Virtual Accordion, Concertina, Bandoneon, Harmonica and Melodica
Overview
Akkordica is a virtual accordion, concertina,
bandoneon, harmonica and melodica instrument that
covers a wide range of sounds and combines a
traditional hand-held bellows-driven performance and
modern digital functionality. This squeeze box and
free reed wind instrument is suitable for different
musical styles, be it traditional, popular or
classical. Available as plugin in VST 32 bit and 64
bit and VST3 64 bit versions for Windows as well as
in Audio Unit, VST and VST3 for macOS.
Features
•
Mode Selector
to change between the following instruments:
#
List of Preset Sounds /
Demo ↓
1
Anglo Concertina
2
Chemnitzer Concertina
3
Hohner Accordion
4
Strasser Accordion
5
Musette Accordion
6
Bandoneon (Tango Accordion)
7
Bayan (Chromatic Button
Accordion)
8
Melodeon (Diatonic Button
Accordion)
9
Steirische Harmonika
(Styrian Accordion)
10
Piano Keyboard Accordion
11
Accordina (Harmonicon)
12
Harmonica (Natural)
13
Harmonica (Vibrato)
14
Melodica (Pianica)
•
Akkordica allows you to reproduce many different
accordion types (diatonic and chromatic) for various
genres of musical styles such as Folk, Rock, Blues,
Jazz, Polka, Tango, Bal-musette, Cajun, Zydeco,
Classical, Schrammelmusik, Klezmer, Levenslied,
Sevdalinka, Boeremusiek, Forró, Merengue, Cueca,
Milonga, Chamamé, Cumbia, Vallenato, Norteño, Tex-Mex,
Saltarello, Tarantella, Ceol, Basque Trikitixa and Inuit
music.
•
The harmonica (known as a French harp or mouth organ)
comes with two modes:
natural and vibrato, to be used in many musical
genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical
music, jazz, country, and rock and roll.
•
ADSR envelope generator with Attack, Sustain, Decay and Release parameters:
Ø Attack
determines the time it takes for the note to get to the maximum level. Ø Decay
determines the time it takes for the note to go from the maximum level
to the sustain level (controlled by Sustain). Ø Sustain
determines level the sound is played at while the note is held (after
the other envelope states, Attack and Decay, have been completed). Ø Release
determines the time it takes for the note to fall from the sustain level
to zero (silence) level when it is released.
• Pitch Bend: The Pitch Bend knob directly changes the pitch of the selected
instrument.
Ø Pitch
Bend center position: is normal pitch. Ø Pitch
Bend down: Specifies the amount of pitch change that will occur when the
pitch bend/modulation lever is moved to the left. Ø Pitch
Bend up: Specifies the amount of pitch change that will occur when the
pitch bend/modulation lever is moved the right.
• Low-Frequency Oscillator Controls: These knobs apply LFO modulation to the
selected instrument. By using the LFO to modulate various aspects of the
audio signal, you can apply effects such as vibrato or tremolo.
Ø Rate:
This knob controls the frequency. Turn clockwise for a faster
modulation rate. Ø Depth:
This knob controls the amplitude. With a lower setting, the
resulting modulation is subtle, while a higher depth will result
in a much more extreme effect.
• Reverb built-in: provides a spaciousness and depth to simulate the
sound reflections from walls, floors and ceilings following a sound created
in an acoustically reflective environment. Small rooms can be modeled as
well as large spaces.
• Filter Type. Combo box to switch between the following options:
Ø Low
Pass (LPF): a filter that passes signals with a frequency lower than a
certain cutoff frequency and attenuates signals with frequencies higher
than the cutoff frequency. Ø High
Pass (HPF): a filter that passes signals with a frequency higher than a
certain cutoff frequency and attenuates signals with frequencies lower
than the cutoff frequency. Ø None:
No filter is applied. Ø Cutoff
Frequency Filter: Sets the cutoff frequency for the low pass and high
pass filters.
• Amplitude Range Parameters: It controls the loudness, the way in which we
perceive amplitude.The sensitivity level is set by the user:
• Panning potentiometer control: Set the panning of the instrument. Adjusts
the stereo pan position of the signal output, which determines how much of
signal is sent to the left and right channels.
• MIDI CC Automation: Implementation of MIDI Continuous Controller
parameters for use with external hardware control via DAW, such as: LFO
depth (CC#1), breath controller for harmonica, melodica and accordina
presets (CC#2), expression (CC#11), volume (CC#7),
pan (CC#10), balance (CC#8), filter cutoff (CC#74), ADSR (Attack: CC#73,
Decay: CC#75, Sustain: CC#76, Release: CC#72) and reverb depth (CC#91).
With Akkordica you can choose from a wide
selection of accordion, concertina, bandoneon, harmonica and melodica sounds,
playing and feeling the traditional sounds as well as the
new vast array built-in effects for the digital age.
Before you install VST Instruments &
Effects, please make sure your computer fulfills the
following requirements:
Windows Operating System: Native .dll (v2.4) and .vst3 (v3.6.7)
files for Windows Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10
(32-bit and 64-bit platforms).
500 MHz Processor (Pentium®, Celeron® AMD® or equivalent)
minimum.
RAM: 512 MB or higher recommended.
VST compatible host / Digital Audio
Workstation DAW/ MIDI Sequencer:
These VST/VST3 software can be "plugged in" to any host application that
supports VST/VST3 Technology like: Image-Line FL Studio, Steinberg
Cubase Pro, Artist and Elements, Cakewalk by BandLab, Ableton Live,
Cockos REAPER, PreSonus Studio One, Acoustica Mixcraft, MAGIX Acid
Pro, MakeMusic Finale, Avid Sibelius, Mackie Tracktion, Steinberg
Nuendo, Magix Samplitude, Magix Music Maker, Cantabile (Lite, Solo,
Performer), n-Track Studio, VSTHost, DarkWave Studio, Bitwig, SAVIHost
and much
more
...
MIDI Controller Device: A MIDI
Controller is required to play this VST instrument. The most common type
of device in this class is the keyboard controller. After launching the
Digital Audio Workstation or MIDI host application be sure to select the
appropriate MIDI device before attempting to play your MIDI controller.
For users familiarized with Wind Controllers like the Akai EWI USB, Akai
EWI4000S and the Yamaha WX5 Wind MIDI Controller or Yamaha BC1, BC2, BC3
and BC3a Breath Controllers via DAW / AU-VST-VST3 host, it is highly recommended
to test first the demo version available
here in order to check out its compatibility and how it respond to breath control (CC#2)
for Harmonica, Melodica and Accordina presets and MIDI expression
(CC#11) for crescendos and decrescendos.
An ASIO® soundcard is recommended for low latency real-time play.
The AU VST2 and VST3 Plugins DEMO versions is only meant to give you a
taste of what is possible with this plugin in a limited range of an
octave
‘C4-C5’ with random
‘white noise’, where Middle C equals C4.
The full version is available to purchase, as downloadable software, the
price is US$ 49,90
and you can download the full version as soon as your payment is received.
Please be aware that we do not offer refunds. To determine
whether the software meets your requirements prior to purchase, we encourage
you to test the free demo of the software and read our License.
![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. 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". 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. 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. 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.](VSTVST3AU.jpg "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. 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\". 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.")
![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_instruments_720x405.jpg "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")
