Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: Mellotronists

I'm especially glad to hear Mr. Biro is appreciative of the
revitalized interest in his invention. It crossed my mind that if he
sunk a lot of money into this project and it bankrupted him, he'd be
reluctant to talk about it--chalking it up to a pipedream gone bad.
As I mentioned before, Dave Kean found him around 1992 in Florida,
stating that Biro was living in a trailer and just barely getting
enough $$ to get by.

I myself have entertained the notion of "inventing" a miniature
Mellotron about the size of a cheapo Magnus toy organ and utilizing
cassette tape and cassette tape heads. I thought about it being a
four track, but the trick would be to record the tracks in the same
direction, let alone the playback heads being available only in mono
and precise enough to align properly. At least with a two-track, you
could make your own tapes on any cassette recorder, left or right
channel. At least that way, you'd have control of attack. Then
there's the rack changing bit...it's got to be a bit simpler than
popping the lid and messing with the four thumbscrews. It'd have to
be some kind of cartridge plugin/pullout, snaps-into-place kind of
deal. The keyboard itself would need to be half-size, and that would
be difficult to play unless you have midget kiddie fingers. But then
again a lot of toy keyboards have two octaves within the space of a
foot across or so. Again, I want it it to be a toy and be small,
nothing too intimidating. Bakelite art deco chipboard crap design,
yes? I'd market this to Mattel, but I think they are still reeling
from their Optigan (ad)ventures...