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)
Description and details of
sample-based instruments by Akkordica
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
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.
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".