Mellotronists

> From: egrefin@...
   > Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2006 12:53:10 +0200
   >
   > Interesting idea, Don.
   >
   > But a single capstan for the mellotron tapes and the echo tape means  
   > the same speed for the mellotron and the echo...
   >
   > And if we want to change the echo speed without to change the pitch  
   > of the mellotron ?

Hi David,

That's fine; the Echoplex also runs at a constant motor speed.  One of
the heads (I forget whether it's the record or playback head) is
physically mounted on a sliding track, and you manually move it back
and forth to change the delay time.

You'd probably want to do something similar for a Mellotron tape echo.

It's actually better to have the head on a slider -- you can yank it
and perform much faster speed changes than you could with the
rotational inertia of a motor.  And if you move it fast enough you can
even run the echo sound backwards for brief bits.  Witness the Tommy
Bolan guitar solo on Billy Cobham's "Spectrum".  :-)

  -- Don

-- 
Don Tillman
Palo Alto, California
don@...
http://www.till.com