Sorry if this is a very basic question but can someone tell me what a coupler is? I've been playing for over a year and always wondered what the difference between voices, couplers and stops are. I'd usually check on wikipedia to clear things up but nothing on there about accordions
A voice is one tone being projected. It refers to the vertical aspect of music. A single violin playing a single note at a time is one voice. A stop is a valve that turns different voices off and on. Stops are what makes the different sounds in pipe organs. One stop on is one "voice" so it will sound very thin and light especially if that stop corresponds to a "flute" voice on the organ. When an organ sounds full and rich, it is likely that the organist is playing with several stops on, so it sounds like many voices singing in unison. This is where the expression "pull out all the stops" comes from. I would guess a coupler is like a stop that reproduces a single voice, rather than traditional stops which all typically represent several distinct sounding voices. Is this thing electric or what? I would think twice before buying an electric accordion especially if it's a keyboard accordion...ugh!
A fiddle playing more than one note would also still be considered to be one voice but if you really think about it, each string on the fiddle really has it's own voice. Likewise, each reed on an accordion will have it's own tonal qualities. Depending on how the reeds were made and subsequently tuned some of your lower reeds can really sound like they are a different instrument than higher reeds. Also on my concertina for example, some of the duplicate pitches can sound slightly different in tone and have different applications in music, to be determined after many more years of playing the same instrument.
If you look at the above video, couplers are the two white buttons in the middle, on a paola soprani if you press one of the buttons it will probably have three voices (set of reeds for each note) the other will probably have four voices.
I think stops are generally on melodeons and they have the same function as a coupler, but perhaps each stop brings in a different set of reeds.
I am guessing that a stop controls one set of reeds, but a coupler controls multiple sets of reeds? Or perhaps coupler and stop are just two words for the same thing.
My little accordion has only one stop, which quiets the thirds in the chords on the left hand side. The right hand side has two voices, with no stops to control them.
The above answers are partially right but don't tell the whole story, in my view.
Couplers are the switches found on some accordions, like the Paolo Soprani in the video, that invoke different combinations of reeds. Depending on the accordion, you might have couplers to give you one, two, three, or even four voices.
Stops are "switches," too, but they operate one set of reeds and appear on the top of the accordion as knobs that are pulled up or pushed down to engage or disengage the reeds. They're not limited to melodeons: My three-voice (low/middle/middle) C#/D accordion has one stop that controls the low reed set on the right-hand side.
Some Irish-style boxes have one or two stops on the left-hand side to remove the thirds of chords and/or the low bass note (example: Saltarelle Nuage).
A look through the various models of two-row Irish-style accordions on http://www.buttonbox.com/button-accordions.html will give you a sense of the many possible configurations of switches and stops.
I think boxist has it right. Couplers and stops perform the same basic function of turning sets of reeds on or off, but couplers are conveniently located near the buttons where a flick of the finger can activate them on the fly, and stops are knobs that are on the top of the box and take some effort to pull out or push in, requiring a pause from playing. Or at least that's my understanding.
boxist and Gary have about explained it, sandwich, but in case it still isn't clear to you, when in comes to accordions, "reed" and "voice" are used interchangeably.
Each "voice" on an accordion will have its own complete set of reeds - one reed for every note the particular accordion is capable of sounding. Therefore, if you have an accordion with a 2-octave range (for instance, low G, two leger lines below the treble staff to high g sitting on top of the treble staff) capable of sounding all chromatic tones, one "voice" will have 24 metal reeds contained inside the casing. A similar two-voiced accordion will contain 48 reeds, etc. Each reed set is, in general, encased in its own wooden reed block which is mounted inside the casing of the instrument somewhat like each honeycomb in a commercial bee's hive. The more reed sets, the more weight. Also, the right-hand and left-hand sides of accordions each have their own individual reed sets. Some of those piano accordions with 41 treble keys, 120 bass buttons, and 5 voices on each hand can easily weigh over 30 pounds. I have a two voice B/C box that weighs in at something around 6-7 pounds.
The coupler is a device that mechanically enables different sets of reeds changing the sound. They are switches on the face typically on the middle the treble side of the accordion. more complex accordions where the instrument has multiple bass reed combinations may also have couplers on the bass side.
They were developed with the advances piano accordion technology.
That being said, they were adapted to more recent (relatively speaking) button boxes (eg notably Paolo Sopranis, and more recently the Irish Dancemasters) . The more traditional boxes/older boxes had manual switches (the knobs on the top of the box) that controlled an internal slide that blocks certain airways to different reeds accomplishing the same thing as a coupler. Most typical are the 'castrating switch on the bass side that strips out the third in the chord triad to allow either bass play with either minor or major chords (the first and the fifth of a triad which remain after 'castrating' are identical in major and m\inor chords) and slide swithes that add reeds to change the sound from say a MM to LMMH voices.
Basic accordion question
Basic accordion question
Sorry if this is a very basic question but can someone tell me what a coupler is? I've been playing for over a year and always wondered what the difference between voices, couplers and stops are. I'd usually check on wikipedia to clear things up but nothing on there about accordions
# Posted on May 12th 2011 by sandwich
Re: Basic accordion question
A voice is one tone being projected. It refers to the vertical aspect of music. A single violin playing a single note at a time is one voice. A stop is a valve that turns different voices off and on. Stops are what makes the different sounds in pipe organs. One stop on is one "voice" so it will sound very thin and light especially if that stop corresponds to a "flute" voice on the organ. When an organ sounds full and rich, it is likely that the organist is playing with several stops on, so it sounds like many voices singing in unison. This is where the expression "pull out all the stops" comes from. I would guess a coupler is like a stop that reproduces a single voice, rather than traditional stops which all typically represent several distinct sounding voices. Is this thing electric or what? I would think twice before buying an electric accordion especially if it's a keyboard accordion...ugh!
