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A digital accordion is an electronic musical instrument that uses the control features of a traditional accordion (bellows, bass buttons for the left hand, and a small piano-style keyboard (or buttons) for the right hand, and register switches) to trigger a digital sound module that produces synthesized or digitally sampled accordion sounds or, in most instruments, a range of non-accordion sounds, such as orchestral instruments, pipe organ, piano, guitar, and so on. Digital accordions typically encode and transmit key presses and other input as Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) messages. Most digital accordions need to be plugged into a keyboard amplifier or PA system to hear their sounds.
Purely digital, reedless instruments are not to be confused with "accordion hybrids", which are a standard acoustic accordion with sensors for all the keys and buttons to interface with electronic sounds. This allows the instrument to be played totally acoustically, with no electronic sounds, or operated to just use the electronics, or used with a mix of acoustic and digital sounds. There are a myriad of sound combinations of acoustic and electronic sounds, which require a trained ear to play properly mixed sounds. These hybrids also require an amplifier and sound module, of which some models have said module mounted inside the acoustic instrument along with the reeds. (See Terminology below)