concertina

The Anglo or Anglo-German concertina is a member of the concertina family of free-reed instruments. The Anglo originated as a hybrid between the English and German concertinas. The button layouts are generally the same as the original 20-button German concertinas designed by Carl Friedrich Uhlig in 1834.

 

2. Chemnitzer Concertina

Chemnitzer concertina is a musical instrument of the hand-held bellows-driven free-reed category, sometimes called squeezeboxes. The Chemnitzer concertina is most closely related to the bandoneón (German spelling: Bandonion), more distantly to the other concertinas, and accordions.

 

3. Hohner Accordion

Since 1857, HOHNER has been crafting the highest quality musical instruments in the World. They make harmonicas, accordions, melodicas, recorders and guitars to name a few.

The German Harmonica and Accordion Museum in Trossingen, which houses the famous HOHNER collection, is quite simply unique and tells the HOHNER history like no one else.

More than 25000 different harmonicas, lovingly preserved by curator Martin  Häffner, make up the largest single collection on the world.

But the museum doesn‘t only exhibit musical instruments, it also shows rare  films, recordings, sales displays, advertising posters and much more. The  exciting story of Matthias HOHNER, his rise to fortune and the assimilation of his numerous competitors is all documented in the main museum building. Special exhibitions are shown in the new premises a short distance away in Bau V, a huge former factory building on the original HOHNER factory site.

 

4. Strasser Accordion

In 1919 a forester by trade, Anton Strasser chooses a physically less demanding profession following a war injury. Aged 22 he begins his second apprenticeship – this time as an accordion maker – under Robert Zechner.

In 1926, on completing his apprenticeship he establishes the Strasser accordion company in an abandoned garage in the Austrian city of Graz.

Around 1939, Increasing sales necessitate a move to larger premises. Anton Strasser modernizes his business, emphasizing the change with a new company logo and slogan: “Harmonica production with electric machines”.

All kinds of accordions were built: Schrammel accordions, chromatic accordions with buttons and keys, and, in particular, that traditional diatonic alpine accordion, the “Steirische Harmonika”. With their lightweight construction and the many technical improvements made by Anton Strasser, the company’s instruments soon count among the most popular accordions far beyond Strasser’s home town, with exports to the Netherlands and the USA already gathering pace.

 

5. Musette Accordion

The word musette was originally the name for a bagpipe-like instrument played in the courts of France's upper classes during the 17th and 18th Centuries. Eventually it fell out of favor with the privileged population and was picked up by the country's rural peoples, especially those in the central Auvergne region. When the Auvergnats moved to Paris in search of work in the early 1800s, they brought their folk music to town, many of them opening cafés that catered to factory workers and their families. It was in these cafés that Sunday dances, or bals musette as they came to be known, began to be held.

In the 1870s, another wave of immigrants began to pour into Paris, this time largely from Italy. The uprooted Italians settled into the same working-class neighborhoods as the Auvergnats, and brought their own musical instrument with them: the accordion. The instrument was at first vehemently rejected by the earlier inhabitants, but after a period of often violent resistance the Auvergnat musicians came to embrace the "box of thrills, and it eventually became the scene's dominant instrument. Soon, the fare being played at the café dances began to reflect the city's diverse culture, mixing the styles of the French countryside with Italian cantos, Manouche gypsy music and Polish and German waltzes, polkas and mazurkas. This galvanizing, cross-pollinating period is acknowledged as the birth of the true musette style.

 

6. Bandoneon (Tango Accordion)

The bandoneon (or bandonion, Spanish: bandoneón) is a type of concertina particularly popular in Argentina and Uruguay. It is an essential instrument in most tango ensembles from the traditional orquesta típica of the 1910s onwards. The bandoneon, so named by the German instrument dealer, Heinrich Band (1821–1860), was originally intended as an instrument for religious and popular music of the day, in contrast to its predecessor, German concertina (or Konzertina), which had predominantly used in folk music.[1]:16 Around 1870, German and Italian emigrants and sailors brought the instrument to Argentina, where it was adopted into the nascent genre of tango music, a descendant of the earlier milonga.

