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Subject: Re: [newmellotrongroup] NAMM Report

From: Chris Dale <unobtainiumkeys@gmail.com>
Date: 2010-01-16

 
Mike - on the Birotron you played - was there some kind of adjustment for how heavy or light the keys would play?  I'm not talking about pinch rollers / pressure pads obviously. I mean was there some kind of global mechanical rod that adjusted the feel of the keys?
 
 
I played Dave Biro's Birotron, but his doesn't have an outer case, and maybe some other physical parts are missing. The keyboard was fine on that one. It played great, but the track selector linkages were goofed when you moved it to track 4. I don't know if that was due to a design fault, an adjustment issue, or damage over time. Those were pre-production prototypes anyway - so each one could actually have different features (or flaws).
 
 
As far as our discussion of touch goes - A mellotron CAN be as touch responsive as a piano in a different way. If you play the key very gently, the first few seconds of sound "flow" in and that softens your attack. The sound is softer because you hear it 4 seconds into the playing of the tape instead of right at the beginning. On the Mellotron it sounds wonderful with flutes and strings. Trying this with harp sounds on the Chamberlin is similar. You can have the pick of the note if you press down hard, or you can play the note slowly and have a soft attack on the harp.
 
I think this is what Martin and Vance are referring to specifically.
 
And this is my problem with many samples. They're pre-processed (as Mike and Fritz alluded to - basically someone else's idea of what they think it's supposed to sound like), and likely based on the sounds of their favourite bands and not actual musical time spent with a tape instrument. They've also completely neglected the idea of playing softly and playing with the pitch bend at different speeds as well.
 
In general - these new digital trons are made with the contemporary music of the 90's and 2000's in mind - little or no adventurous Mellotron use. 
So I think if you only want a generic Mellotron atmosphere, these latest digital incarnations are fine. But if you want to be use the real thing with soft / choppy key play and tape speed wind-up / wind down then I feel only a real tape instrument will do.
 
 
 
 

 

 

 Mellotron keyboards run on wood, rubber and sprung metal. It's never going to rock-solid on that basis, but by no means is it as heavy as (say) a Birotron (which has keys that feel like they were weighted on leaf springs) or some of the more revolting plasticky things that troubled us in the 1980s.

 
 
 
 
 


What I positively like about the touch on a Hammond or a Mellotron or (direct action) pipe organ is the feeling that you are part of the machine. You can either feel the mechanics of the system under your fingertips. There is a bit of work involved there perhaps, but I don't mind it as much as I mind the feeling that I'm simply playing a series of rather dead digital switches.

As for samples and MIDI, they have their place. They make a lot of things a lot easier and have obviously opened doors to many many things that were previously impossible to encompass, but to me they just play back with monotonous regularity. I've been messing about a little with that RedTron plugin and frankly the Mk-V version (for some reason) sounds better, for some reason. The problem is that the samples are lousy and there is really no way round that. Okay, so Mellotrons have their off days too (as we all know) but they get better. With this, you're stuck with a picture of what someone else thought sounded great. It's like the difference between making an Airfix kit aeroplane model and a balsa model. With one you are tied to other people's ideas and that (to me) is limiting.

Having said all that, I'll qualify it by saying that I've sampled 3-violins myself and I'd defy anyone to A/B a scale of it and the M400 whence it came and tell the difference. I just didn't treat the samples at all. Someone might learn this trick one day. We'll see.

Mike




fdoddy@aol.com wrote:
 

My Streetly refurb still feels pretty good after, what is it now, 7 years?! I like the fight, the pushback of a tron.  It's like playing a guitar through a "gasp" real amplifier. Ya gotta work it.... Samples and a MIDI keyboard are too forgiving.  Like the old Italian grandmas say about making risotto, "The rice must feel the pain"