The Mike Pinder CD is probably the best source for these sounds. M Tron and SampleTron are good but there's sometimes too much processing, or the original sound sources were damaged or inaccurately recorded. It comes down to the laws of physics with magnetic tape - which is too long a subject.
The problem with samples is that they are always someone else's interpretation of what a Mellotron or related keyboard sounds like - a subjective thing.
In my experience, samples are totally useful when you can't get ahold of the real thing, when your audience is ignorant or doesn't care, and when you are going to use them 'in the mix'.
But if you want Mellotron sounds as a featured instrument, then there's no replacement for a real Mellotron, or any other Mellotron related keyboard.
If samples were a complete replacement, Streetly and Mellotron wouldn't be in business making new machines, and you wouldn't have someone paying $10,363.00 for the Chamberlin M1 on Ebay.
On Tue, Apr 26, 2011 at 12:21 AM, Mike Dickson
<mike.dickson@gmail.com> wrote:
On 25/04/2011 14:39, william Beith wrote:
Can anyone comment on the Canadian Mellotron company, the Mike Pinder sample CD, and its use in a Kurzweil K2000? I have a band due in the studio next month who want some Mellotron sounds and I can not afford a Mellotron at this time.
Put it this way -
it's better than having nothing at all...but it's not great. I only heard the samples recently and I found a lot of them having some weird EQ issues. If you're just looking for the usual suspects then it's okay (though the choir sounds pretty poor to me. Also be suspicious of the 'tuned' sets. They are no more tuned than the originals in many cases!
Mike