I thought that streetly made new recordings for the early Mellotrons, and that was why they sounded different from the Chamberlins.
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From: Bruce Daily
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newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.comSubject: Re: [newmellotrongroup] Re: MK-II Violins vs M400 Violins
Sent: Aug 23, 2010 7:44 AM
Hi all- If the high F# was speeded up to A in production, one explanation for the shrill character might be the tape equalization error due to the increased speed. More highs would be forced thru the falling characteristic tape filter slope. This leads me to the Mk2/M400 3-violins comparisons. One might also want to listen to the 3-violins source for comparison, since the Chamberlin set was first. What was the reason for the difference between MK2 and the Chamberlin 3-violins sound? The Chamberlin violins were very clear and full. One thing I have suuspected is that Streetly recieved master tapes from Chamberlin that were recorded stateside using NAB-standard tape equalization. If they were played back on a British machine, having a different standard (such as NARTB), the result may have caused the "MK2 sound". This is just speculation, as most recording engineers at the time would've noticed (and dealt with) the EQ difference, or the master tapes would've been labeled with the appropriate EQ standard. Maybe Streetly couldn't compensate for NAB EQ, and ran the tapes with what they had, causing the EQ error. Therefore, the "MK2 3-violins" sound. I think the M400 set sounds closer to the Chamberlin set. Maybe, in 1971, the right tape EQ was available, and resulted in the M400 set (with some other aural "fooling around"). Pure speculation on my part, from an electronics point-of view. -Bruce Daily --- On Sat, 8/21/10, tronfan66 <
mellotron_head@yahoo.co.uk> wrote: From: tronfan66 <
mellotron_head@yahoo.co.uk> Subject: [newmellotrongroup] Re: MK-II Violins vs M400 Violins To:
newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com Date: Saturday, August 21, 2010, 9:44 AM Thanks Clay, that would make a lot of sense (glad to hear that someone here has given it a listen too! :) ). In both cases I just did a quick recording straight from the outputs of my machine, so you're getting 'the unvarnished truth' so to speak. The fact that you found a lot more going on with the MKII ones pretty much confirms what I've
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