The Mellotron
Posted by: Neill S on 22 March 2005
I love The sound of The Mellotron and therefore love The Moody Blues.
What say you people?
What say you people?
Posted on: 02 April 2005 by Martin D
Posted on: 02 April 2005 by fred simon
quote:Originally posted by Steve2701:
For me they make a truly beautifull sound, as do most of the original 'analogue' synths and sequencers.
Just to be clear, sequencers don't make inherent sound; they send instructions (which pitch, duration, velocity, etc.) to a sound making device (synth keyboard or module, which could be analogue, digital, hybrid, or virtual).
Posted on: 07 April 2005 by domfjbrown
Quick question - I'm (very!) trying to get Cubase knowledge, and am wandering - how much is the Mellotron plug in? It'd be great to use on a psy-trance track - I have an idea in my head and a Mellotron would fit really well on it...
Now if I could only stop playing GTA Vice City, get a library book, and start damn-well producing said tune it'd help...!
Now if I could only stop playing GTA Vice City, get a library book, and start damn-well producing said tune it'd help...!
Posted on: 08 April 2005 by Stephen Bennett
quote:Originally posted by domfjbrown:
Quick question - I'm (very!) trying to get Cubase knowledge, and am wandering - how much is the Mellotron plug in?
It's @ £50 plus there's some extra sounds you can buy.
Check out http://www.gmediamusic.com/
Regards
Stephen
Posted on: 09 April 2005 by Neill S
quote:Originally posted by domfjbrown:
Quick question - I'm (very!) trying to get Cubase knowledge, and am wandering - how much is the Mellotron plug in? It'd be great to use on a psy-trance track - I have an idea in my head and a Mellotron would fit really well on it...
Now if I could only stop playing GTA Vice City, get a library book, and start damn-well producing said tune it'd help...!
I use M-Tron with Logic 7... I bought the boxed version with all three extra tape banks. If you ever happen to be travelling and catch The World Review on BBC World, I used Mellotron choir on the theme music. Mellotrons can add so much to music.
Just listening to Moby's latest album 'Hotel' Tracks 14 and 15 are using loads of Mellotron strings.
Posted on: 09 April 2005 by Neill S
quote:Originally posted by bhazen:quote:Originally posted by Neill S:
I love The sound of The Mellotron and therefore love The Moody Blues.
What say you people?
Neill S - you da man!
I recently bought a DTS 5.1 mix DVD-Audio disc of "Days of Future Passed" just so I could hear the Mellotron better...which you can!! It's mainly in the rear right speaker, for those of you playing the game at home. Mike Pinder, the Moodies' keyboard player, worked for Mellotron before getting one in the Moodies! He customised his Mark II with two sets of lead tapes (as opposed to the usual arrangement of a set of accompaniment tapes in the left manual, and lead instruments [violins, cellos, brass, oboe etc.] in the right).
I believe the first major use of the Mellotron was as a foley device for BBC series like "Dr. Who". Its history dates back to the 50's, initially a keyboard invented by a guy named Harry Chamberlin. Chamberlin keyboards are still around; people like producer Jon Brion, Michael Penn, Crowded House and Aimee Mann featured them on their albums*. The Chamberlin was a more hi-fi, realistic-sounding instrument; a cleverly mixed recording (like "Into Temptation" by Crowded House) with Chamberlin can fool you into thinking the artist sprung for a string quartet to play!
However, I prefer the 'Tron; there's a psychic shiver I get when I hear one on a record (partic the string sound) that no other keyboard gives you. The crescendo in "Epitaph" by King Crimson...wow. "The Voyage" by the Moody Blues; the instrumental coda to "Starless", off Red; "Out and In" from To Our Childrens Childrens Children (my favourite Mellotron track ever)...
*also Seventh Sojourn by the Moodies.
Hey!
To Our Childrens Childrens Children is a fantastic album, I just could not work out how he got those sounds - I've tried reverb and all sorts! I even asked Justin Hayward who said he couldn't remember just that the damn thing was so unreliable and difficult to record.
What album is Epitaph by King Crimson on?
Posted on: 09 April 2005 by Neill S
quote:Originally posted by bhazen:
Gazing Past the Planets...quote:Originally posted by Neill S:quote:"Out and In" from To Our Childrens Childrens Children (my favourite Mellotron track ever)...
What an amazing track! I love the Mellotron sound in that... Was it the Tron? Is that a Mellotron with half speed tapes?