 

7. Bayan (Chromatic Button Accordion)

The bayan is a type of chromatic button accordion developed in Russia in the early 20th century and named after the 11th-century bard Boyan.

 

8. Melodeon (Diatonic Button Accordion)

A melodeon or diatonic button accordion is a member of the free-reed aerophone family of musical instruments. It is a type of button accordion on which the melody-side keyboard contains one or more rows of buttons, with each row producing the notes of a single diatonic scale. The buttons on the bass-side keyboard are most commonly arranged in pairs, with one button of a pair sounding the fundamental of a chord and the other the corresponding major triad (or, sometimes, a minor triad).
Diatonic button accordions are popular in many countries, and used mainly for playing popular music and traditional folk music, and modern offshoots of these genres.

 

9. Steirische Harmonika

The Steirische Harmonika is a type of bisonoric diatonic button accordion important to the alpine folk music of Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, the German state of Bavaria, and the Italian South Tyrol. The Steirische Harmonika is distinguished from other diatonic button accordions by its typically richer bass notes, and by the presence of one key per scale row that has the same tone on both compression and expansion of the bellows, called a Gleichton. The bass notes earn the distinction Helikonbässe because they use bigger reeds with duralumin reed frames and a special chamber construction that amplifies its bass tones to give it a loud sound reminiscent of a Helicon tuba.

 

10. Piano Accordion

A piano accordion is an accordion equipped with a right-hand keyboard similar to a piano or organ. Its acoustic mechanism is more that of an organ than a piano, as they are both wind instruments, but the term "piano accordion"—coined by Guido Deiro in 1910—has remained the popular nomenclature. It may be equipped with any of the available systems for the left-hand manual.

 

11. Accordina (Harmonicon)

The button accordina was invented and made by André Borel under the name ‘Chromatic Harmonicon’. Things change a lot in the free-reed world. Accordinas are reappearing since few years. It went unnoticed for a long time. Accordion-players ignored it and public did not even know it. This hybrid between accordion and harmonica was born from André Borel’s imagination, in the late 30’. Today, it is made again and people develop a passion for it, going against the fate which surrounded the story of this instrument.

 

12. / 13. Harmonica (Natural and Vibrato)

The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. There are many types of harmonica, including diatonic, chromatic, tremolo, octave, orchestral, and bass versions. A harmonica is played by using the mouth (lips and tongue) to direct air into or out of one or more holes along a mouthpiece. Behind each hole is a chamber containing at least one reed. A harmonica reed is a flat elongated spring typically made of brass, stainless steel, or bronze, which is secured at one end over a slot that serves as an airway. When the free end is made to vibrate by the player's air, it alternately blocks and unblocks the airway to produce sound.

 

14. Melodica (Pianica)

The melodica, also known as the pianica, blow-organ, key harmonica, or melodyhorn, is a free-reed instrument similar to the pump organ and harmonica. It has a musical keyboard on top, and is played by blowing air through a mouthpiece that fits into a hole in the side of the instrument. Pressing a key opens a hole, allowing air to flow through a reed. The keyboard is usually two or three octaves long. Melodicas are small, light, and portable. They are popular in music education, especially in Asia.

The modern form of the instrument was invented by Hohner in the 1950s, though similar instruments have been known in Italy since the 19th century.

The melodica is known by various names, often at the whim of the manufacturer. Melodion (Suzuki), Triola (Seydel), Melodika (Apollo), Melodia (Diana), Pianica (Yamaha), Melodihorn (Samick), Pianetta and Clavietta are just some of the variants. This can lead to some confusion, as many people will use different names as a blanket term to describe all of these instruments.

