Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: Mellotronists
Subject: Re: [Mellotronists] Trying to get "that" sound
From: kenmerb@...
Date: 2002-08-05
In a message dated 8/4/02 9:16:12 PM Eastern Daylight Time, rick@... writes:
Yes--although with mine I only have a small solid state monitor amp and
a very-crapped-out Warfdale (which Martin tells me is
somewhere in the Peaks District--they grow on trees found only there),
so I've run it through a Marshall stack and have gotten
pretty close to an "Ian McD moment."
Thanks, Rick. The sound I'm looking for is best represented in that audio clip from Gracious. It's difficult to describe a particular sound in words. I'm not talking about distortion - that's what comes to mind when I hear suggestions about running a mellotron through a Marshall stack. Sounds great on guitars, not so great on mellotrons. The first concert I ever went to was the Moodies back in 1972, and Mike Pinder must have been running his MKII through a stack of amps, because it was distorting like hell. I remember thinking, man - he's going to blow something. And when it distorted like that, it was really a bad sound. Now their albums - great mellotron sound ( the first seven at least ).
The sound Ian McD got on the song "Court of the Crimson King" was also a great mellotron sound, and thanks for your "recipe", straight from the horse's mouth. I've never heard that sound come out of my MKII, even when I play the right notes ;-). I guess recording this stuff is an art in itself - I'm just trying to get some pointers.
Rick (SFX 10030--Tubes? We don't need no stinking tubes!)
PS I've also gotten good results going directly into a good desk,
running the beast through a graphic EQ (rather than the usual
three bands on most mixing desk) and a good plate reverb. That's the way
we did the Devotion demo and I haven't heard much
to equal it...except about 9 or 10 other recordings...
This is encouraging. I'd really like to keep it inside the headphones.
Ken M.
( MKII #247 - let me blast already!)