# Posted on May 12th 2011 by Earl Cameron
Re: Basic accordion question
A fiddle playing more than one note would also still be considered to be one voice but if you really think about it, each string on the fiddle really has it's own voice. Likewise, each reed on an accordion will have it's own tonal qualities. Depending on how the reeds were made and subsequently tuned some of your lower reeds can really sound like they are a different instrument than higher reeds. Also on my concertina for example, some of the duplicate pitches can sound slightly different in tone and have different applications in music, to be determined after many more years of playing the same instrument.
# Posted on May 12th 2011 by Earl Cameron
Re: Basic accordion question
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xBdo2uYTaI
If you look at the above video, couplers are the two white buttons in the middle, on a paola soprani if you press one of the buttons it will probably have three voices (set of reeds for each note) the other will probably have four voices.
I think stops are generally on melodeons and they have the same function as a coupler, but perhaps each stop brings in a different set of reeds.
# Posted on May 12th 2011 by Theirlandais
Re: Basic accordion question
I meant to say if you press one of the couplers..
# Posted on May 12th 2011 by Theirlandais
Re: Basic accordion question
I am guessing that a stop controls one set of reeds, but a coupler controls multiple sets of reeds? Or perhaps coupler and stop are just two words for the same thing.
My little accordion has only one stop, which quiets the thirds in the chords on the left hand side. The right hand side has two voices, with no stops to control them.
# Posted on May 12th 2011 by AlBrown
Re: Basic accordion question
The above answers are partially right but don't tell the whole story, in my view.
Couplers are the switches found on some accordions, like the Paolo Soprani in the video, that invoke different combinations of reeds. Depending on the accordion, you might have couplers to give you one, two, three, or even four voices.
Stops are "switches," too, but they operate one set of reeds and appear on the top of the accordion as knobs that are pulled up or pushed down to engage or disengage the reeds. They're not limited to melodeons: My three-voice (low/middle/middle) C#/D accordion has one stop that controls the low reed set on the right-hand side.
Some Irish-style boxes have one or two stops on the left-hand side to remove the thirds of chords and/or the low bass note (example: Saltarelle Nuage).
A look through the various models of two-row Irish-style accordions on http://www.buttonbox.com/button-accordions.html will give you a sense of the many possible configurations of switches and stops.
# Posted on May 12th 2011 by boxist
Re: Basic accordion question
I think boxist has it right. Couplers and stops perform the same basic function of turning sets of reeds on or off, but couplers are conveniently located near the buttons where a flick of the finger can activate them on the fly, and stops are knobs that are on the top of the box and take some effort to pull out or push in, requiring a pause from playing. Or at least that's my understanding.
# Posted on May 13th 2011 by GaryAMartin
Re: Basic accordion question
boxist and Gary have about explained it, sandwich, but in case it still isn't clear to you, when in comes to accordions, "reed" and "voice" are used interchangeably.
# Posted on May 13th 2011 by ∅
Re: Basic accordion question
Each "voice" on an accordion will have its own complete set of reeds - one reed for every note the particular accordion is capable of sounding. Therefore, if you have an accordion with a 2-octave range (for instance, low G, two leger lines below the treble staff to high g sitting on top of the treble staff) capable of sounding all chromatic tones, one "voice" will have 24 metal reeds contained inside the casing. A similar two-voiced accordion will contain 48 reeds, etc. Each reed set is, in general, encased in its own wooden reed block which is mounted inside the casing of the instrument somewhat like each honeycomb in a commercial bee's hive. The more reed sets, the more weight. Also, the right-hand and left-hand sides of accordions each have their own individual reed sets. Some of those piano accordions with 41 treble keys, 120 bass buttons, and 5 voices on each hand can easily weigh over 30 pounds. I have a two voice B/C box that weighs in at something around 6-7 pounds.
# Posted on May 13th 2011 by pbassnote
Re: Basic accordion question
The coupler is a device that mechanically enables different sets of reeds changing the sound. They are switches on the face typically on the middle the treble side of the accordion. more complex accordions where the instrument has multiple bass reed combinations may also have couplers on the bass side.
They were developed with the advances piano accordion technology.
That being said, they were adapted to more recent (relatively speaking) button boxes (eg notably Paolo Sopranis, and more recently the Irish Dancemasters) . The more traditional boxes/older boxes had manual switches (the knobs on the top of the box) that controlled an internal slide that blocks certain airways to different reeds accomplishing the same thing as a coupler. Most typical are the 'castrating switch on the bass side that strips out the third in the chord triad to allow either bass play with either minor or major chords (the first and the fifth of a triad which remain after 'castrating' are identical in major and m\inor chords) and slide swithes that add reeds to change the sound from say a MM to LMMH voices.
Hope that helps.
# Posted on May 13th 2011 by zippydw
Re: Basic accordion question
And I am using voices and different reed set references interchangeably
# Posted on May 13th 2011 by zippydw
Re: Basic accordion question
shand morino (with cassotto) = 3-4 stone
roland v2 (no reeds) = 2 kg
# Posted on May 20th 2011 by geoffwright