 

The accordion was invented by Friedrich Buschmann in 1822 in Berlin. He called invention the Handäoline. In 1829, Cyrillus Damian of Vienna created another version of this instrument and gave it the name of accordion because of the addition of buttons, played by the left hand, that sounded chords.

 

The name Akkordica is a portmanteau of the German word 'Akkordeon' (Accordion) and 'Melodica'.

Developed by Daniel Laiseca for Syntheway Virtual Musical Instruments in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

 

 

Akkordica combines the traditional accordion playability and modern digital power, witch represents a real breakthrough for digital virtual accordionists.

 

 

Accordions (from 19th century German Akkordeon, from Akkord—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type, colloquially referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist. The concertina and bandoneón are related; the harmonium and American reed organ are in the same family.

The instrument is played by compressing or expanding the bellows while pressing buttons or keys, causing pallets to open, which allow air to flow across strips of brass or steel, called reeds. These vibrate to produce sound inside the body. Valves on opposing reeds of each note are used to make the instrument's reeds sound louder without air leaking from each reed block.[notes 1] The performer normally plays the melody on buttons or keys on the right-hand manual, and the accompaniment, consisting of bass and pre-set chord buttons, on the left-hand manual.

1.- Piano Accordion: A piano accordion is an accordion equipped with a right-hand keyboard similar to a piano or organ. Its acoustic mechanism is more that of an organ than a piano, as they are both wind instruments, but the term "piano accordion"—coined by Guido Deiro in 1910—has remained the popular nomenclature. It may be equipped with any of the available systems for the left-hand manual. 2.- Anglo Concertina: The Anglo or Anglo-German concertina is a member of the concertina family of free-reed instruments. The Anglo originated as a hybrid between the English and German concertinas. The button layouts are generally the same as the original 20-button German concertinas designed by Carl Friedrich Uhlig in 1834. 3.- Strasser Accordion: In 1919 a forester by trade, Anton Strasser chooses a physically less demanding profession following a war injury. Aged 22 he begins his second apprenticeship – this time as an accordion maker – under Robert Zechner. In 1926, on completing his apprenticeship he establishes the Strasser accordion company in an abandoned garage in the Austrian city of Graz. Around 1939, Increasing sales necessitate a move to larger premises. Anton Strasser modernizes his business, emphasizing the change with a new company logo and slogan: “Harmonica production with electric machines”. All kinds of accordions were built: Schrammel accordions, chromatic accordions with buttons and keys, and, in particular, that traditional diatonic alpine accordion, the “Steirische Harmonika”. With their lightweight construction and the many technical improvements made by Anton Strasser, the company’s instruments soon count among the most popular accordions far beyond Strasser’s home town, with exports to the Netherlands and the USA already gathering pace. 4.- Hohner Accordion: Since 1857, HOHNER has been crafting the highest quality musical instruments in the World. They make harmonicas, accordions, melodicas, recorders and guitars to name a few. The German Harmonica and Accordion Museum in Trossingen, which houses the famous HOHNER collection, is quite simply unique and tells the HOHNER history like no one else. More than 25000 different harmonicas, lovingly preserved by curator Martin  Häffner, make up the largest single collection on the world. But the museum doesn‘t only exhibit musical instruments, it also shows rare  films, recordings, sales displays, advertising posters and much more. The  exciting story of Matthias HOHNER, his rise to fortune and the assimilation of his numerous competitors is all documented in the main museum building. Special exhibitions are shown in the new premises a short distance away in Bau V, a huge former factory building on the original HOHNER factory site. 5.