Another recruit to the Digital Dark Side?

[Alan Sharkis]

Congratulations, I know that you will really enjoy your new accordion.

I'm not an IT professional however I have worked with technology for the past 25 years and consider myself to be more technical than the population at large. That said, the manuals can be quite a chore to digest and not being very patient I tend to give up before fully understanding the instructions contained in the books. What seems to work much better for me is to consult with YouTube by searching for a video explaining the steps required to get the results that I need. By all means also use the printed material because it contains all that you need but the video instructions will save you time and grey hair by getting you closer to understanding how to do something.

There is also the fr1x set editor software that makes the process easier for most to manage their Roland sets where you can save the sounds that you like.

The manuals on their own seem to be written in a form of English with which I am unfamiliar. Perhaps they've been written in another language before being translated, so they can be a challenge. Good luck!

My argument about manuals is that in the old days, when a company hired a tech writer with no familiarity with the product to write the manual from a user's point of view. Those days are gone forever, because manufacturers will save money by having the company's own techs write the manual. Often this is done from a tech's point of view. And yes, if the original manual was translated from another language, another layer of complication is added. I can get what I want from the Roland Reference manuals, but that's probably because I'm an amateur player with lots of time and patience. I know one working accordionist who's not in that position, and he has neither the time nor the patience to deal with manuals, but he relies on a very cooperative dealer to help him develop shortcuts for whatever he wants to make the accordion do.

 

[Pipemajor]

Hi Chris,

Good for you. Enjoy the process of learning your new accordion.

I also struggled with the bellows, wanting them to work just like on an acoustic but after watching videos of great players like Richard Noel, I noticed that they didn't seem to pump the bellows to any degree. Now after a few months struggling to play the digital just like an acoustic I unconsciously switched to a more relaxed style of articulation. It saves a lot of wear and tear on my right arm, wrist and shoulder.

If you learned to drive a standard transmission, when switching to an automatic transmission there is still the reflexive search for the missing clutch pedal. It is annoying but soon enough you adjust. When you learned to play the acoustic, especially a smaller model you were required to really move those bellows to generate sound and it's a difficult habit to break. By all means adjust the bellows resistance to something comfortable but the digital will never be exactly like your acoustic accordions.

And if you press the brake pedal instead of the missing clutch, it soon wakes you up!!

 

[Valski]

And if you press the brake pedal instead of the missing clutch, it soon wakes you up!!

Yes, touching the brake pedal inadvertently is quite common until you become familiar with the vehicle especially when you have big feet like I do. ?