Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: Mellotronists

Hi All

A couple of questions came to me recently, and being a Virtual Mellotronists (I know,
lowest of the low) I don't have any practical knowledge, so maybe someone can help.

1) I'm guessing that when new tape sets are made these days, they're produced from a
digital recording of the original tape masters, rather than an analog-analog copy. If so,
does this have any discernible effect if, say, you were to run them at half-speed, or do a
Pinderesque "The Voyage" pitch bend? (Running my samples at half speed, or indeed
pitch-bending them to any degree produces an audible digital artifact, which just doesn't
sound "right". And pitch-bending at half-speed, well... ;) )

2) To what degree does the Mellotron itself colour the sound coming from the tapes? In
other words, if you were to put, say, Chamberlin 3 Violins and Cello voices onto Mellotron
tapes, and play it back, would it sound like a Chamberlin, or would it be coloured by the
Tron itself? (I'm aware that the Tron 3 Violins was copied from the Chamberlin 3 Violins,
but apparently not very well, hence the characteristic Tron sound for that voice.)

Forgive my ignorance - I'm saving pennies for the real thing...

Thanks in advance,

Owen