Closest to accordion
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Ofir, sorry for the confusion, I guess I did not understand your question. The first melodion on the video with Jacob V. Is the Suzuki Pro 37. The video is dark so I can the second melodion clearly. The third is the Andes, They are all Suzuki because Jacob V endorses Suzuki.
Melodica-MeAfter looking at the videos on a bigger screen the second melodion looks like the Suzuki M37C.
In order
1) Suzuki Pro 37
2) Suzuki M37c
3) Suzukie Andes (flute)
Melodica-MeThank you Melodica-Me.
By the way, could he got back to the Pro37 on 0:47? (also seems like going back to the blues structure as in the beginning)It’s good for me to see as many (identified) sources of different models played by different people (and recorded differently) in order to understand the whole picture.
Buying a musical instrument without trying it myself is a pain in the ***.
I would never consider buying a piano without checking it personally before; not just the brand and model, but the specific piece of instrument I’m about to get.Adding the Suzuki M37c in comparison with the Yamaha P37D, what are your thoughts?
Sound wise? responsiveness? expressiveness?
ThanksOfir, I don’t own either of those Melodicas but they both sound good on the videos I have seen. Daren gets a great sound from his Yamaha, I like Suzuki melodions, all My Hammond melodions are made by Suzuki and have a great keyboard response. Even my old Suzuki melodion sounds good.
Melodica-Me
Monsters of MelodicaHi Ofir,
I normally don’t like to give advice on instrument selection because tone and playability are very subjective things. However, let me offer a few observations in a balanced way so you can at least factor them in to your decision along with everyone’s comments.
First, ensure you can return your purchase in case it does not meet your expectations. Many places will not allow returns on melodicas, but some do. Amazon allowed me to return a $200+ Suzuki Pro37 V2 about 9 months ago.
Speaking of the Suzuki Pro37 V2. I bought one as mentioned above and in 20 minutes knew it was not the melodica for me. It was extremely brassy and bright, filled with high frequency harmonics. To me, it sounded more like a horn section than an accordion. Again, that was my subjective evaluation, and it comes from a guy who like his melodicas as dark sounding as possible. So take that into consideration.
The Pro37 V2 costs well over $200.
When I hear Jacob Venndt’s video, I have to wonder how much EQ was used to get the Pro37 V2 to sound that way. Some people may love the bright brash sound of the Suzuki Pro37 V2, but I do not see too many people talking about this particular instrument on the forum.
For every day, mid-quality melodicas, I generally prefer Suzuki’s over Yamahas. Though again, that is a personal choice and they both sound good. In this case, however, I would describe the Yamaha P-32D as having a rich yet precise sound, particularly when playing chords. Chords sound smooth on this instrument, yet they are still bright. The Yamaha P-32D is constructed with precision and is very responsive in terms of playability. It is, however, made almost entirely of plastic.
If I had to say which brand sounds most like an accordion (Hohner, Suzuki, or Yamaha), I would pick Yamaha, but it is a close call and once again very subjective. Others might easily and justifiably disagree.
I have never played a Suzuki M37c.
The Yamaha P-32D costs about a third as much as a Suzuki Pro37 V2.
As Melodica-me and Troy suggest above, all of these instruments can do the job. It is mostly matter of personal preference, which does not help you too much because you cannot test these instrument side-by-side before buying.
However, I hope some of my comments help you make an informed decision.
Regards,
Lowboy
Thank you Melodica-Me, I do agree that Daren sounds terrific on his Yamaha; but regardless of his beautiful playing and touch on the instrument, I often find myself trying to separate the unique character of the instrument from the recording/editing/mixing equipment.
Lowboy – that is TERRIFIC! Thank you so much for this post.
Considering the musical taste, it seems that (at least through what I understood from your post) we’re seeking for roughly the same thing; this is why I started by comparing the P37D with Angel Melodyhorn 37 (which sounded much darker on every video that I found); I also found an “Excalibur 37 Note Pro Artist Series” video (see on youtube) which did seemed like over-EQed to be true.
