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Subject: Re: [newmellotrongroup] Re: M4000D nice review with photos

From: john barrick <barrickjohn262@gmail.com>
Date: 2011-07-20

This is getting silly.  Look, there's a big difference between the playback on a tron or chamby and the final, locked in sound of a finished recording that's been put together by the artist and/or producer.
If you were a guitarist, would you want a guitar that played the same note the same way, every time, no matter how differently you plucked and fretted the string?  Well, maybe if you were in Kraftwerk...
A guitar is actually a bad example, but the a whole part of the sound is the variance that occurs on playback of a note due to the electro-mechanical process.

On Wed, Jul 20, 2011 at 11:24 AM, feline1973 <feline1@feline1.co.uk> wrote:
 

Yeah,
and I bet you never buy records or CDs,
cos they sound the same every time you play them -
it's kinda lacking in soul compared to going to a gig.



--- In newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com, lsf5275@... wrote:
>
> You can take the M4000D and manipulate it to be idiosyncratic in certain
> ways. But those idiosyncrasies will be the same to every sound. The
> character of a Mellotron is derived from how it plays its tapes, variances from
> frame to frame, tape age, keyboard adjustment, etc. It makes each one unique.
> Every M4000D will be exactly like every other one. Not a bad thing really,
> but a little soulless. When I think of a Mellotron, I think of a tape
> replay machine. The Mellotron sounds that come out of an iPad are no different
> except the way they are accessed. The sampling rate may be different but the
> concept is the same.The iPad delivers the sounds but imparts no character
> to them.
>
>
> In a message dated 7/19/2011 8:37:30 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
> tron400@... writes:
>
>
>
>
> Looks like my last reply didn't make it.
>
> The last frame I bought has tuned Cello/M400 Violins/Flute. Sure, the
> Violins are MkII Violins EQ'd for the M400, but the EQ, as well as the tuning,
> was done by Streetly, so there's a degree of authenticity there (like 100%).
>
> I'd love to play around with an M4000D for a few days. It seems to be a
> practical machine for those who don't want to own a tape replay machine and a
> good supplement to an M400. But I don't think electronics can ever
> accurately imitate the electromechanical idiosyncracies of a Mellotron.
>
> Bernie
>
> --- In _newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com_
> (mailto:newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com) , "Charles" <charel196@> wrote:
> >
> > so if you bought a new tape rack and played an E Major chord and the
> fifth was recorded out of tune, you'd prefer that over buying a digital unit
> with all the notes properly tuned and de-noised?
> > Even your Mellotron library was recorded and EQ'd with someone else's
> idea of how it should sound.
> > I just don't get it, I guess.
> >
> >
> > --- In _newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com_
> (mailto:newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com) , "tron400" <tron400@> wrote:
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > It's one thing to alter the sound of your Mellotron or samples, but
> it's another thing to have someone else decide for you how it should
> fundamentally sound.
> > >
> > > Bernie
> > >
> > > --- In _newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com_
> (mailto:newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com) , "Charles" <charel196@> wrote:
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > do you think Mike Pinder never did any "tampering" to make his units
> sound "better"? Geeezus....to me the M4000D is the outgrowth of all the
> years of addressing the complaints about exactly what was wrong with the tape
> system by all the major artists (tuning, noise, etc.)
> > > > Do you think if Harry Chamberlin had this technology at his disposal
> he would have used tapes?
> > > > It may not be a "real Mellotron/Chamberlin" in the eyes of the
> hardcore obsessives but for me it's a completely normal development in the
> lineage and deserves the name.
> > > >
> > >
> >
>




--
john barrick

∗Leo got it right the first time∗
∗then he added a second pickup and got it righter∗