The Yamaha AN1x Synthesizer mailing list

Ed,

>Bruce, where did you learn that the mellotron used just intonation
>(shudder)?  Was it some sort of cruel joke or mistake or what?  I never had
>the money (back in the day) to own one, but I've heard plenty of them live
>and they did have a weird out-of-tuneness that was unique.

Actually, I hope I'm using the correct term; what I mean to say is that the 
Mellotron recordings were created in a specific key, using exact intervals 
between notes.  The Mellotron used (up to) 8 sec. taped recordings of 
instruments playing each of the notes -- violins, cellos, flutes, 
etc.  Let's take the violin as an example:  When playing an A, both the 
violin and the keyboard agree, right?  But, what about A#/Bb?  To us 
chromatically-tuned junkies, they're the same note, but not to a 
violinist.  If the mathematical intervals are compared during a half-step 
run from say, D3 to D4 and F3 to F4, there will be a slight difference in 
the pitch of A#3 and Bb3.  Not much, but it is there, and a violinist will 
compensate, based on the key of the tune.  In fact, my first "given" is not 
always true:  The violinist will play a slightly different A in a C scale 
from the root note in an A scale.  To get around this problem, the 
Mellotron engineers simply picked one key -- I think it was A major -- for 
all 37 notes, and then added a pitch control to compensate for the 
inaccuracies in other keys.  Many players never quite got the hang of the 
pitch control -- and it was worthless for chords -- so there was always a 
bit of an off-key tint to most Mellotron performances.

Regards,

-BW

--
Bruce Wahler
Design Consultant
Ashby Solutions"
www.ashbysolutions.com
CloneWheel Support Group moderator
978.386.7389  voice
978.776.0096  fax
bruce@...