Thank you Bernie and all others,
to Mike: thanks for your musical examples. I agree with your opinion, that 8 second samples would be a nice source for DIY-samples :-)) On the other hand, some examples sound very rough and ”gritty", but not only the original sounds from the 50's and 60's but also the new sounds — some of them...
to Bernie: like most of the people here (not all, I know) I prefer to listen to Prog of all kind, and so love all the classic Mellotron sound (BTW, I also like early music, Renaissance and contemporary classical stuff, and modern jazz and diverse other genres, but Prog is still very important).
In the moment I record and perform music as a background and intro- and outro themes for performances of stories by E.A.Poe — in combination with a guitar player who use a Roland GR-20 guitar synth. So there is a broad variety of digital sounds, and i add Mellotron, analogue synth, Theremin and Flute. The idea is to use sounds that have the characteristic edge of the Mellotron; too clean and perfect would not be a good idea.
So for example I like the 8 choir and the Birotron choir, but the Russian is bit too perfect...
I'll listen to your recommended samples and hope to make a decision soon :-)
Yes, and the M400 itself might be not in absolut perfect condition, but very trusty for live situations (i have the upgrade motor controller card from Markus Resch). I'll guess, some of the pinch rollers may be a bit stiff. So some replacement pinch rollers (or all of them) would be a good idea (but not really cheap, I'll guess).
As I a have two sets of tape I can compare the condition: the newer one with flute-strings-cello is in a much better condition then the one I will replace. OK, maybe some springs might also not like new...
Greetings,
Thomas