Mellotronists

In a message dated 8/4/02 9:16:12 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
rick@... writes:


> Yes--although with mine I only have a small solid state monitor amp and
> a very-crapped-out Warfdale (which Martin tells me is
> somewhere in the Peaks District--they grow on trees found only there),
> so I've run it through a Marshall stack and have gotten
> pretty close to an "Ian McD moment."


Thanks, Rick.  The sound I'm looking for is best represented in that audio 
clip from Gracious.  It's difficult to describe a particular sound in words.  
I'm not talking about distortion - that's what comes to mind when I hear 
suggestions about running a mellotron through a Marshall stack.  Sounds great 
on guitars, not so great on mellotrons.  The first concert I ever went to was 
the Moodies back in 1972, and Mike Pinder must have been running his MKII 
through a stack of amps, because it was distorting like hell.  I remember 
thinking, man - he's going to blow something.  And when it distorted like 
that, it was really a bad sound.  Now their albums - great mellotron sound ( 
the first seven at least ).

The sound Ian McD got on the song "Court of the Crimson King" was also a 
great mellotron sound, and thanks for your "recipe", straight from the 
horse's mouth.  I've never heard that sound come out of my MKII, even when I 
play the right notes ;-).  I guess recording this stuff is an art in itself - 
I'm just trying to get some pointers.

> 
> Rick (SFX 10030--Tubes? We don't need no stinking tubes!)
> 
> PS I've also gotten good results going directly into a good desk,
> running the beast through a graphic EQ (rather than the usual
> three bands on most mixing desk) and a good plate reverb. That's the way
> we did the Devotion demo and I haven't heard much
> to equal it...except about 9 or 10 other recordings...

This is encouraging.   I'd really like to keep it inside the headphones.

Ken M.

( MKII #247 - let me blast already!)