Neill,
I believe it was just standard string samples, with judicious use of echo chamber placing the sound in "space" at the back of the stereo image. You may be thinking of the previous instrumental track, "Beyond", which has all sorts of 'Tron action in the surreal interludes, including half speed effects, and a lovely "Strawberry Fields"-type flute-tapes bit. Mike Pinder was also a master of using the pitch knob for swooping portamento effects (done all over the seven psychedelic-era Moodies albums, as on these tracks).quote:We did used to use a Mellotron for Sound FX at the BBC - There was one at Pebble Mill until recently I'm told...
Where's Pebble Mill? Is that one of the BBC production facilities? I'd love to visit someday!
As regards the Moodies, it's terribly unfashionable to admit to liking them these days; their concerts are the province of greying, tie-dyed 60's children (er, like myself). However, the other day I was at a hip used-record store in one of Seattle's artsy neighborhoods, and the tattoed, body-pierced (young) employees were playing "On the Threshold of a Dream" over the music system(!!)
I suppose I love their music because, along with reflecting 60's personal & spiritual aspirations (much like the Beatles did), their music is free of irony and has a kind of timeless yearning quality. Very human, in other words.
Also...get ready for the release (hopefully this year) of re-mastered, stereo and 5.1 surround versions(!) ot the classic seven albums.
Hey!
Thanks for the info! Ive tried loads of different ways to get my M-Tron to sound like Pinder's in a lot of Moodies stuff, I've pretty much got close to "Watching and Waiting" standards in Logic 7 now.
I do think the Moody Blues are still popular in the States and are played on Radio and in bars still. I was in SF not so long ago in a bar full of young people and they were playing "You and Me" from Seventh Sojourn.
Pebble Mill has closed now and the BBC has moved out. It was a large BBC Regional Centre in Birmingham. I didn't work there very often as I'm based in London.
I'm definately looking forward to the new releases of the first seven albums by Polydor. Justin Hayward says they are much closer to the orginal albums in sound than the later Remasters...
Neill
Posted on: 09 April 2005 by bhazen
Neill -
Amazing how excited I can get in a thread about something I really care about!
"Epitaph" is track 3 on In the Court of the Crimson King; An Observation by King Crimson; that's an absolute must-have 'Tron album.
The Roland XP-10 (I think; I can never remember model numbers; it's from a few years ago) has 3-4 Mellotron sounds onboard. I may try and find one for sale cheap.
Saving up for those remasters...
Bruce
Amazing how excited I can get in a thread about something I really care about!
"Epitaph" is track 3 on In the Court of the Crimson King; An Observation by King Crimson; that's an absolute must-have 'Tron album.
The Roland XP-10 (I think; I can never remember model numbers; it's from a few years ago) has 3-4 Mellotron sounds onboard. I may try and find one for sale cheap.
Saving up for those remasters...
Bruce
Posted on: 11 April 2005 by Stephen Bennett
quote:Originally posted by bhazen:
Neill -
The Roland XP-10 (I think; I can never remember model numbers; it's from a few years ago) has 3-4 Mellotron sounds onboard. I may try and find one for sale cheap.
Bruce
The good 'tron sounds on the XP/JV series are on the 'Vintage keyboards' expansion board - so get that if you can. I use an XP50 live for all my Tron/Rhodes/Hammond/Wurly sounds.
Gone are the days of back-breaking split Hammond carrying. I used to live in a single small room in a small house and I had to sleep on a mattress on top of a Hammond C3 and Fender Rhodes......
Stephen
Posted on: 11 April 2005 by bhazen
quote:Originally posted by Stephen Bennett:
Gone are the days of back-breaking split Hammond carrying. I used to live in a single small room in a small house and I had to sleep on a mattress on top of a Hammond C3 and Fender Rhodes......
Stephen
As someone who played in several '70s bands with B3s, Leslies etc., I fully empathise; in fact, emulating Hammonds well is one of the wonderful features of modern synths. Or at least this has been my belief; I did an improv gig recently with a great Hammond player, and the sound he got with an L100 and Leslie 145 really took my breath away. Kind of like the difference some people hear between CD and vinyl.
If it was my back on the line though, it'd be a synth!
Posted on: 12 April 2005 by Stephen Bennett
quote:Originally posted by bhazen:
[
As someone who played in several '70s bands with B3s, Leslies etc., I fully empathise; in fact, !
Who did you play with?
I'd always use the real think if possible/someone else was carrying!
Just looked at your profile. Pataphysics? You're not Mike Ratledge (Soft Machine) are you? He used a Lowrey I think.....
Stephen
Posted on: 12 April 2005 by bhazen
quote:Originally posted by Stephen Bennett:
Who did you play with?
Just looked at your profile. Pataphysics? You're not Mike Ratledge (Soft Machine) are you? He used a Lowrey I think.....
Stephen
How I wish I could've been in the Soft Machine scene!
