Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: The Mellotron Group

If you make a digital "violin" that plays back violin samples is it a violin? The very nature of what makes a Mellotron a Mellotron is that it plays tapes. Markus' machine has the name Mellotron on it because he has the right to put that name on anything he so chooses. He could build a guitar and put Mellotron on the head stock and we would know it as a "Mellotron" Guitar. In this case, he has put the name "Mellotron" on a DIGITAL sample playback machine that shares nothing else in common with a real Mellotron except wooden keys that are dimensionally similar and a shape that is reminiscent of the top of a M400. I am not degrading Markus' machine, I would love to have one. I am merely pointing out that it is no more a Mellotron than the Memotron is.

 

If Harry Chamberlin were alive today and made a digital sample playback machine that played his samples or any other samples and put his name on it we would call it a Chamberlin "..." but it would not be the same thing. "Mellotron" is not just a name owned by David Kean, it is a kind of thing. The fact that Streetly makes such a machine that doesn't use the name but is one none the less supports this position. People look at it and buy it and play it and if you ask them what it is they'll tell you it's a Mellotron

 

If I want to play any other sound than those Markus sells for his digital machine I can't unless I hack the software or find some other way of sneaking different sounds into it. The nature of a Mellotron is such that there is no limit to what sounds I can put into it. If they can be put on tape, I can play them.

 

If I make a frame from scratch that substantially duplicates the original, duplicate the original keyboard, make a preamp, line amp and controls like a Mellotron and get a Mellotron tape frame, then I put the whole mess in a white cabinet shaped like an M400, everyone who looks at it and hears it will say, "that's a Mellotron."

 

We could go on and on Charles, and while I respect your opinion, we'll have to disagree. I'm right and you're wrong. Nyah!