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Subject: Re: [newmellotrongroup] Fwd: Unable to deliver your message

From: Chris Dale <unobtainiumkeys@gmail.com>
Date: 2015-11-12

 "The whole line between digital mellotrons and tape based is really getting weird….any device that can play mellotron samples is suddenly a mellotron if you slap the mellotron brand on it."


I think we've discussed this before. But just to revisit this - the name 'Mellotron' refers to a keyboard instrument that plays pre-recorded tapes. That's the beginning and end of it according to science and patent law, which overrides any commercial business interests. 

Otherwise you could call a Toshiba VHS player a Mellotron as well, or a Sony Walkman, or even a Samsung computer etc.

Or you could call a Pepsi a Coke, or a hot dog a sausage, or an orangutan a gorilla etc. etc.

It the same reason why there is a different classification between 'zebra' 'horse', and 'donkey'. 

They look the same, but they most definitely are not.

Oddly enough this relates to the debate about GMO foods and traditional foods, in that - genetically and lawfully - GMO tomatoes are no longer tomatoes. 


So Markus MKVI, Streetly's M4000 are Mellotrons because of their physical laws.

And technically the Chamberlin and Birotron are Mellotrons as well - because of the tapes.


The Memotron, M4000-D, IPAD 3000 etc. are not Mellotrons because the physics of the tapes do not apply to them.
But that doesn't mean they aren't all useful in their own way as producers of the Mellotron sound. And of course, the sampling concept itself is retained. 

I know that not everyone wants to fiddle with pinch rollers, pressure pads, etc. so in the end, everyone just has to choose what works for them.  I prefer the grandeur of the real things. You hear them, see them, smell them, lift them etc. It's a full experience. 


In the future, there might be a way to have pre-recorded nano-tapes moving inside a digital instrument which would then be a bridge between the two present technologies. 

This could be a 'Mellotron' again. You read it here first!  :)


 

 

 










 

On Thu, Nov 12, 2015 at 8:31 AM, Tom Doncourt tomdcour@amnh.org [newmellotrongroup] <newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
 

That’s really silly.. :) Why buy something with the Mellotron name slapped on it when you can just get a perfectly good midi-board that can do everything and some samples, or one of the dozens of workstations that have mellotron samples? That’s if you want somethingg that does “everything”. The whole line between digital mellotrons and tape based is really getting weird….any device that can play mellotron samples is suddenly a mellotron if you slap the mellotron brand on it. The M4000d is a little different because it does emulate the nation of an original mellotron. So then why talk about these things in a mellotron group at all.? weird


On Nov 11, 2015, at 7:23 AM, David Davis feline1@feline1.co.uk [newmellotrongroup] <newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com> wrote:



Subject: Subject: Re: M4000D vs. Memotron
Bernie, 
you're just parroting your standard answers and not engaging with what I'm saying. 

It doesn't matter that on a real tape-based mellotron that's working properly, there's not a 'marshmallow' action that gives the effect of aftertouch.   I'm talking about being able to use the M4000D keyboard as a very nice PolyAT MIDI controller for OTHER things that AREN'T mellotrons.

I know you're sitting there going "What? Things that AREN'T MELLOTRONS?!  I don't understand! It doesn't compute! How could a musician be interested in things that AREN'T MELLOTRONS?!??! Are these musicians insane?!" but nevertheless, some people out there actually are, and their musical horizons are slightly broader that asking "Do I sound exactly like a King Crimson LP from 1969? DO I???  No?? Then I am WRONG :(  "