Ioria Accorgan
Charles Wesley Rogers, Jr.
accordion-electronic organ cross. I really wanted a midi, but this
gets me closer than I was. I could use any advice on playing this
monster (It sure is big and heavy!) and eventually installing a midi
kit.
It has a few features I have not fully figured out yet. It has a six
pin DIN plug that goes to a Crumor pedal that has a guitar plug output.
I think the various signals are being mixed within the pedal, but all
controls are on the accordion itself. If this is so, I don't
understand why the signals were not combined within the accordion. If
I knew what signals were on each pin, I guess I could do a lot more
variety with the output. Also, there is a guitar type plug (female) on
the side of the pedal that I'm not sure what it was intended to do.
Putting a guitar into it does nothing and headphones hear nothing. The
man who sold it to me said it might be for a microphone. Any other
ideas?
The accorgan also has guitar-type sockets for "Mikes Aux" and "Rhythem
Input." I don't have a microphone. I'd tried "Mike Aux" to amp with
no sound and guitar through accorgan with no results. Does anyone know
what this is intended for? It could be not in working order, although
everything else seems to work.
The volume control for the bass mikes has a much lower output than the
treble side. I would normally want to keep the bass side fairly low,
but it seems odd that I'm forced into this.
If anyone has experience playing an instrument that mixes acoustic and
electronics, like this instrument or a midi accordion, do you have a
list of dos and don'ts for producing better sound?
Chuck Rogers
artf...@ix.netcom.com
Sushiqueen
artf...@ix.netcom.com (Charles Wesley Rogers, Jr.) wrote:
> I just purchased an Iorio Accorgan Concert. This is an early
> accordion-electronic organ cross.
I wonder if this instrument is anything like the Farfisa Syntacordion
someone just consigned for sale at the House of Musical Traditions. It's
got switches on it for horn, strings, flute, and other sounds, and has an
external amp/generator and a volume pedal. It can also be played
acoustically. It's BIG. I haven't plugged it in yet to try it out (to tell
the truth I'm a little intimidated by it). Does that sound anything like
your Iorio, Chuck? Anybody have any more information on these monsters?
Anybody interested in buying one?
Wendy
hmt...@hmtrad.com
Sushiqueen, Wendy's Home for Wayward Accordions
http://www.hmtrad.com/hmtrad
1996 is the Year of the Accordion
Robert Berta
>I wonder if this instrument is anything like the Farfisa Syntacordion
>someone just consigned for sale at the House of Musical Traditions. It's
>got switches on it for horn, strings, flute, and other sounds, and has an
>external amp/generator and a volume pedal. It can also be played
>acoustically. It's BIG. I haven't plugged it in yet to try it out (to tell
>the truth I'm a little intimidated by it). Does that sound anything like
>your Iorio, Chuck? Anybody have any more information on these monsters?
>Anybody interested in buying one?
>Wendy
>hmt...@hmtrad.com
===========================
Wendy,
I used to have an Iorio Accorgan model E. I believe they are still in
production although from about the H model they have additional ability to
hook up to a MIDI sound modul. These accorgans differ from the modern MIDI
accordion in that they had their own electronic "organ" built in. I believe
the latest incarnation is the model J.
The Concert version that was mentioned in an earlier post is probably a
version of one of the letter models that has hand made reeds or perhaps a tone
chamber. The Iorio Accorgans came with identical electronics but different
levels of accordion quality in reeds, etc. just as any modern line of
accordions. By the way the better Iorio's were VERY good sounding accordions
and are still sought after even if the electronics has died.
The advantage of the Iorio is that there is a relatively simple learning curve
to use it since it is simply a matter of pushing a couple of stops to select
some organ sounds to accompany the accordion. The disadvantage is that the
organ sounds are fairly limiting and far less than what can be accomplished
with even a very simple MIDI accordion and basic sound modul. In addition the
organ sounds are not really that impressive (I know what a real organ sounds
like because I play them also). I believe the electronics were Yamaha designs.
Although some of the latest models have MIDI capability it is very simplistic
and requires all the midi controller changes to be done at the sound modul
rather than at the accordion. This is not conducive to sound changes during a
performance of a tune.
Final caveat is that many of the older models may be old enough that you just
can't get some of the proprietary replacement electronics and once it dies it
is terminal (that is what happened to my 30 year old model). And as you
mentioned the other down side is the size/weight of the thing. Depending on
the model most of the electronics were in the accordion and that made for a
big accordion. As I recall mine was about 35 lbs. Besides a couple of circuit
boards under the treble grill there were additional boards under the keyboard
which made for a thick keyboard that some found objectionable. A modern MIDI
accordion has very few electronics onboard....generally only 1 circuit board
and the accordion will weigh the same as any other accordion plus maybe 8 oz.
My Dual tone chamber ELKA MIDI II+ model with 4/5 sets of handmade reeds
weighs 27 lbs. which is about the same as my non MIDI accordion of like
configuration.
The current distributor and service work for them here in the US is Iorio
Accordions which is a great company. Iorio also distributes regular state of
the art MIDI accordions.
Bob Berta