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Subject: Re: [newmellotrongroup] Re: OT- NAMM 2011

From: Hessel Herder <hessel@soundscape.nl>
Date: 2011-01-22

It seems to me that, for any device claiming to have authentic MELLOTRON sounds onboard, capturing the MELLOTRON medium (tape! ) and capturing the characteristic replay mechanism is very important and indeed  what many buyers would expect to hear from this device




Op 22 jan. 2011 om 18:18 heeft "Charles" <charel196@yahoo.com> het volgende geschreven:

 

not a valid comparison...a guitar relies on the wood and strings for sound. The Mellotron doesn't rely on it's cabinet. Does the plexiglass tron sound different from the wooden ones?
The M4000D is a DIGITAL MELLOTRON....not a tape playback Mellotron...but is entitled to the name nonetheless IMO since it is an offspring of the line of instruments. As far as tuning & denoising etc. ruining or changing the sound....aren't these the very things people have bitched about for decades. Now someone fixes them and you bitch about that! (shakes head....walking away....smiling)
Markus could offer non tuned/non-denoised versions of the sounds as an option.And if you can detect the missing bits of analog tape sound in the digital version you must have super hearing.
Yeah...the Classic Keys sounds aren't good. The E4K/Pinder CD sounds as accurate as I need. I even have samples from my old 400 in it (hissy & out of tune) every note sampled full length, non looped.

--- In newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com, lsf5275@... wrote:
>
> Charles,
>
> Suppose you make a wooden thing with a neck and buttons on it instead of
> strings. All of the sounds are digitized and you press buttons to get the
> sounds. Is it a Guitar? It looks like a guitar, but is it a guitar? No. A
> Mellotron or Chamberlin were TAPE playback machines. Just because you make
> something that kinda looks like one and plays digital representations of the
> original tape samples doesn't make them one.
>
>
>
>
> In a message dated 1/22/2011 8:48:18 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,
> charel196@... writes:
>
>
>
>
> I just don't get all this "it's not a Mellotron" talk....the digital unit
> is a logical progression from tape replay and Ill bet Harry Chamberlin would
> have moved into this area if he were alive now. The whole point was
> playing instrument sounds on a keyboard, not the tape technology (which was the
> only method available)
> If all sounds are from original tapes and only last 8 seconds and are the
> best digital representations that can be done, personally to me it's a new
> Mellotron.It's the offspring of the tape machine. So what that it doesn't
> use Chamberlin heads etc. With EQ'ing and processing I imagine you can get
> near 1000% close.
> Heck I have used samples on my albums (from my EMU E4K, EMAX 1, and
> CLASSIC KEYS) sometimes on the same songs I used my real M400 (when I had it) and
> I defy anyone to tell me which is which. And the E4K was using the Pinder
> CD. The M4000D samples are said to be way beyond the Pinder CD in quality.
> I think it's totally anal to hang on to tape playback technology as the
> only thing that can be called "Mellotron" or "Chamberlin". The 4000D is just a
> new and different model in the family tree....made by the people who own
> the name and masters.
>