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

Hey kids,

As some of you might know I am a fan of the whole optical family. The Orchestron, the Optigan and the Chilton Talentmaker. I realize that maybe it isnt everybodys idea of a good time but all three instruments are great tools in the studio and have become a integral part of my setup....but when it comes to quality you are all right. In comparison to the Mellotron the Orchestron may not be a clear and Hi fi but on the other hand the Orchestron and its cousins with the added noise and crackles bring something else to a production. As soon as you show someone the instruments they all say “ Its sounds like an old black and white movie.”  What I do is that I always double track it and use a fair amount of spring reverb.

Pea hicks has also added some new sounds like the tremolo electric guitar  and marimba rolls that are really great.

Anyways.

Youve probably all seen it before...

But here is a video from my all Optigan/orchestron/mellotron band AK-momo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccnO487xIAw

The main string sound melody is from the Orchestron.

// Mattias




Den 2011-02-02 01.31, skrev "lsf5275@aol.com" <lsf5275@aol.com>:

 
 
   

It looks and sounds like an amazing piece of shit, doesn't it? I can't imagine Pat Moraz could have ever been remotely thrilled with it, even though he had a really jazzy one. The more I see and hear them the less I want one. In fact, I sooo don't want one at this point, I really want Nancy Pelosi to have one. And I want it to sound just like Pea Hicks'.
 
In a message dated 2/1/2011 6:19:42 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, charel196@yahoo.com writes:

  
 

In the Pea Hicks video when he's demo'ing the Orchestron, the violins disc  sounds a lot like they sampled Mellotron violins too me. I thought I read long  ago that Vako used a Mellotron to make some of the discs.

--- In newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com <mailto:newmellotrongroup%40yahoogroups.com> ,  Chris Dale <unobtainiumkeys@...> wrote:
>
> Orchestrons can  made to sound really good (different than a Mellotron) by
> using what  you describe below.
>
> Vako never had the budget for the laser  reader and it was nothing bnut
> marketing. I have stickers on my that  say it's read by lasers but it's
> nonsense.
>
> There were  suppsedly some glass test discs made but those broke easy and
> they  stuck to the Optigan format.
> All of the discs stacked in one system  would have been a good idea too!!
>
>
>
>
>  On Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 4:40 PM, Charles <charel196@...> wrote:
>  
> >
> >
> > After watching several Youtube videos  of Orchestron playing (like Pea
> > Hicks' recent posting) I am  amazed no one ever seems to use a volume pedal
> > on the thing and a  good long delay/reverb to get more realistic swells & cut
> >  offs & smoothing over the loop glitches. I think those things might  sound
> > good if properly played with a pedal & run thru some  noise filtering.
> > I wonder if Vako had had the budget to use  higher quality technology (like
> > a laser for reading the discs,  better motors and audio circuitry, and
> > thicker and more rigid  records instead of the flimsy Optigan discs) what the
> > result  might have been? An Orchestron could have been built with all the
> >  sound/optical records placed stacked in a seperate cabinet never having  to
> > be touched and accessed remotely by a master control  keyboard.
> >
> >
> >
>