Last Friday night I worked my first gig with the AjamSonic Audya 4 and Roland FR-7X V Accordion. I must say for my first job of this size in quite a while everything went surprisingly well. The event was held to encourage new members to join the neighborhood pool and club facilities. This was in the Memorial area of Houston. Hamburgers, hot dogs, beer and wine, and live music, (that would be me) were on the bill. It was a come-and-go affair but at any one time there were at least 100 people there. A little more folks than I'm used to playing for.

I set up about 50 feet from poolside. I was on concrete, in the shade but not under cover. At this point let me say this! Houston, mid-June, 5:30pm, no breeze or fan, it was “HOTTER’N HELL!”

I used the Audya thru my Roland CM-30 cubes, and was pleased with the result. The crowd was fairly spread out but every one seemed to be able to hear all right. No one complained of being too loud, or any distortion.

The general age of the group was probably mid 40s, however, there were many seniors and children. I didn’t know what kind of music they wanted, it never came up. I didn’t know whether to play more Big band and standards, or more C and W and old rock. or if anyone would recognize anything I played anyway. I knew I was going to play for abt 2.5 hours, SO, I took my best 50 songs and went for it!

Another good thing, I didn’t receive any requests. So, I didn’t have to go scrambling to find a style for something I didn‘t have programmed. I just played from my list. I heard a smattering of applause from time to time, however, I knew I was there just for the background and really figured that no one was paying much attention to me anyway. Surprise, surprise, when the people began to leave many of them came up and said how much they enjoyed my playing and would I come back again, All in all, it was a good performance although I had a couple registrations programmed with the wrong tempo and I forgot one line in a song. Oh well! Also, I know I used the vocalizer too much, it is fun and I probably got carried away. Used sparingly it can be a great tool.

Now abt the Audya 4 and AjamSonic. Audya styles kicked butt! I got to tell you, it has nothing to do with my playing, but I felt like I was in the middle of a little four piece band. The rhythms were alive!

AjamSonic is definitely an improvement. The sounds, especially guitars, pianos, and strings, are really good. There are many good horns as well. There are many new styles and he has reworked many of the original Audya styles as well. I know that AJ has upgraded and tweaked many other aspects on Audya such as the Vocalizer, Choir voices, and live guitars. However AJ is a more sophisticated creator than I am as a user so I really can’t elaborate on many features he’s added. Also, AjamSonic adds almost 1,000 registrations, along with many, many MP3s and MIDI files.

A minor downside is that it takes over six minutes to boot up. I’m hoping the new SSD drive, which I have ordered, will solve this problem to some degree! Likewise there is quite a delay when changing OTS from one voice to another, I hope this I corrected as well.

One serious downside for me personally! I have very poor vision so reading the screen on the Audya is difficult under good conditions. Outside, although I was in the shade, I could not read the screen. This combined with the fact that you have to load registrations into the HD before you can play them makes for double trouble. I have a good memory, and if I could play directly from a thumb drive I could use play lists which I could memorize, and reading wouldn’t be a factor. Don’t know how to solve this!

Another little side note. I had to use nine (9) pieces of equipment. Mic, mic stand, Audya, Audya stand, Accordion, accordion pedal, Ketron pedal, 2 CM-30s. And all that wire!! There’s got to be a better way!

Don P

Hi Don

That was a nice read. Do you have any youtube video that you can share with us? Would really like to hear and see the Ketron/Roland duo in action.....

Born in the Canadian Prairies, many,many moons ago, a necessity was to learn the accordion.....I was 14 years old and had 8 years of lessons...Haven't played in many,many years but I am sure that I can still play a mean "Beer Barrel Polka"

Ron

I heard everybody was making faces and obscene gestures at you, but you couldn't see them.

Seriously folks. . . I'm glad it went well. Guess I'm going to have to make the trip to your house again to hear the AJAM stuff.
DonM

Good luck Don with your new rig use it well..

Congratulations, Don - Glad everything went well for you. Who knows, this could end up being a regular job for you sometime in the not too distant future.

Gary

Hi Don P, if you are ever in the DFW/ North TX, let me know. I'd love meet up and check out your gear. Congrats and it sounded like a nice way to break in your in toy.

I've kind of got a slight case of gearlust for the FR1x, Don.

How are you getting on with your FR-7x? Have you tried an FR1x?

And I'd love to hear the FR/Audya combo. Must be nice!

Hi Ron, had intended to record a couple tunes but my Zoom Q3HD failed. I'm certain it was batteries. I hope to post something later.

There was one heckler I failed to mention; looked a lot like DonM! Hmmmm

DNJ and Gary, it was fun!

Paul, we get to DFW on occasions, we'll have to meet up!

Diki, I owned an FR-1X for a short time. Too small. A standard 72 bass accordion has 34 piano keys. For some reason Roland put only 26 on the FR-1X. I ran out of notes on both ends! It does have a big sound though.

I'm just looking for a guerrilla accordion, nothing too big. I like a lot of zydeco and cajun music, and most of that doesn't need a big range. Have you heard either of these, and does the FR1x have stops that do a good job imitating the cajun accordion http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cajun_accordion ?

That's a LOT more money for those extra keys, and I'm probably not going to use the bass side so much I need more than 72 bass buttons...

Are we talking FR-1X (piano) or FR-18 (diatonic)?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kguWIOg6VQs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqcTlv9_mBg

The stops on cajun accordions are really reed cancel switches. When open the reeds sound, when closed the reeds do not sound.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=rBHCMmfGTOA&feature=fvwp

There are no stops on the Roland as seen on the Cajun accordion. There are registers where you can change the voice and tone and duplicate a zydaco or Cajun accordion sound, but one really can't emulate the particular nuances of a diatonic from a non diatonic keyboard. IMO, you can come close, but there is a difference.

This guy is not bad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTGE-_AU5sM