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Subject: Re: [newmellotrongroup] Re: mike pinder's sound

From: Bruce Daily <pocotron@yahoo.com>
Date: 2008-01-23

Hi all-

Yup, they sure didn't have that fancy little
half-speed switch back then. I should've remarked
that the brass track could've been recorded at twice
the normal speed (30 ips) on the multitrack tape to
achieve the "half-speed" effect on playback (at 15
ips). That is, of course, if they had those speed
selections on their recording equipment at that time.

-Bruce D.


--- Rick Blechta <rick@rickblechta.com> wrote:

>
> 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



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