Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: Mellotronists

Something to do with translating
the performance of some instrument, like say a saxophone, to a keyboard,
and allowing the player to create a sound that couldn't have been
created by the original sax player. One finger, one sax. Three fingers,
three saxes. Keyboards articlulate and blend sounds in a completely
different way than one or three sax players.

Good point here.  I always wondered about this, and how one uses the properties of the (Mellotron) keyboard to create a unique sound.  For example, would a flute player be able to play the intro to "Strawberry Fields" as easily on a flute? Never having played a wind instrument, I don't know, but I suspect that the note patterns normally played on a flute or sax would be different than the note patterns played on a keyboard, because things are laid out differently on each instrument.  Same thing with the violins.  This leads to the original sounds, but being played in a completely different way.

Regarding Aimee Mann and Patrick Warren, excellent choice. I saw Aimee Mann in concert about a month or so ago in Portland, Maine, and she was great.  Excellent singing, songwriting, the band was the best.  No Chamberlin on stage, but the keyboard player was right on the money, and the guitarist was even better.  I bought her new "Lost in Space" CD which features both Patrick Warren and the guitar player (can't recall his name) on Chamberlin.  The cellos on "Humpty Dumpty" sound just like they do on our M400s (as KL pointed out - another fan).  There's Chamberlin on almost every song on the CD.

Ken M.