Characteristic sound of each brand

[craigd]

This interests me, as I get to know various instruments I find that brands have their own sound, especially in their better instruments. My excelsior 940 has that mellow round "jazz" sound, without much brightness or edge to it, a Guerrini Superior I owned years ago was brighter, more complex but maybe a bit thinner in tone, the Titano/Victoria I have has a rich tone, not as mellow as the Excelsior, more colourful and dynamic to my ear. Anyways, I'm curious about other people's impressions of various brands' sounds. On a continuum from super mellow to bright, where do they fall? Or from pure tones to complex?

 

[Dingo40]

Yep. I agree.
Each "brand" has a distinctly characteristic and recognisable sound or timbre .
Just like people's voices: they only need to speak a few words and immediately you know who it is (Pres. Bush, Pres. Kennedy, Her Majesty the Queen, Dame Thatcher etc)!?

 

[Scuromondo]

I’ll be interested to hear the responses you get on this one.

But my impression is that a number of the members are veritable connoisseurs not unlike wine aficionados: they are likely to not only have a preference by brand, but by generation of product, year of manufacture, reed supplier, and perhaps other qualities as well !

 

[debra]

There are too many different accordions to recognize each and everyone of them by ear... but after a few minutes of listening it's quite possible to identify some accordion brands (not specific model), cassotto models, especially if L, LM, M, and maybe MH are used, but nothing with MM (not even when it has no tremolo). Between some of the more popular brands I can identify with reasonable accuracy: Victoria, Pigini, Bugari. Also the 1960s' super models have a very characteristic mellow sound: Bell/Scandalli/Hohner (I cannot distinguish between these but recognize when one of these are played. And then there is the Hohner Morino M series with its characteristic sound as well...
I fully realize that I am an exceptional nerd in being able to identify which accordion is being played... When I watch a video with nice scenery in which an accordion is being played (and when what you see is almost certainly playback) I can easily tell whether the accordion we see is the same model as the accordion used to record the sound. And when I hear an accordion on the radio (classical channel) I only need a few seconds to recognize whether it's a Pigini or not...

 

[saundersbp]

I only need a few seconds to recognize whether it's a Pigini or not...

Heres a challenge!
Have a listen to clips 1, 2 and 3.
Are any of these Pigini or not? And which reed sounds nicest?

 

[Scuromondo]

Heres a challenge!
Have a listen to clips 1, 2 and 3.
Are any of these Pigini or not? And which reed sounds nicest?

I hope to see and touch a Pigini someday; if I do, that will be the closest I ever get to one!

Still, even though I don’t have a Pigini, I do have an opinion. The 2nd clip sounds the warmest and most mellow and that is the one I prefer out of the three. However, I do like how bright and resonant the third one is as well, but I was distracted a bit by the keyboard noise which seemed more present in that recording than in the other two. My least favorite is probably the first one; it sounds more harshly “reedy” than the others.

But of course I must add the disclaimer that, when listening to a recording I often find it difficult to conclusively determine whether any particular sound quality is an attribute of the instrument or an artifact of the recording!

 

[Chickers]

As a beginner, I offer my thoughts.
I would say #2 was the Pagini, for smooth mellow sounds
My preference was #1, as I "enjoy" the folksy sound.
#3 seems a bit "basic" if you will without any depth, and certainly with mechanical clatter.
CHCIKERS

 

[saundersbp]

Thanks for responses. I'll give the answers when a few more people have had a listen!

 

[losthobos]

the second is sweet... I'm a sucka for sweets....

 

[Tom]

I think #2 is the "sweetest" also, but see that I would prefer #1 for certain situations. Are other factors the same, same reed bank, all out of chamber? No idea which is Pigini.

 

[debra]

Interesting challenge, especially since the sounds are so wildly different. Sound also depends a lot on the recording device. Recording something with a phone does not produce the same result as recording with a studio microphone that costs more than a good phone.
To me #1 sounds like a cheap melodica, not an accordion.
#2 sounds like an accordion with cassotto and #3 sounds like a non-cassotto accordion.
#2 might be a Pigini because to my ear it sounds different from the others I am more familiar with. (It does not sound like a Bugari, Hohner, AKKO or Russian Jupiter (with the open O in the name). It is very likely cassotto but not a cassotto sound I like much.
I really hope for Pigini that #3 is not a Pigini because it has voicing problems that are worse than what I would expect from Pigini.
#3 sounds quite sharp. It could be something like a Pigini Peter Pan, which of course sounds very different than what you get from a Sirius or Nova. It does sound more like a Chinese student accordion...

