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Subject: Re: [newmellotrongroup] Re: T550 Mellotron

From: Nic Lewis <nic@birotron.org>
Date: 2012-02-12


At 20:07 12/02/2012, Nick Hewitt wrote:
 
Chris Dale wrote: "Today, a university music student (who is a bigTangerine Dream fan) asked me what model of Mellotron the Loop Mellotronis on the Tangerine Dream albums.

Is it the T550 or was that not made in the 80's?... as a Novatron?? Doesanyone know the definitive answer? I asked him to give me a couple ofdays to find out. The info on the net is far from accuratesometimes.

Chris - oddly enough, I've beenrecently been poking around the 'net, and I found out a little more onthe T550 and the mods that TD did in converting a 'tron to take tapeloops.

Firstly, the T550's were builtbetween 1981 and 1983 and they WERE adapted from Novatrons.  Only 3or 4 were produced and Tangerine Dream bought at least 2 of them.

They DID attempt to convert oneof their T550's to take a loop of tape, but it wasn't a total success, asthe splice could clearly be heard, so TD had to adjust their music tohide it. It has also been stated that TD had a Birotron, which uses tapeloops, so there's a possibility it could bethat.

TD did indeed have Birotrons - they bought 2 and would very probably havebeen the only commercial customer we had. Off hand I cannot recall whichTD albums the Birotron was used on, if any, but they certainly had afascination for all these types of machines.


Best Regards,

Nic

Birotron #015 nearly completed :-)