Hello all.
My name is Sean Lowrie. Sadly I do not own a 'tron, just the M-Tron samples; a
MkVI is on my wish list. I've asked this question at the "Mellotronists" group and a member there suggested I should ask this group as well.
I've had the samples for about a year and a half and I'm still trying to come up
with the correct signal handling and mixing to get the megalithic Moody Blues
and King Crimson sounds I'm used to.
Last week I made a breakthrough. I'm currently splitting the output and taking
that into to separate unbalanced inputs on my small multitrack mixer. First
channel I leave dry, cut the low and high, and boost the mid range. The second
channel I send all the signal to the internal effects unit on this board for
reverb. (It's an Alesis board and I'm fairly happy with their electronic reverb
circuitry, which even creates slightly different results for left and right
channels) I have this signal boosted in lows and highs but scooped in the mid
range: an approximate mirror of the dry channel settings. On my board L is 80Hz,
M is 2.5kHz, and H is 12kHz. I'm getting fairly close to the sound I want,
fairly close indeed, but I'm not there. I finally have the presence and in
general a megalithic quality in sound.
What I don't have is the chocolate-smooth sound that I'm used to out of King
Crimson. I'm thinking specifically the studio tracks "Lament" and "The Night
Watch" from the 1974 album Starless and Bible Black. When I listen to these
tracks I notice that the sound has more... for lack of a better term "breath."
The sound seems to be of much higher fidelity than I'm used to out of the
Mellotron while still retaining the distinctive Mellotron sound.
Through research on the internet I'm sure these tracks were studio recorded on
two well maintained M400s. I've tried every sort of search I can imagine in
Google, I've been hitting the King Crimson fan sites hoping for information.
I've learned that RF scuttled an entire 2009 KC West Coast USA tour, that's
where I live, over some hurt feelings or something, it's not clear what, but
nothing on their mixing techniques.
I'm listening to The Night Watch as I'm writing this long question. The sound is
not any more present, and actually less megalithic than what I have, but it has
time-CLARITY (not just a boost in the 4kHz area) that I cannot seem to achieve,
along with a slight bit of chorus type phasing I think.
On the front of the Moody Blues sound, I can't seem to get my sound as sleepy as
Mike Pinder can. I understand his MkII he modified himself, but to my
understanding he only removed the pre-amp circuit that boosted the signal at
10kHz. The "tone" knob on M-Tron, as on the real deal (to my understanding) is
also at 10kHz and so I keep that real low, around 9'o'clock...
The sound still isn't there. Infact, it seems too dull and smeared. I pulled out
Days of Future Passed and listened to Tuesday Afternoon. I'm fairly sure the
lead is "Trumpets and Trombones" doubled with "MkII Violins" and the harmony is
"MkII Brass" again doubled with the violins. However, I'm noticing that the note
attacks on the record have more of a harsh garbled attack, and my samples
actually sound more like the instruments sampled than Mr. Pinder's MkII does. If
it's a matter of tape cutting I'm sure I can't do anything about it.
But still that's not entirely the whole problem. I'm still not getting the
chocolate-smooth sound that is also hollow and graceful. I asked Mr. Pinder on
his own forum, but that was nearly a year ago and I don't think he's logged in
to the forum in all this time. His right certainly to do so. Doesn't solve my
ignorance though...
Is it a matter of compression technique? Using a haphazard collection of all
digital equipment I don't have access to real-time compression, only after the
fact in Audacity and so I tend to avoid compression as it becomes too much of
guess-and-check work. Is there something else I'm missing out on? When it comes
to the violin sound I've taken the care to exclusively use what M-Tron names
"MkII Vintage Violins" which is by far the highest fidelity version of that tape
set the sample set has. It's REALLY good. Still, I know I'm missing out on
something.
So, after 3 chapters worth of ranting (damn this is a loooooong question I've
got) I ask you all, you who are lucky enough to have and use a real Mellotron
(or those who have gotten really good at using the sample software), for your
expert opinions and advice. I've been banging my head into a wall on this one
and I've lost confidence that I'll get any further than this on my own.
Thanks to you all so much, you deserve a cookie or dinner or something for even
reading through what has got to be one of the longest emails in the last decade.
-Sean Lowrie
fourtytwominds@yahoo.com