On Jan 22, 2008, at 4:58 PM, Bruce Daily wrote:
Sounds like the drone in "Question" may have been a
half-speed brass of some kind. The opening fanfare
(on the orig. album)is anyone's guess. He was also
incorporating his Moog a lot on "AQOB".
One thing that should be mentioned to those who have never played a MkII is that the pitch range is a great deal bigger than what is available on an M400 and all later mellotrons. So Pinder was unlikely to have needed to do anything other than turn his pitch control way down to drop an octave. (Not having my MkII here in front of me, I can't tell you exactly what the range is; anyone else care to step in?)
Another notable low-pitch mellotron part in "Devil's Triangle" by King Crimson, might be slowed down, but possible not.
I wonder why the pitch sweep was smaller on later mellotrons. David and Markus's half-speed switch is a good effort to correct this, but I've always wondered why that feature was changed. It's great for all sorts of things in the studio -- or for vocalists who can't cut parts in the original key. You get to watch the guitarists suffer through trying to transpose while you just twiddle a knob and are ready to go. ;)
Rick