Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: The Mellotron Group

previous by date index next by date
previous in topic topic list next in topic

Subject: Re: [newmellotrongroup] Re: Opinion sought on strings...

From: Daniel Swanson <tspit74@comcast.net>
Date: 2009-12-24

I have a CMC-10 too. It takes about 45 minutes to warm up and get to something resembling a proper speed and it's pretty noisy. I do hope to replace mine down the road. I'd rather not have to crank the pitch knob so high on startup and keep moving it down as it warms up. However, I do hope modern replacement motor control cards don't take all the character away. I do like a little wow and flutter.
On Dec 23, 2009, at 11:52 PM, markpringnz wrote:

Funny how subjective this all is, anyway I would have Mark II 3 violins, Cello, and M300 strings. But then I only really like the mellotron string sounds. I would also have untuned on pretty much the same reasoning as you stated. I don't like the string section sound and generally the fewer keys you press at once on a tron the better it sounds! It's easy enough to alter the tuning after recording if you are not happy, anyway for those of us with a CM10 ( which I'm keeping for the same reason ) it's never in the same tuning for long!

Mark

--- In newmellotrongroup@ yahoogroups. com, Daniel Swanson <tspit74@... > wrote:
>
> As of now, I'm leaning towards:
> 
> MKII brass
> String section w/ cello
> 8 voice choir
> 
> All untuned.
> 
> The String section sounds about as German a sound as I can imagine. 
> With those 3 sounds, I could set up a nice 23 second ambient wash of 
> string section with my Gigadelay, loop it, and play flourishes of 
> choir and brass for days on end until my wife has me hauled away to 
> the looney bin. Tangerine who?
> 
> Why untuned? Because any records I've grown up listening to and thus 
> made me lust after this instrument in the first place, all had untuned 
> tapes. I never knew what the keyboard on "Siberian Khatru" was. I just 
> knew I couldn't get the sound on my brother's D-50. Why? I'm assuming 
> because his D-50 was in tune. Same with any song with a Mellotron. You 
> can get a note close with a synth, but when you add the rest, they 
> just sound boring. I don't think I want my Mellotron to sound perfect, 
> so much as I want it to sound right. Right?
> 
> Feel free to tell me that my reasoning is stupid and I should 
> reconsider either of my positions on tuning or the sound set. I'm sure 
> I'll wake up in the morning feeling completely differently anyway. But 
> I am getting close,r and you guys have been a big help. I feel like 
> I'm finally making some progress.
> On Dec 23, 2009, at 11:39 PM, Daniel Swanson wrote:
> 
> > Good point.
> >
> > On Dec 23, 2009, at 10:49 PM, lsf5275@... wrote:
> >
> >>
> >> Wrong. But if you get Mark II Strings and Cello on the same frame, 
> >> you're nearly there when you mix them anyway.
> >>
> >> In a message dated 12/23/2009 10:09:44 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, tspit74@... 
> >> writes:
> >> I think it would be cool, but you probably can't play more than 2 
> >> notes at a time, right?
> >>
> >
> >
> >
>