> From: "Mark Wallis" <markstuartwallis@...>
> Sender: Mellotronists@yahoogroups.com
>
> Essentially - CONCEPTUALLY- it IS a Mellotron.
This must be a use of the word "conceptually" that I am unfamiliar
with.
> Everyone who wants to use the sounds- and it's the sounds that
> got us all in the first place- CAN in some form and the machine
> itself has a future.
Speak for yourself. No, the sounds didn't get us all here in the
first place; for me, the music got me here. There's a difference.
> Regarding the 'soul' aspect.. surely the sounds come from real
> live wowing/ fluttering tron tapes in the first place- and as far
> as I'm aware every note recorded onto the real live moving tapes
> in MY M400 has sat inside a computer at some point... so it's
> down to what you make of it.
That's the Casio-is-a-Steinway argument; it's all sound, we copy the
sound, therefore a Casio CONCEPTUALLY IS a Steinway. Yet remarkably,
a Casio is nothing like a Steinway.
You're abstracting out all the interesting stuff. The feedback from
the touch of the keyboard, the feel of the tape under the keys, the
ability to use pressure to control the dynamics, separate pressure
control for individual notes ("polyphonic aftertouch"), a direct
connection to the sound-making process as opposed to going through
that ridiculous midi protocol, the delightfully quirky behavior of the
tape handling mechanism, the relationship the musician has with the
instrument's intrinsic workings that inspires the music.
-- Don
--
Don Tillman
Palo Alto, California
don@...http://www.till.com