On Mar 12, 2007, at 2:51 AM, bob_vandiver wrote:
Hi, my first post so please be gentle.
A couple of years ago (before I knew about this resource and others) I tried to duplicate
Tuesday Afternoon using the M-Tron and other instruments (don't ask). Work ground to a
stop when I tried to add the "oboe" sound. This was the Mellotron line that carried the
melody of the song, the answer to Justin's singing.
The problem was I could find no M-Tron sound that sounded remotely close to what I hear
on the record. The closest I could get was I think the sax patch, which makes some sense
because in headphones there actually is a sax sound in the left channel and the "oboe"
arises from that general part of the stereo spread. Does anybody know what Mike Pinder
actually did to get that oboe sound?
I can say that the M-Tron oboe sounds rather poor fidelity. Mike's sound did not sound
like the M-Tron does. It sounds like the tape was waundering off the center of the tape
head with dulling of the sound over the length of the note. The Moody oboe does not do
this and it has a much more percussive attack.
Anyone?
Thanks,
Bob Vandiver
Hi Bob,
Welcome!
If memory and ears serves, that's a real oboe played by Mssr. Ray Thomas. There was no mellotron oboe at that point, and in listening to the recording, it sounds to me like the real deal. The percussive sound is "key clack" because he must be squeezing the hell out of the poor thing. The pinched quality of the tone also leads me to that conclusion.
Hope this helps.
Rick
PS Ray plays oboe even worse that he does the flute...