- Musette Accordion: The word musette was originally the name for a bagpipe-like instrument played in the courts of France's upper classes during the 17th and 18th Centuries. Eventually it fell out of favor with the privileged population and was picked up by the country's rural peoples, especially those in the central Auvergne region. When the Auvergnats moved to Paris in search of work in the early 1800s, they brought their folk music to town, many of them opening cafés that catered to factory workers and their families. It was in these cafés that Sunday dances, or bals musette as they came to be known, began to be held. In the 1870s, another wave of immigrants began to pour into Paris, this time largely from Italy. The uprooted Italians settled into the same working-class neighborhoods as the Auvergnats, and brought their own musical instrument with them: the accordion. The instrument was at first vehemently rejected by the earlier inhabitants, but after a period of often violent resistance the Auvergnat musicians came to embrace the "box of thrills, and it eventually became the scene's dominant instrument. Soon, the fare being played at the café dances began to reflect the city's diverse culture, mixing the styles of the French countryside with Italian cantos, Manouche gypsy music and Polish and German waltzes, polkas and mazurkas. This galvanizing, cross-pollinating period is acknowledged as the birth of the true musette style. 6 / 7.- Harmonica: The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. There are many types of harmonica, including diatonic, chromatic, tremolo, octave, orchestral, and bass versions. A harmonica is played by using the mouth (lips and tongue) to direct air into or out of one or more holes along a mouthpiece. Behind each hole is a chamber containing at least one reed. A harmonica reed is a flat elongated spring typically made of brass, stainless steel, or bronze, which is secured at one end over a slot that serves as an airway. When the free end is made to vibrate by the player's air, it alternately blocks and unblocks the airway to produce sound. 8.- Melodica (Pianica): The melodica, also known as the pianica, blow-organ, key harmonica, or melodyhorn, is a free-reed instrument similar to the pump organ and harmonica. It has a musical keyboard on top, and is played by blowing air through a mouthpiece that fits into a hole in the side of the instrument. Pressing a key opens a hole, allowing air to flow through a reed. The keyboard is usually two or three octaves long. Melodicas are small, light, and portable. They are popular in music education, especially in Asia. The modern form of the instrument was invented by Hohner in the 1950s, though similar instruments have been known in Italy since the 19th century. The melodica is known by various names, often at the whim of the manufacturer. Melodion (Suzuki), Triola (Seydel), Melodika (Apollo), Melodia (Diana), Pianica (Yamaha), Melodihorn (Samick), Pianetta and Clavietta are just some of the variants. This can lead to some confusion, as many people will use different names as a blanket term to describe all of these instruments. 9.- Accordina (Harmonicon): The button accordina was invented and made by André Borel under the name ‘Chromatic Harmonicon’. Things change a lot in the free-reed world. Accordinas are reappearing since few years. It went unnoticed for a long time. Accordion-players ignored it and public did not even know it. This hybrid between accordion and harmonica was born from André Borel’s imagination, in the late 30’. Today, it is made again and people develop a passion for it, going against the fate which surrounded the story of this instrument.

