Axe-Cordion

[JIM D.]

 

[Dingo40]

Thanks for sharing, Jim!??
Interesting and versatile
What will they think of next??

 

[JerryPH]

It's pretty much an offshoot of the older keytar (portable guitar concept), this one just has a stradella bass section, which for accordionists is kinda cool. Surprisingly, this is not really in my own taste, but I am sure that if properly marketed, they will sell a lot of them.

 

[Alan Sharkis]

It's pretty much an offshoot of the older keytar (portable guitar concept), this one just has a stradella bass section, which for accordionists is kinda cool. Surprisingly, this is not really in my own taste, but I am sure that if properly marketed, they will sell a lot of them.

I bought one to use when I was recovering from a left knee total replacement and was advised not to put weight on my left thigh. That was some fifteen months ago. I still play it from time to time. It’s bery light weight, and utilizes the same Master midi unit that I have in my acoustic accordion, so learning the midi controller was no problem for me. The only modification I would make on it would be something like the bass strap on an accordion to help orient the player’s left hand.

 

[losthobos]

What was the cost Alan... I'd possibly be interested in Cba version if hammond sounds were on the nail....

 

[Ventura]

MASTER has outlived most of the Italian / CastleFi area electronic music related companies,
and they did that by specializing...

most specialty companies incorporate a generic MIDI chipset into their products for the
"non-accordion" tones, then (if at all) groove them with some selective Tone and reverb
tweaking, or in the case of specialists like DEXIBELL who throw out the GM stuff
and do everything from scratch, have made their physical insruments more
designed around the incorporation of Virtual Instruments like you use on a computer...
their Pianos have their own excruciatingly detailed and painstakingly tweaked
Piano soundsets plus the room to load 80 of your own Virtual instruments...
and they have finally gotten their promised ORGAN keyboard out to market
(it is not hammond, but classical style organs) with the same detailed tonal craftsmanship

and this is a guess, but the new PROXIMA is more likely to also use a generic GM chipset
rather than pay Roland fees and royalties, focusing their money on the Accordion sounds

the last Italian companies who actually dedicated their own resources and budgets into
sampling/crafting waveforms other than Accordion were Ketron and Orla

there is an entire segment of the Music Industry dedicated to the Hammond Sound,
and is alone likely as larger than the entire Accordion segment, and this at one time INCLUDED
Roland Europe... the Roland drawbar simulation tones, programming, chipsets, and actual
organ components that were incorporated into the Rodgers, Atalier, E-Series, and of course the
Roland VK series physical organs and modules (one of which i used to build my Virtual Cordovox)
all came out of Roland Italy R&D research, sampling, and design

and if you compare the root programming of the FR7 to the VK7, you will quickly realise the
accordion control software was built on top of their existing Organ code.

and so the answer is to simply use a Hammond type module with this (or any) midi controller
to get the ultimate in spot on hammond tone and flexibility

there are still many to choose from, and just on the Italian side plenty available used
from Vicount and Orla as well as the VK-8m still available new

 

[Alan Sharkis]

What was the cost Alan... I'd possibly be interested in Cba version if hammond sounds were on the nail....

You'd. have to discuss price with the sole US distributor, MusicMagic USA. I know that so far, he only imports the PA version and that the color you want will affect both the price and the waiting time to get it. Remember, I got mine some time ago, so prices may have changed since then.

 

[Alan Sharkis]

MASTER has outlived most of the Italian / CastleFi area electronic music related companies,
and they did that by specializing...

most specialty companies incorporate a generic MIDI chipset into their products for the
"non-accordion" tones, then (if at all) groove them with some selective Tone and reverb
tweaking, or in the case of specialists like DEXIBELL who throw out the GM stuff
and do everything from scratch, have made their physical insruments more
designed around the incorporation of Virtual Instruments like you use on a computer...
their Pianos have their own excruciatingly detailed and painstakingly tweaked
Piano soundsets plus the room to load 80 of your own Virtual instruments...
and they have finally gotten their promised ORGAN keyboard out to market
(it is not hammond, but classical style organs) with the same detailed tonal craftsmanship

and this is a guess, but the new PROXIMA is more likely to also use a generic GM chipset
rather than pay Roland fees and royalties, focusing their money on the Accordion sounds

the last Italian companies who actually dedicated their own resources and budgets into
sampling/crafting waveforms other than Accordion were Ketron and Orla

there is an entire segment of the Music Industry dedicated to the Hammond Sound,
and is alone likely as larger than the entire Accordion segment, and this at one time INCLUDED
Roland Europe... the Roland drawbar simulation tones, programming, chipsets, and actual
organ components that were incorporated into the Rodgers, Atalier, E-Series, and of course the
Roland VK series physical organs and modules (one of which i used to build my Virtual Cordovox)
all came out of Roland Italy R&D research, sampling, and design

and if you compare the root programming of the FR7 to the VK7, you will quickly realise the
accordion control software was built on top of their existing Organ code.

and so the answer is to simply use a Hammond type module with this (or any) midi controller
to get the ultimate in spot on hammond tone and flexibility

there are still many to choose from, and just on the Italian side plenty available used
from Vicount and Orla as well as the VK-8m still available new

Proxima will definitely use anything BUT Roland components. They have sourced their samples from independent sources, and if additional sounds become available after the initial Mia sales, they will have to come through Proxima.

By the way, and nobody to date has taken a stab at this, but there is something about Master's sound list; it's identical to the sound list I used to have on a SEM Ciao (ancient history by now). but the quality of those sounds in the Master unit is superior. I don't think there's any connection between Master and Logic System, the outfit that supplied sounds for the Ciao. Do you have any info or would you venture a guess as to why the sound lists are identical?

 

[Ventura]

of course the GM soundlist would be the same, so i guess
you mean the Program list of combinations ? didn't the Ciao have
like 500 some patches ?

 

[Alan Sharkis]

of course the GM soundlist would be the same, so i guess
you mean the Program list of combinations ? didn't the Ciao have
like 500 some patches ?

The Ciao had 400 in its list, each one exactly like the items on the Midi Master Play list. The Ciao had a successor, a reedless which came out under either the Scandalli or Paolo Soprani name that did have 500 sounds and was also equipped with wireless audio built in, whereas the early Ciaos could be equipped with SEM's brand of external wireless. But the number of sounds in all three far exceeded the 127 or so sounds in the GM spec, and they didn't match the extended sound packages put out by Roland (GS) or Yamaha (XG), and the Ciao and its successor came out before the extended GM2 spec, so I guess that Master had at one time obtained a license from one of the partners at Logic System after the two partners split up but I don't have anything to support that guess.

 

[Ventura]

well if the 400 programs/presets call up an underlying GM soundset, then
substituting a better quality set WOULD sound better

other than that, the quality of the DAC's
but i wouldn't think there could be THAT much difference from them
as they are mostly commonly used chipsets as well

and your guess may be right... somewhere some entity holds the rights
to those combinations, so to find them in different brands does imply
some common link... maybe they came out of last-gasp ORLA organ R&D then
were offered cheap rather than trashing them and maybe everyone kinda has
access to them for a 7 course dinner in Ancona, up the hill past the monument

Fausto made a lot of deals over Gnocci and Wine

 

[dan]

What was the cost Alan... I'd possibly be interested in Cba version if hammond sounds were on the nail....

Here’s a website with price. Looks like no CBA version—based on the ad copy they seem to be marketing it to keyboard players more than accordion players.