Mellotronists

Philip James Johnston  wrote:
> I actually saw Pallas recently for the first time here in Aberdeen, 
> someone had said that, "seeing how I like king crimson, gentle giant 
> etc, that I might like them".  After listening to Pallas for about 
> two minutes I started to feel sick(really!!!!) & quickly departed to 
> the nearest pub for some rest & recuperation. 
> 
> I think I've gotten over it, but I'm starting to come over all 
> bllllllllluuuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrggggggghhh again!!!!!!!!!

Well...I must admit to having unloaded my Pallas albums awhile back.  But, 
I can think of more puke inducing neo than Pallas, who at least have the 
virtue of sincerity.  Their early albums are quite good.  "Arrive Alive" 
and "The Sentinel" being the best IMO.

> On a brighter note, I'm digging(like, erm, wow man!) the Systems 
> Theory demo CD's, current fav is 'The Boy Who Gazed at Stars' some 
> great tron(1:49 - 2:13 especially) from Mr Dickson. Oh, as well as 
> some great flute playing by Diane Amov I believe.

Totally cool, dude!  I'm completely chuffed to hear this because if you 
like this set [which is good but rough and "...er... demoish" to 
paraphrase Mike Dickson] I think you'll really like the material we're 
working up right now.  Since you say "CD's" I presume Mike slipped you 
"Demos 2001-2002" along with "Demos 1999-2000" and "The Tongue" :-)

"The Boy" in question is my oldest son Trevor, who just turned 9, an 
aspiring keyboardist who already can outplay me and one day [bank balance 
willing and lady luck smiling] will have genuine 'tron in his arsenal.  I 
will let you in on a secret...I must say this before Mike takes offense at 
anyone thinking the tron on this track was him!  <rolls eyes>  I confess I 
am the culprit.  It is 100% "sampletron", as is "Under Oriental Skies", 
created by me in Cool Edit Pro using Mike Pinder's exellent Akai 
Mellotron/Chamberlin samples, and several Direct X plugins.  IIRC I used 3 
violins, 8voice choir, mixed brass and something else that escapes me 
right now, along with "Dreamverb" on the strings and a dash of "Warm Room" 
echo on the choir.  The brass was left dry, I think.  Also in there is a 
Ken Hensley Hammond B3 sample I "DJd" off an old Uriah Heep LP (god I love 
that gnarly overdriven roar!), tweaked in the same way, because I can't 
afford a real B3 & Leslie combo...yet.

When working in CEP, I tried very hard to get as authentic an attack as I 
could for the tron lines, so every transition restarts with the beginning 
of the sample.  This BTW is why I have little regard for most of the "tron 
emulations" found in digital keyboards.  They just don't give you the grit 
and dirt of the real thing.  At least the MP samples have that indefinable 
quality, and key-click, so for me they were far preferable to using Greg 
Amov's XP-30 "classic mellotron voices", or the equivilent tron samples in 
my Roland rack mountable digital piano module.  However, none of it fooled 
mighty Mike for more than a few minutes.  He asked, after complimenting me 
on how good my samples were (on "Under Oriental Skies"), if we'd "like 
some real 'tron".  How could we refuse!?!  Everything else "tronnish" on 
all the other tracks is Mike.  I especially like his "Hackettron" tron 
guitar work on "Serengeti Surprise" and "(I Am) The Reluctant Plumber", 
and the delicious "Fairlight" tron on the latter track.

Diane Amov is an excellent flautist (and can be had for remote session 
work via FTP transfer if someone wants something really good).  Sometimes 
it's hard to get her to play on things for us because she's (a) very 
moody, (b) prefers to work on her novel-in-progress, (c) she's not going 
to swoon over anything her husband co-writes [LOL!  I'm sure you all 
understand the "that's nice dear" brush off] and (d) pretty much despises 
prog-rock, jazz-rock and space-rock in all shapes and sizes.  We have our 
best shot at her involvement when we're operating in more of a world-music 
vein.  In this case, I asked her to channel Ian Anderson, and give us an 
approximation of him playing in a "symphonic rock" context.  The results 
were pretty keen, though nothing compared to her excellent work on "The 
Cool Vibe Of Asia C.", [especially the dreamy mid-section], a world-prog 
cut that will appear on the "son of rime" CD one of these years.

> Bye
> 
> Philip.
-- 
Cheers,
SDM -- a 21st century schizoid man
http://systemstheory.net	internet music project
http://thecleanersystem.com	software for dry cleaners
NP: nothing