I will obviously take your advice of not keeping an instrument which doesn’t meet my taste. I ordered my Yamaha (on its way) from a Japanese seller via Amazon, therefore I guess that returning will be possible, if needed.
As the for the sound of the Suzuki’s on Jacob Venndt’s video, I must say that you do put a very nice light on a big dilemma that I had. I found a video comparing the Hohner, Yamaha and Suzuki 37 side by side (on a table), in which the Suzuki sounded too bright for me. Also in Daren’s 13 melodicas video, the Suzuki sounded brighter than the rest.
Then I found Jacob’s video, and all of a sudden the Suzuki’s were playing dark like an accordion.. You can understand why I got myself confused.
Your beautiful post compared the Suzuki 37 Pro with the Yamaha 32; will the same work for the 37?This is a very helpful post, and I really appreciate your inputs. Yes everyone’s taste is different, but in a situation where I don’t have the privilege of performing a side-by-side test, I must try and get as much info as I can so I can try and build an almost audible picture in my head.
Ofir
I would assume that the Yamaha 32 and 37 sound pretty close as I believe the use exactly the same design. One just has more keys. Lowboy
Ofir, just to be clear, my all time favorite brand of melodicas is Hohner, and I play Hohners almost exclusively now.
The only good Hohners are the old ones and they all are out of production. Fortunately, except for a couple of high-end limited-production models, all the old Hohner models are readily purchased on Ebay.
By the way, decades ago I performed as an accordion player at the Worlds Fair in Osaka, Japan.
Regards,
Lowboy
I read a lot about the Pro and Solist 36, buy only had a slight listening time on youtube due to lack of instruments (or at least the ones available didn’t stand a chance to the horrible playing).
Good for you for Japan 🙂 I’m selling albums constantly in Japan (my music is vastly distributed there), but I didn’t have the chance to tour Japan yet, probably some time next years.
This is just one article about my music in Japan (there are many):
https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=&sl=ja&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hmv.co.jp%2Fen%2Fnews%2Farticle%2F1311130019%2F&sandbox=1
Forgive Google translate for its only fair quality translation from Japanese.Ofir, I completely agree with you and I understand your concerns for finding the true sound of the instrument you want to purchase, unfortunately as you already know as someone involved in sound reproduction, even if you manage to capture the actual sound of the instrument in a controlled condition using the best equipment and recording it (Non-digital) to an analog format, in a control room that was properly equalized, your battle will ultimately start at the end users playback equipment ie. computer, Iphone, Ipad, car stereo and if fortunate a home stereo unit. I can never take what I hear on any digital platform (on-line especially) to produce the actual correct sound of the instrument being played. Don’t get me wrong, I love todays technology, unfortunately much is lost or changed in playback. I have learned to enjoy what I hear as a whole and not to single out instruments for sound but only for performance. I truly believe that you will find many melodicas that you will enjoy playing, a couple will become your favorites and some that you will really hate (I own a few) The most expensive melodica can sound bad if you don’t know how to play it correctly and the cheapest can sound great as long as you learn the instrument capabilities.
Melodica-MeFortunately, as I’m dealing with pro audio processing, I have a studio level equipment so I can evaluate things in the best way possible. Indeed, low quality videos performed lossy compression to the data, so publishing YouTube videos lower than 480p really harms quality, but 720p and above sounds good (equivalent to mp3 320kbps@44kHz).
Anyway, I’m experienced enough to expect the loss of quality, and to build the full picture in my head.By the way there are numerous methods I’m using in order to make mastering works that will sound the best also on portable devices with small, low quality headphones, without compromising terrific sound quality on hi-fi equipment.
I hope to hold as few instruments that I do not like, or else the metaphoric question ‘how many melodicas can I hold without my wife noticing that?’ will come to live 🙂 I certainly agree, the musician makes the instrument; any instrument.
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