Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: Mellotronists

<< I understand that most grand pianos used in show biz (stage shows, tv,
etc.) are really piano shaped shells with a Kurzweil or the equivalent
inside. >>

maybe in the US.... like that thing that paul shaeffer stands behind while
he's mumbling agreements with his boss, the one they call Letterman. the
grands we get in at mtv come from john henry's, usually, and have to have at
least three piano-wranglers and a tuner afterwards; they come separated from
their legs, in a huge padded fabric muff thing (wonder where that idea came
from...), and travel on their sides. once or twice now, it's been a
completely ordinary piano- a pricey one, mind, but ordinary. but most often
they send this midi'd-grand, which is still a real piano but with midi
generated by it's keyboard aswell as hammer movements, and a little
sequencer. I don't think they made many of these, I think it's a yamaha. I
mic'd one up once (mary chapin carpenter) with a pair of 414's, not knowing
that the things aren't reversible, with the working face of the mic facing
upwards onto the back of the piano lid, and had to add about 6dB of presence
to them...... well, they looked better that way up.

so I'm all ready to go with my relacing operation. I've decided to strip a
frame that has a split cello/string section on it, that we could never get
used to. it also has 8-voice choir and oboe. so I've dubbed off onto a revox
the entire cello and oboe at both 'tron speeds and will sample them
eventually. the oboe is remarkable- the entire 35 note range, for all 8
seconds of each note, varies in level by +/- 1.5dB at most. the pitch is
pretty good too, but I couldn't keep from laughing at the undignified effect
of the tapes running out during the note, especially with no reverb or
anything. always cracks me up. tonight I'll get started on fitting the new
tapes.

d/400nr1098 and a growing pile of revoxes.