Just acquired a red 1959 Ferrari...

[Paulie]

...accordion.

My mom learned on this when she was 13, I took it out of storage after seeing Russell's post about his new acquisition. I opened it slowly, the bellows are in perfect condition, as are the buttons and straps. It played wonderfully, although the keys are substantially thinner than a regular keyboard. Now I need to figure out how to mic this thing.

[funsongs]

Nice grille work.

[Russell Landwehr]

Holy cow! That's beautiful!

[jonnybutter]

Awesome! I can smell it!

[cardell]

Ha! Nice.

Stuart

[admin]

Gorgeous Paulie!

It's pretty hard to screw up miking an accordion. Just use a good all around mic from 2 or 3 feet away. You're going to get some mechanical and wind noise no matter what. It's part of the instrument, and in the context of a track it will not be noticed. It gets harder if you're doing a solo piece, but it's what you'd hear if a strolling musician was playing at your table.

If you try to gate it, it starts sounding like a sample. It's like drums in solo mode: you hear the pedals, the stool clicks and squeaks, and the drummer's grunts. If you gate them out, the drums sound too clean and often times sound like samples. Imperfections are best left as part of the whole cloth whenever possible. There are also exceptions to every rule depending on the circumstance.

Gorgeous instrument... simply gorgeous!
Michael

[Sunset]

Cool Ferrari red Model "A",Paulie!!!

John

[Paulie]

Gorgeous Paulie!

It's pretty hard to screw up miking an accordion. Just use a good all around mic from 2 or 3 feet away. You're going to get some mechanical and wind noise no matter what. It's part of the instrument, and in the context of a track it will not be noticed. It gets harder if you're doing a solo piece, but it's what you'd hear if a strolling musician was playing at your table.

If you try to gate it, it starts sounding like a sample. It's like drums in solo mode: you hear the pedals, the stool clicks and squeaks, and the drummer's grunts. If you gate them out, the drums sound too clean and often times sound like samples. Imperfections are best left as part of the whole cloth whenever possible. There are also exceptions to every rule depending on the circumstance.

Gorgeous instrument... simply gorgeous!
Michael

Thanks Michael! It's awesome to receive feedback/guidance from the man himself!

Paulie

[Merryband1]

What a beauty! I like what Michael said about letting the noise of the bellows be part of the experience. If you've seen any episodes of the Lawrence Welk Show (think PBS runs them somewhere), when Myron Floren plays the accordion, even through the TV mics, you can hear the bellows, and the difference in sound between in and out bellows. It's part of the excellent sound. You've got something here that will help you in listings that are looking for French or Italian cafe ambient music! Enjoy!

Merryband

[WaddyP]

I bet AL could really rock that baby! That looks like it is in beautiful condition.