The accordion is widely spread across the world. In some countries (for example Brazil, Colombia and Mexico) it is used in popular music (for example Forró, Sertanejo and B-Pop in Brazil), whereas in other regions (such as Europe, North America and other countries in South America) it tends to be more used for dance-pop and folk music and as well as in regional and is often used in folk music in Europe, North America and South America. Nevertheless, in Europe and North America, some popular music acts also make use of the instrument. Additionally, the accordion is also used in cajun, zydeco, jazz music and in both solo and orchestra performances of classical music. The piano accordion is the official city instrument of San Francisco, California. Many conservatories in Europe have classical accordion departments. The oldest name for this group of instruments is harmonika, from the Greek harmonikos, meaning harmonic, musical. Today, native versions of the name accordion are more common. These names refer to the type of accordion patented by Cyrill Demian, which concerned "automatically coupled chords on the bass side".

 

 

With Akkordica you can choose from a wide selection of accordion, harmonica and melodica sounds, playing and feeling the traditional sounds as well as the new vast array built-in effects for the digital age. Virtual Accordion VST, Harmonica VST, Melodica VST for Windows, Audio Unit + VST for macOS. EXS24, KONTAKT. Piano Accordion: A piano accordion is an accordion equipped with a right-hand keyboard similar to a piano or organ. Its acoustic mechanism is more that of an organ than a piano, as they are both wind instruments, but the term "piano accordion"—coined by Guido Deiro in 1910—has remained the popular nomenclature. It may be equipped with any of the available systems for the left-hand manual. Anglo Concertina: The Anglo or Anglo-German concertina is a member of the concertina family of free-reed instruments. The Anglo originated as a hybrid between the English and German concertinas. The button layouts are generally the same as the original 20-button German concertinas designed by Carl Friedrich Uhlig in 1834. Strasser Accordion: In 1919 a forester by trade, Anton Strasser chooses a physically less demanding profession following a war injury. Aged 22 he begins his second apprenticeship – this time as an accordion maker – under Robert Zechner. In 1926, on completing his apprenticeship he establishes the Strasser accordion company in an abandoned garage in the Austrian city of Graz. Around 1939, Increasing sales necessitate a move to larger premises. Anton Strasser modernizes his business, emphasizing the change with a new company logo and slogan: “Harmonica production with electric machines”. All kinds of accordions were built: Schrammel accordions, chromatic accordions with buttons and keys, and, in particular, that traditional diatonic alpine accordion, the “Steirische Harmonika”. With their lightweight construction and the many technical improvements made by Anton Strasser, the company’s instruments soon count among the most popular accordions far beyond Strasser’s home town, with exports to the Netherlands and the USA already gathering pace. Hohner Accordion: Since 1857, HOHNER has been crafting the highest quality musical instruments in the World. They make harmonicas, accordions, melodicas, recorders and guitars to name a few. The German Harmonica and Accordion Museum in Trossingen, which houses the famous HOHNER collection, is quite simply unique and tells the HOHNER history like no one else. More than 25000 different harmonicas, lovingly preserved by curator Martin  Häffner, make up the largest single collection on the world. But the museum doesn‘t only exhibit musical instruments, it also shows rare  films, recordings, sales displays, advertising posters and much more. The  exciting story of Matthias HOHNER, his rise to fortune and the assimilation of his numerous competitors is all documented in the main museum building. Special exhibitions are shown in the new premises a short distance away in Bau V, a huge former factory building on the original HOHNER factory site. Musette Accordion: The word musette was originally the name for a bagpipe-like instrument played in the courts of France's upper classes during the 17th and 18th Centuries. Eventually it fell out of favor with the privileged population and was picked up by the country's rural peoples, especially those in the central Auvergne region. When the Auvergnats moved to Paris in search of work in the early 1800s, they brought their folk music to town, many of them opening cafés that catered to factory workers and their families. It was in these cafés that Sunday dances, or bals musette as they came to be known, began to be held. In the 1870s, another wave of immigrants began to pour into Paris, this time largely from Italy. The uprooted Italians settled into the same working-class neighborhoods as the Auvergnats, and brought their own musical instrument with them: the accordion. The instrument was at first vehemently rejected by the earlier inhabitants, but after a period of often violent resistance the Auvergnat musicians came to embrace the "box of thrills, and it eventually became the scene's dominant instrument. Soon, the fare being played at the café dances began to reflect the city's diverse culture, mixing the styles of the French countryside with Italian cantos, Manouche gypsy music and Polish and