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Subject: Re: mike pinder's sound

From: "John Beresford" <j.k.beresford@shef.ac.uk>
Date: 2008-01-23

Hey mark,
I don't know how many but certainly the first few M300's did have
pitch controls in the centre of the panel. Mine which is no.005 has
one originally with a CMC4 controller which wasn't bad. Not as bad as
the later CMC10's which were really bad. The SFX consoles had the same
set up I think. I replaced my CMC4 with an SMS2 which is now rock
solid and in tune in a minute or so.
Later M300's had fixed speed ac motors so no CMC4 or pitch control
(which was replaced with a tone control). I can do the "Legend.."
pitch sweeps no problem on the M300.
John


--- In newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com, Mark Pring <markpringnz@...>
wrote:
>
> Hi Rick,
> I think that M300's don't have pitch controls, but I
> am pretty sure I have heard notes and chords being
> bent by them, how is it done?
>
> Can you really alter pitch by as much as an octave on
> a Mark II?
>
> Mark
> --- Rick Blechta <rick@...> wrote:
>
> > 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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