Post by Tony Ravenscroft on Feb 18, 2023 14:21:53 GMT -6
In the past few years - largely due to the popularity of Jon Batiste on The Late Show - the melodica has achieved some degree of popularity.
My problem with the darn things is breath control. For more-proficient keyboardists, there's also the fact that it is pretty much a one-handed instrument, and of limited range.
For a few years, Hohner solved all this with their Electra-Melodica: 36 keys, and set up like a standard keyboard.
Now, let's be honest: this sounds like a "chord organ" much as produced by Magnus and the like, which in turn is a small accordion with a motor replacing the bellows.
But like many of Hohner's designs, this has a few twists. Here, the Electra-Melodica isn't actually a reed instrument. It is still breath-controlled - the tube goes into the left end - with air pushing a little bellows in front of a photocell to control volume. The keyboard part is actually a monophonic synthesizer, with six tone-color switch buttons, a switchable bandpass filter and the strangely-named "Do-Wah Wau-Wau" wah-type effect, and a vibrato (with adjustable frequency range and amplitude). The overall tuning could be adjusted (though why there are TWO knobs for this still puzzles me) and the range could be adjusted in five steps, giving it an effective eight-octave range.
As with so many Hohner oddities, this didn't sell well, and when found in good condition seems to fetch in the $1,500-$2,000 range.
The external power supply is quite chunky, but appears to be wonderfully over-engineered to take on pretty much any mains power on Earth.
It all packs up (with cables and mouthpieces) into a rather handsome case.
My problem with the darn things is breath control. For more-proficient keyboardists, there's also the fact that it is pretty much a one-handed instrument, and of limited range.
For a few years, Hohner solved all this with their Electra-Melodica: 36 keys, and set up like a standard keyboard.
Now, let's be honest: this sounds like a "chord organ" much as produced by Magnus and the like, which in turn is a small accordion with a motor replacing the bellows.
But like many of Hohner's designs, this has a few twists. Here, the Electra-Melodica isn't actually a reed instrument. It is still breath-controlled - the tube goes into the left end - with air pushing a little bellows in front of a photocell to control volume. The keyboard part is actually a monophonic synthesizer, with six tone-color switch buttons, a switchable bandpass filter and the strangely-named "Do-Wah Wau-Wau" wah-type effect, and a vibrato (with adjustable frequency range and amplitude). The overall tuning could be adjusted (though why there are TWO knobs for this still puzzles me) and the range could be adjusted in five steps, giving it an effective eight-octave range.
As with so many Hohner oddities, this didn't sell well, and when found in good condition seems to fetch in the $1,500-$2,000 range.
The external power supply is quite chunky, but appears to be wonderfully over-engineered to take on pretty much any mains power on Earth.
It all packs up (with cables and mouthpieces) into a rather handsome case.