The Roland FR3s can be found here for $3295, which is the lightest model (18 1/4 lbs) that has built-in speakers (2 x 15 watts). Though a little steep in price I've been thinking of buying this for my wife, who actually grew up playing accordian, and myself - who is willing to learn.

What I find cool beside all the real accordian emulations is the MIDI possibilities. The video demos above give a small indication of what these are capable of and I'd love to hear someone really put the non-accordian sounds like acoustic guitar and piano to the test. The FR's allow different sound selections for bass/left hand and right along with MIDI out so there's unlimited live performance possibilities. I could see hooking the FR3s to an arranger and going nuts. The FR3s would be sweet to take to any type of gig... jams, weddings, restaurants, even picnics!

........ just like the OLD days you young'ns wouldn't know about ...

t.

Two Questions re:Roland Accordions

1.Are the keyboards velocity sensitive?

2. Will they transmit velocity and/or aftertouch to an external Midi module?

Ian

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Remember to leave good news alone.

According to Roland website, the left and right keyboards are velocity sensitive but I did not see anything about after-touch though.

These digital accordions have approximately 30 accordion voices and about the same number of orchestral voices.

They do not have styles or auto accompaniment built in.

Most of the midi/digital accordion players that I see or know, use sound modules like Ketron, Solton, Orla, etc. to get all of the voices and the rhythm/styles that they need.
Thats more dollars to spend, unless you plan on hooking up to your existing keyboard.