Roland FR-1xb Bellows

[OneLittleBird]

Hello, I've just registered on your forum.

I'm a novice accordionist with a Roland FR-1xb. I live in an apartment, so I chose the FR-1xb so that I could practice without disturbing my neighbours. I really like the accordion, but it seems like the bellows are too stiff. My arm gets tired fairly quickly. If I loosen the bellows it is better, but then there is a lot noise caused by the air going in and out of the bellows.

I read in another post that you barely need to move the bellows in order to get the desired effect. I'm wondering what settings are needed to achieve this. I do want to play it realistically though, so ideally I would still need to open and close the bellows as on a normal accordion. Any tips are appreciated! Thanks so much.

 

[dunlustin]

Look up Bellows Curve in the manual to find how to choose X-light or Light.
This should sort it.

 

[Geronimo]

Hello, Ive just registered on your forum.

Im a novice accordionist with a Roland FR-1xb. I live in an apartment, so I chose the FR-1xb so that I could practice without disturbing my neighbours. I really like the accordion, but it seems like the bellows are too stiff. My arm gets tired fairly quickly. If I loosen the bellows it is better, but then there is a lot noise caused by the air going in and out of the bellows.

I read in another post that you barely need to move the bellows in order to get the desired effect. Im wondering what settings are needed to achieve this. I do want to play it realistically though, so ideally I would still need to open and close the bellows as on a normal accordion. Any tips are appreciated! Thanks so much.

With the FR-1b (no x), the enclosure of the air button is a dial you can turn in order to determine just how much air the accordion leaks. There is also a setting for bellows sensitivity in the menus you can play with.

 

[Francisco SC]

Hi, I also found the bellows very stiff when I bought my fr-1x. In brief: there is no way to make its bellows feel like a true reed accordion. It's a different animal...

You may try adjusting the bellows curve as said above, but I found quite soon that the 'light' settings make it loose a lot of dynamics, the end result being a rather monotonous sound, with little expression.

You'll get used to the feeling of this bellows. And it will get a little softer over the months (the bellows itself is physically very stiff when new). I found that cranking up the volume knob a little , setting the bellows curve to 'standard' and closing the air valve regulator completely (or, at most, one notch open) will help me get the most expressiveness out of it.

Don't worry, the stiff feeling will eventually disappear and you'll love the instrument as much as I do, but keep in mind it cannot behave like a reed accordion.

Please excuse my English!

 

[Geronimo]

It's likely not valid in a similar degree as with my own FR-1b since one of the selling points of the x series had been improved bellows response, but with my instrument one of the principal and remaining complaints is that it does too little too much.

The "too little" part is that the sound quality does not change appreciably under different pressure (with an acoustic, the excitation level of reeds makes quite a difference in sound content and the excitation follows pressure changes particularly on low reeds quite slower than the loudness does) while the "too much" part is that the the sound volume changes absurdly much, like if you were playing with the volume control (and nothing else) of an amplifier.

If I do a very gradual crescendo on M on an acoustic accordeon, there is only a moderate but still distinctive change in sound quality (can be further masked if in cassotto). If I do the same using LM, the change is much more apparent since the reeds from the different reed sets have their own individual response curve, so you gain a lot of subtle expressivity by using reeds from different octaves.

I can configure one of my acoustic accordion's standard bass to use 8 or 10 reeds per bass button and 18 to 22 reeds per chord button.

Obviously, this means that it can be played very loud, eating up humongous amounts of air. What is probably sort of surprising is that it can be played quite quietly in this registration as well. Most reeds simply will not sound then, just coming in at larger volumes. You can make a gradual crescendo and its organic: you cannot really tell when any single reed becomes audible, and the sound quality becomes more and more "brassy" as you crank up the pressure. With less extreme registrations, that effect is more subtle but still a major part of an accordion's behavior.

That's an aspect that I found my own FR-1b poor at modelling. The bellows sensitity feels like a quirky volume control rather than something affecting tone intensity (it very noticeably switches sample families based on starting volume for saxophone sounds, though).

 

[OneLittleBird]

I'm sorry for the VERY late reply, but I want to thank everyone for the advice. I didn't realize there was a bellows curve setting. I played with it, but the default setting does feel best for expression even though my arm might get tired. Thanks again!

 

[mwatersworld]

I'm curious if you ever came to grips with your bellows issue? I've just purchased a FR-1Xb and immediately ran into the same problem. I'm hoping the bellows will ease up as has been suggested in an earlier post.

I'm also having a tough time of trying to follow the Roland manual - hardly user friendly! If anyone is in the Sacramento, CA or Bay Area who has a Roland and can spare a few moments to share some pointers it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Mark

 

[Deleted member 48]

FR 8x FR4x without moving bellows:




At 300 he starts playing The Thing without bellows movement.

I need a drink...

 

[mwatersworld]

Thanks Stephen. That's was a very helpful video.

I'm gradually learning my way around it. I've set the bellows curve to very light which seems to help. Loving it so far!

 

[Deleted member 48]

You probably have seen the YT video where Ludovic Beier is doing loopings with a digital Roland accordion. 
He puts the accordion on the ground and plays it like a digital keyboard. 

When you have muscular issues or pain, digital accordions can be useful, no bellows movement required. But you sound like a robot without pedal effects. 

I would rather play a smaller lightweight acoustic accordion. 
I'm staying away from digital accordions, makes me feel like being a computer programmer.

 

[Dingo40]

I would rather play a smaller lightweight acoustic accordion. 
I'm staying away from digital accordions, makes me feel like being a computer programmer.

I have a couple of vintage, acoustic Sonola badged 41/120 3 treble voiced PAs with 17 inch treble keyboards, which I play regularly for variety.

For all who want something lighter and more easily manageable, yet the full package, I can highly recommend something like this!
They are a delight!