thanks guy, much appreciated. i currently have fl studio 8 with various plugins and i haven't been able to find anything that works but there are a lot of sounds to check out so i might have overlooked something. i noticed the sound canvas plugin has a synth calliope but it doesnt sound very realistic. funny you mention accordion eric because i already put some in he he. don't worry i didn't go for the "wierd al yankovic" style or anything like that. it would be great to have your mom collaborate on this kent. what i'm thinking is i'll flesh out what i have and then upload 2 versions- one with sampled accordion and one without. that way your mom can hear what its doing on the first version and she can play along with the second version duplicating anything she likes from the first track and/or playing something different altogether.