Overview

The S-Wave Instruments E64 English Concertina is an instrument that has been designed to give the concertina player access to the vast range of sounds and effects offered by MIDI devices available on the market today.

But rather than just connect a set of electronic sensors to the buttons and bellows of a traditional concertina, the design of this instrument has taken a more radical approach. It has started from basics and asked the questions "What makes the concertina unique as a MIDI controller?" and "How can we make best use of these characteristics to enhance the musical performance?"

The main outcome of these deliberations and experiments was that not only is there no need for bellows but that designing these out has a positive advantage, namely that the instrument can have different playing characteristics depending on whether the player is pushing or pulling. That is, the player can have access to different sounds, combinations of sounds or effects simply by reversing the playing the direction.

Replacing the bellows with a force sensor between the two ends means that the instrment can be played 'forever' in one direction before having to reverse. This allows the settings in the pull direction to be different to those in the push direction so that, for example, a song accompaniment can use the pull setting for the verses and the push setting can be something different for the chorus, middle eight, or big finish. How useful is that?

Description

The instrument is an electronic implementation of a 64 button English concertina that communicates with an external tone generator by means of a MIDI interface. That is to say that it is a MIDI controller and as such it can be simply connected, via a standard cable, to feed into any MIDI tone generator, synthesiser or expander with a 5 pin 'MIDI IN' port (including keyboards and PC's).

A pressure sensor is included to enable the player to control the volume and/or the tonal quality of the sounds produced by the tone generator. The pressure sensor responds to pressure applied in both the push and pull directions and different sound settings a can be programmed into the instrument for the push and pull directions.

A number of additional control switches are included to enable the player to quickly change the sound settings or set a transposition interval without manually adjusting the tone generator. An additional mode of operation may be used to change the note allocation pattern and other operational options.

Construction

The main instrument body parts are moulded out of a high quality, engineering resin before being finished by hand. Use of this material gives the instrument a high degree of robustness against accidental knocks and bumps. The buttons are moulded out of a hard rubber compound with a semi-domed profile for playing comfort.

The thumbstraps and finger rests are standard products manufactured by C.Wheatstone & Co. and replacement parts can be ordered directly from them.

Operation

For storage the instrument folds down neatly into a form where the ends are side by side with each other. This allows the instrument to sit snugly and securely in the foam insert. The illustration of the instrument in it's case shows this.

To assemble the instrument, the ends fold up into the normal playing position and a single threaded connection secures the instrument for use. From here it's just a case of plugging in the MIDI lead from the tone generator and turning the instrument on.

Four additional switches are incorporated into the right hand end of the instrument. These are for use by the player to quickly change the sound setting or transposition interval of the instrument. Click the thumbnail picture to view an annotated picture of the right hand end switch functions.

Each of the 32 buttons on the right hand end have preset sound setting associated with them. Pressing the Preset 1 switch will immediately switch to the setting associated with the top left hand button (button 1). Pressing the Preset Select switch followed by any button on the right hand end will immediately switch to the setting associated with the button that was pressed.

Transposition is just as easy. For example, to play in C but sound in G press the Transpose switch, then a 'C' (either end) followed by a 'G' (either end). Depending on whether the 'G' was above or below the 'C' will determine whether the transposition is up or down.

The Push/Pull Invert switch is for players that prefer to play in one direction. Pressing this switch inverts the logic applied to the pressure sensor so that 'push' pressure now produces the 'pull' sounds and vice versa. Pressing it a second time returns the instrument to normal.

Sound Settings and MIDI Topics

In operation the instrument sends note and control information on up to four MIDI channels for each button press. Channels 1-4 are used for the pull settings and channels 5-8 are used for push settings where the settings are different.

At present the input from the pressure sensor can be set to control note velocity, expression volume and master volume in various combinations. The control is arranged so that different channels can be added into the tone generator output with increasing pressure. It is this approach that allows the player to vary the tonal quality and volume of the sound by varying the applied pressure.

This capability is built into the instrument and is not dependent on the tone generator. This gives set-ups which include cheaper tone generators the ability to give the complex sound and tone control usually associated with more expensive tone generators.

Package

As illustrated, the basic instrument package consists of:-

• the instrument, currently available with Red or Black ends and comes complete with battery
• a case with close fitting foam insert
• MIDI lead for connecting to a tone generator
• Owners Handbook.

The price for the basic package is £1600 (including UK VAT) and includes personal delivery and set up to your requirements (only applies to England and Wales). For alternative delivery options and delivery options outside of England and Wales please write to enquiries@s-wave.co.uk

For customers who are unfamiliar with MIDI or tone generators, a pre-owned Yamaha MU15 may be purchased with the basic package at an additional cost of £120 or a pre-owned MU50 may be purchased at an additional cost of £180.

Any package may be secured by a non-returnable deposit of £300. Please write to enquiries@s-wave.co.uk for details.

Note: This website is regularly maintained to keep the information up to date but S-Wave Instruments is continually working to improve this product and therefore reserves the right to change specifications without notice.

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