The bands with Hammonds you wouldn't have heard of; Mark Robertson, the keyboard player for one prog band I was in (Christmas...how I hated that name!), went on to play in a 90's "New Wave of Prog" band called Cairo (from San Francisco), who were sort of ELP/Genesis-inspired. My brief stint of notoriety was as guitarist with David Surkamp and Doug Rayburn (Pavlov's Dog) in a Seattle band called Hi-Fi (how prophetic for my future hobby!), and later (in London) with Iain Matthews (ex-Fairport Convention).
To fully exhaust my name-dropping, Alan White (Yes) lives two blocks up the road from me; I sometimes see him mowing his lawn or whatever!
Posted on: 12 April 2005 by fred simon
quote:Originally posted by bhazen:
My brief stint of notoriety was as guitarist with David Surkamp and Doug Rayburn (Pavlov's Dog) in a Seattle band called Hi-Fi (how prophetic for my future hobby!), and later (in London) with Iain Matthews (ex-Fairport Convention).
Well, Bruce, then we have something special in common ... Iain is also a friend and colleague of mine. He signed me to Windham Hill Records in 1987, and sang on my album Usually/Always. I also arranged, composed, and played on his Windham Hill album of Jules Shear's songs, Walking A Changing Line. Love the musician, love the man.
Posted on: 12 April 2005 by jayd
Posted on: 13 April 2005 by bhazen
Cheers Fred...if you are in touch w. Iain, pls. give him my regards! I'm a bit out of, he's living in Holland I think. I'm still in Seattle, but musically inactive at the moment. I'll look out for one of your CDs!
Posted on: 18 April 2005 by Neill S
quote:Originally posted by bhazen:
Neill -
Amazing how excited I can get in a thread about something I really care about!
"Epitaph" is track 3 on In the Court of the Crimson King; An Observation by King Crimson; that's an absolute must-have 'Tron album.
The Roland XP-10 (I think; I can never remember model numbers; it's from a few years ago) has 3-4 Mellotron sounds onboard. I may try and find one for sale cheap.
Saving up for those remasters...
Bruce
Hey Bruce
I bought In The Court Of Crimson King and love it! Any other recommendations from them?
Cheers
Neill
Posted on: 18 April 2005 by bhazen
Glad you like it!
Well, from the perspective of Mellotron usage, the next two (In the Wake of Poseidon and Lizard) will surely float your boat; the track "Starless" (from Red) will blow your mind, as we used to say.
Well, from the perspective of Mellotron usage, the next two (In the Wake of Poseidon and Lizard) will surely float your boat; the track "Starless" (from Red) will blow your mind, as we used to say.
Posted on: 18 April 2005 by Stephen Bennett
quote:Originally posted by bhazen:
Glad you like it!
Well, from the perspective of Mellotron usage, the next two (In the Wake of Poseidon and Lizard) will surely float your boat; the track "Starless" (from Red) will blow your mind, as we used to say.
Both 'Rad' and 'Starless and Bible Black' are Mellotronic delights.
As are the Popul Vuh albums.
And Ange.....
The score to Sofia Coppola's Virgin Suicides by Air has a lot of 'tron (possibly fake, but nice nonetheless)
Regards
Stephen
Posted on: 22 April 2005 by Neill S
quote:Originally posted by Stephen Bennett:quote:Originally posted by bhazen:
Glad you like it!
Well, from the perspective of Mellotron usage, the next two (In the Wake of Poseidon and Lizard) will surely float your boat; the track "Starless" (from Red) will blow your mind, as we used to say.
Both 'Rad' and 'Starless and Bible Black' are Mellotronic delights.
As are the Popul Vuh albums.
And Ange.....
The score to Sofia Coppola's Virgin Suicides by Air has a lot of 'tron (possibly fake, but nice nonetheless)
Regards
Stephen
Hey Stephen
It wouldn't surprise me if it was a real Tron but the M-Tron is very convincing.
He's Simple, He's dumb - Track 1 of Grandaddy's The Sophtware Slump has some amazing Mellotron going on...
Posted on: 18 May 2005 by bhazen
Listening to random music on KEXP (Seattle's "Indie" station, 90.3 FM) I'm hearing a lot of 'Tron, or samples of same, in the cutting-edge music of today.
BTW, for the Moody Blues fans subscribing to this thread, a new DVD appears end of May, "Live at Montreux", from the early 90's. (There was an ELP DVD recently from the same Montreux Jazz Fest series.) Mellotron sounds will be virtual.
BTW, for the Moody Blues fans subscribing to this thread, a new DVD appears end of May, "Live at Montreux", from the early 90's. (There was an ELP DVD recently from the same Montreux Jazz Fest series.) Mellotron sounds will be virtual.