Mellotronists

On 16 Jun 2007, at 12:24, Colin Crawford wrote:

http://emusician.com/sftinstruments/AbbeyRoadKeyboardsforReason/
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> Technostalgia Towers has just received a copy for review purposes.
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> I'll let you know what we think!

Initial thoughts? Well, as a whole it's quite interesting, but the 
Mellotron is a bit of a let-down. It's sampled every two notes, so the 
cello frame had an extra not of double bass in it, and is generally 
quite lacklustre. There's also bugger-all to verify that the machine 
used has anything at all to do with Abbey Road, it's just stuck on the 
selection because it ought to be there.

The pianos are good simply because nobody has ever bothered commecially 
to sample ropey old uprights before, preferring Bosendorfer Imperials 
and Steinway Ds. The Celesta's actually rather lovely, but the Hammond 
is a bit of a let-down. All the samples are rather 'polite' and of 
course the transition between Leslie off and on is very abrupt, with no 
acceleration effect. The only way to get a realistic effect would be to 
record to audio then stick the track through a software rotary 
emulation program or a G4 simulator or similar.

The worst thing by far are the notes by Mark Vail, who should really 
know better before spouting off with utter crap such as "The 1905 
Steinway upright was built before the term 'upright' had been coined 
for a piano with a vertical harp" and "There are two types of 
harmonium, one which blows, the other sucks....ours sucks" Well of 
COURSE it fuggin' sucks, because ALL harmoniums suck. Those which blow 
are reed-organs. TWAT.

The Mellotron chapter is guff from start to finish.

Anyhow, we'll keep trying the software and report further.

Wotcher Cocks!

Cx

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