Diatonic button accordion

What it is

A bellows-driven free-reed instrument with buttons for both hands, where each treble button gives one note on the push and a different one on the pull. Also called the melodeon, button box or squeezebox; Irish, Cajun, zydeco, French and Tex-Mex players use it. Because it needs about half the reeds of a double-action instrument it is smaller and lighter. The one-row melodeon has about ten treble buttons and two to four bass buttons. Two-row layouts are pitched a fourth or a semitone apart (G/C and D/G in much of Europe; B/C and C#/D in Irish music).^9,13

Range

about G3 to about B5^8,9,10196 Hz – 988 Hz

G3-B5 is a forum poster's figure for button accordions and concertinas in Irish music, 'plus some extra notes at both ends'; some boxes have a switchable low-reed bank that drops the perceived pitch an octave. Wikipedia gives only the per-row span (two octaves plus a few notes), no note names. Forum figure, not a maker's spec.

• Two-row G/C melodeon, treble side: Ten buttons per row: the G row runs G3 (button 1, push) to G6 (button 10, push), the C row C4 to C7 (push); pull notes lie inside that span. The page states it uses scientific pitch (middle C = C4). Bass side not given. Source is a tablature site's keyboard map, not a maker's spec.¹¹
• Two-row D/G melodeon, treble side: The same page says the D/G box sounds a perfect fourth (five semitones) above the G/C; D4-F7 is my transposition of G3-C7.¹¹

The sound

As the piano accordion: bellows air across reeds in a wooden box, with stops choosing how many reed banks sound.^9,13

Where the sound goes

As the piano accordion: both ends radiate and the instrument moves. Recording Magazine says the moving bass end is the problem, "especially on button accordions, popular with Irish and Cajun musicians".^14,6

About the range

A two-row G/C box with ten buttons a row sounds G3 to C7 on the treble side (G row G3-G6 on the push, C row C4-C7); a D/G box sits a fourth higher, about D4-F7 (my transposition). The bass side has no sourced notes. A one-row, ten-button box covers about two octaves (estimate); four-reed Cajun boxes sound several banks at once.^11,4

How loud

Sound pressure level measurements as published. Different kinds of figure (a playing level, a peak, a dose at the player's ear) can't be compared with each other, and neither can figures at different distances.

No measurement of the diatonic accordion itself. The only figure is a Swedish review's typical exposure for orchestral musicians on 'piano, organ, accordion' (80 dB(A), Fröhlich 2005, secondary).

Recording it

Shure's accordion test used a piano accordion, so its eight set-ups are not button-box tests. For button boxes:

• Cajun standard (live and on record): an SM57 capsule on a bracket at the bottom of the accordion, facing upward; Owsinski says it suits four-reed Cajun boxes with all stops on.
• A single dynamic mic picks up less of the button and air noise than condensers, according to Owsinski's page summary.
• Clip and internal systems (French makers and retailers): Bernard Loffet's system, set up with Jean Alary, has an AKG C516 ML on the melody side (or a Shure Beta 98) and back-electret capsules on a soft suspension inside the bass side, with separate left and right outputs; his cheaper version a JTS CX-516 gooseneck on the melody side and a CX-508 or CX-506 clip on the bass strap. La Malle aux Accordéons fits a Musictech MT-05DN internal system, two mics right and one left, so the sound doesn't change with the player's or bellows' movement.
• Riders: band riders take the accordion on two channels, melody and bass: the player's own mics with phantom power, internal mics in stereo per hand on a DI, or two wireless channels.
• Studio: Paul White's pair of cardioids slightly forward and wider than the instrument, with narrow stereo width; Stamler's melody-side SM81 and a broad-pattern mic facing the player on the bass side. These are written for accordion generally, not for button boxes.^{14,4,3,1,2,15,16,17,7,6}

Mics i

No mic is named by more than one source yet: each names its own.

Problems to watch

Button and air noise on a close mic; level swings and Doppler on the moving bass end; a pair spread too far looks 20 ft wide.^4,6,7