You can know what sounds were used by what model Mellotron was used because the MK II, M300, and M400 each had their own library.
Some MK II library sounds (like the 3 violins and flute) were re-equalized for the M400 library.
If you listen to the classic Mellotron music with very good quality headphones, you'll hear the sounds more closely.
If you mean the tapes themselves - that's almost an impossible thing to determine because there were different tape sources.
The original tapes that came from Streetly had BBS (Bradley Brothers) marked on them and they're on EMI stock tape.
Mellotronics in London (which existed at the same time) could also be considered 'original' tapes but sometimes had different takes of sounds, tunings and eq of some notes, so they sound different, (and not necessarily better).
Sound Sales (in the mid-late 70's) got a hold of some of these and re-equalized and re-processed some of the sounds (again), so these tapes sound different. Some of the sounds are more strident.
The tape stock of some of these is also inferior to that of the original tape stock used (meaning they don't play as well in the machine and some Sound Sales staff took to over-adjustment and messing with the innards to make them play better).
Today, the new tapes you get are closest to the very original BBS tapes, which is ultimately what people would want.
Many of the sampled Mellotron sounds out there are quite terrible because they were sampled from Mellotrons that had tape racks with an assembly of replacement tapes from a hodge-podge of 3 or 4 different sources, (meaning the eq, tuning, tape master sound source, signal to noise ratio, and tape stock for those tapes is all over the place).
Regarding Moraz and the story of I - he's using a MK V (the M400 library sounds) and not a MK I or MK II. Those are incorrect credits.
He's also using an Orchestron or two.
Chris
On Wed, Jul 3, 2013 at 12:18 PM, tron400
<tron400@yahoo.com> wrote:
Planet Mellotron lists what models were used on what songs, but not what tapes.
http://planetmellotron.com/
Bernie
--- In
newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com, william Beith <wbeith@...> wrote:
>
> Has anyone ever developed a list of the instrument model numbers and the tapes used on songs over the years?
>
> As a not yet Mellotron owner trying to decide on which combination of sounds would best suit me, identifying sounds by record might serve as a starting point for me.
>
> For example on Court of the Crimson King, Watcher, Moraz- Story of i, Story in Your Eyes.....
>
> Anyway you get the idea.
>
> Any help would be appreciated.
>
> Thanks
>
> Bill
>