 

[saundersbp]

And the same three instruments being played in the same order......

 

[Dingo40]

No idea, guys?
This somewhat reminds me of an old joke:
This guy was boasting how he could identify any drink served to him in a glass, and he was willing to put $100 on it.
So the other guys in the pub served him drink after drink, and he kept getting them right .
In desperation, they agreed to one more attempt.
He took a sip from the glass and immediately spat it out, crying out, "Petrol " (gasoline)
"Yes," they replied, "But what brand ?"
?

 

[Scuromondo]

No idea, guys?
This somewhat reminds me of an old joke:
This guy was boasting how he could identify any drink served to him in a glass, and he was willing to put $100 on it.
So the other guys in the pub served him drink after drink, and he kept getting them right .
In desperation, they agreed to one more attempt.
He took a sip from the glass and immediately spat it out, crying out, "Petrol " (gasoline)
"Yes," they replied, "But what brand ?"
?

Yes, or maybe we’re all being hoodwinked and he’s just treating us to three different accordionistic sounds from a Roland!

 

[debra]

Thanks for the second series of clips. Interesting how the same instruments can sound different from one clip to the next... but this second series is in some sense more interesting because now both black and white keys are used (which on a piano accordion tend to be on different reed blocks).
What I'm hearing now:
#1 still sounds very much like a melodica to me. I would be disappointed to have spent a lot of money on an accordion to get this sound, when a melodica under $50 gives the same sound... It is a very nasal sound typical for a melodica. I know that Pigini gives you also a bit of a nasal sound but not to this extent I would think.
#2 is now more clearly a cassotto instrument than in the first series. I can hear a difference in timbre between the white and black keys, the white keys being a bit more mellow than the black ones. So this must be played on the M register. I would be disappointed if this is a higher quality Italian instrument considering the amount of noise coming from the keys.
#3 sounds a little bit less sharp than in the first set of clips, but what is more apparent now is the amount of keyboard noise, almost as bad as what I would expect from a cheap chinese accordion.
If any of these clips is a Pigini I would be very disappointed. But in fact, if any if these clips is from a high quality Italian accordion I would be disappointed.

 

[debra]

Yes, or maybe we’re all being hoodwinked and he’s just treating us to three different accordionistic sounds from a Roland!

I find this unlikely, considering how noisy the keyboard is. When you try to identify an accordion, it's not just the sound produced by the reeds that matters...
It is possible that we are being fooled in the sense that all clips could be played on the same accordion, using different registers, maybe a sordina thrown in the mix as well... In any case I would not be thrilled to own this accordion.

 

[saundersbp]

Thanks for all your replies to the quiz.

#1 is a melodica - well done Paul! Nice to see how many people liked the sound too.

#2 and #3 are both accordions but neither has cassotto so that's interesting given peoples responses.
I'm going to now get rid of #1 (the melodica) and add in a new entry #4. See what you think to different sounds below.

accordion #2



accordion #3



accordion #4 (the new entry!)

 

[Dingo40]

I can't tell them apart!??

 

[debra]

Now we're at least talking accordions. (So people who liked the sound of the old #1 can safely sell their accordion, pay $20 for a melodica and be happy with the sound!)
Now that we know #2 does not have cassotto but does have a clearly more mellow sound for the white keys than for the black keys I would think it may be a non-cassotto Giulietti. The shape of the grille of a Giulietti acts like a mellowing sordino for the white keys but not for the black keys.
#3 has a very sharp sound, painful at times. I very much doubt that this is an Italian accordion. I would think maybe a Chinese or even North-Korean accordion.
#4 has a somewhat sharper tone than #2 (but not nearly as bad as #3). It could be any smallish student accordion with melody bass of Italian origin. The sounds are much more alike when accordions do not have cassotto than when they do. It could be a Pigini. First I thought #4 could be #2 with the grille removed, but the melody bass in both #2 and #4 appears different so the treble grille alone could not explain that difference.

 

[losthobos]

I can't tell them apart!??

I'm with Dingo... They all sound equally horrid.... ?