German waltzes, polkas and mazurkas. This galvanizing, cross-pollinating period is acknowledged as the birth of the true musette style. Harmonica: The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. There are many types of harmonica, including diatonic, chromatic, tremolo, octave, orchestral, and bass versions. A harmonica is played by using the mouth (lips and tongue) to direct air into or out of one or more holes along a mouthpiece. Behind each hole is a chamber containing at least one reed. A harmonica reed is a flat elongated spring typically made of brass, stainless steel, or bronze, which is secured at one end over a slot that serves as an airway. When the free end is made to vibrate by the player's air, it alternately blocks and unblocks the airway to produce sound. Melodica (Pianica): The melodica, also known as the pianica, blow-organ, key harmonica, or melodyhorn, is a free-reed instrument similar to the pump organ and harmonica. It has a musical keyboard on top, and is played by blowing air through a mouthpiece that fits into a hole in the side of the instrument. Pressing a key opens a hole, allowing air to flow through a reed. The keyboard is usually two or three octaves long. Melodicas are small, light, and portable. They are popular in music education, especially in Asia. The modern form of the instrument was invented by Hohner in the 1950s, though similar instruments have been known in Italy since the 19th century. The melodica is known by various names, often at the whim of the manufacturer. Melodion (Suzuki), Triola (Seydel), Melodika (Apollo), Melodia (Diana), Pianica (Yamaha), Melodihorn (Samick), Pianetta and Clavietta are just some of the variants. This can lead to some confusion, as many people will use different names as a blanket term to describe all of these instruments. Accordina (Harmonicon): The button accordina was invented and made by André Borel under the name ‘Chromatic Harmonicon’. Things change a lot in the free-reed world. Accordinas are reappearing since few years. It went unnoticed for a long time. Accordion-players ignored it and public did not even know it. This hybrid between accordion and harmonica was born from André Borel’s imagination, in the late 30’. Today, it is made again and people develop a passion for it, going against the fate which surrounded the story of this instrument. Bandoneon (Tango Accordion): The bandoneon (or bandonion, Spanish: bandoneón) is a type of concertina particularly popular in Argentina and Uruguay. It is an essential instrument in most tango ensembles from the traditional orquesta típica of the 1910s onwards. The bandoneon, so named by the German instrument dealer, Heinrich Band (1821–1860), was originally intended as an instrument for religious and popular music of the day, in contrast to its predecessor, German concertina (or Konzertina), which had predominantly used in folk music.[1]:16 Around 1870, German and Italian emigrants and sailors brought the instrument to Argentina, where it was adopted into the nascent genre of tango music, a descendant of the earlier milonga. Chemnitzer Concertina: Chemnitzer concertina is a musical instrument of the hand-held bellows-driven free-reed category, sometimes called squeezeboxes. The Chemnitzer concertina is most closely related to the bandoneón (German spelling: Bandonion), more distantly to the other concertinas, and accordions. Steirische Harmonika: The Steirische Harmonika is a type of bisonoric diatonic button accordion important to the alpine folk music of Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, the German state of Bavaria, and the Italian South Tyrol. The Steirische Harmonika is distinguished from other diatonic button accordions by its typically richer bass notes, and by the presence of one key per scale row that has the same tone on both compression and expansion of the bellows, called a Gleichton. The bass notes earn the distinction Helikonbässe because they use bigger reeds with duralumin reed frames and a special chamber construction that amplifies its bass tones to give it a loud sound reminiscent of a Helicon tuba. Melodeon (Diatonic Button Accordion): A melodeon or diatonic button accordion is a member of the free-reed aerophone family of musical instruments. It is a type of button accordion on which the melody-side keyboard contains one or more rows of buttons, with each row producing the notes of a single diatonic scale. The buttons on the bass-side keyboard are most commonly arranged in pairs, with one button of a pair sounding the fundamental of a chord and the other the corresponding major triad (or, sometimes, a minor triad). Diatonic button accordions are popular in many countries, and used mainly for playing popular music and traditional folk music, and modern offshoots of these genres. Bayan (Chromatic Button Accordion): The bayan is a type of chromatic button accordion developed in Russia in the early 20th century and named after the 11th-century bard Boyan.

 

 

 

Akkordica Audio Unit Component (Path) on Logic Pro

 

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VST is a trademark of Steinberg Soft- und Hardware GmbH

Audio Units™ is a trademark of Apple Inc.

Pianica is a registered trademark of Yamaha Corporation.

Strasser Accordion is a trademark of Harmonikaerzeugung Strasser GmbH.

Hohner Accordion and Melodica are a trademark of Hohner Musikinstrumente GmbH.

 



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