Mellotronists

Very interesting story! Ed Cohen...I remember that name from my 
distant past. I think he used to book jobs for one of the bands I 
played in. Was "Whisper" also "Surprise" from Meriden in another 
incarnation?

Bernie

--- In Mellotronists@yahoogroups.com, "jaybe52000" <jaybe52000@...> 
wrote:
>
> --- In Mellotronists@yahoogroups.com, "charel196" <charel196@> 
wrote:
> >
> > I haven't heard those Birotron samples on M-Tron but always 
thought the instrument 
> was 
> > hard to hear on record (see Wakeman's CRIMINAL RECORD & Yes' 
TORMATO) very bass-
> ey 
> > and distant sounding. I heard that Biro used 2 Mellotrons to 
make the 8 track tapes, so 
> > you'd think that this potentially might've sounded good.
> >  I assume one could create their own Birotron sounds by looping 
Mellotron samples then 
> > lowering the fidelity (LP filter)
> >
> 
> 
> (I've posted this reply once already but I have not seen it show 
up in the group messages, 
> so please forgive me if it does in fact show up twice.)
> 
> 
> I didn't know there were any Birotron samples on the M-Tron!  Let 
alone any Birotron 
> samples anywere to be had in any format.
> 
> I didn't know there were any Birotron samples on the M-Tron!
> 
> Here's my little personal story about my "brush" with the Birotron.
> 
> (Again, I'm 52 years old now and I'll put a "senior moment" 
disclaimer here at the 
> beginning just in case anyone here thinks/knows I've got some of 
this wrong, but this is 
> my recollection of the events at that time when I was around all 
this)
> 
> In 1976 I was playing at the Holiday Inn of Bridgeport, CT in the 
lounge with a "Show Band" 
> that played covers of pop music with a Husband and Wife team as 
the leaders and Front 
> persons/Vocalists of the band. 
> 
>  I came down to the club one afternoon to turn on all my keyboards 
and synths to let them 
> "warm up" before rehearsal that day.  (My live setup at that time 
consisted of my Mellotron 
> M400 [Brass/String Section/8-Choir tapes], Hammond B3/Leslie 145, 
Polyfusion Modular 
> synthesizer (serial number 2), Moog Modular Synthesizer 12, 
Minimoog, ARP String 
> Ensemble, Hohner Clavinet D6, RMI Electra-Piano and Harpsichord 
368 and a Fender 
> Rhodes 73 Electric Piano.)
> 
> When I went to turn on the Mellotron there was a little green 
business card on the 
> keyboard of my tron, it said "Ed Cohen Sales-Birotronics, a div of 
Rick Wakeman 
> Industries".
> 
> I was dumbfounded since I had just read in Keyboard Magazine that 
same week, that there 
> was this "new" Mellotron type keyboard that had tape loops and 
could hold notes longer 
> than 8 seconds etc.  What an odd coincidence I thought.  I just 
read about this thing and 
> now there's a business card for this guy involved with it sitting 
on my Mellotron.
> 
> Apparently Ed Cohen also managed a band named Whisper that did 
covers of Yes, Genesis 
> and many of the prog artists of the era, as well as original music 
in the same progressive 
> vein.  When he saw my large setup for live performance, he thought 
he'd try to get me to 
> audition for Whisper since they needed a keyboard/synth guy and I 
obviously had the right 
> tools for the job.
> 
> So, I called the phone number and spoke to Ed Cohen.  He told me 
that "he was the 
> manager of the Prog Rock band named "Whisper" which was based in 
New Haven, CT and 
> was also the manager of a band with a keyboard guy named David 
Biro...you might have 
> heard of him".  "He invented what was supposed to be the much 
improved Mellotron and 
> he named it the "Birotron""
> 
> Ed then told me the following story about the Birotron....
> 
> Instead of using tapes that had a fixed length and starting point 
like the Mellotron, he 
> decided to use the old "8-Track" cartridges so that the sounds 
could loop indefinitely 
> unlike the Mellotron where you only have about 7-8 seconds of 
sound playing then you 
> have to release the key on the keyboard so the return springs on 
the tape frame could pull 
> the tape back to it's starting point.  
> 
> While he did get around the 7-second limitation, he introduced a 
new problem.  Because 
> the Mellotron (and Chamberlin..the original tape replay keyboard 
the Mellotron idea was 
> er.."borrowed" from…another story that I'm sure you all know on 
this forum...) was NOT a 
> continuous loop, it could really play ANY sound because the tape 
ALWAYS starts at the 
> exact same starting point.  Therefore, percussion sounds like the 
tubular bells, sound 
> effects, like those that I have currently in my Mellotron Mark V, 
as well as the other sounds 
> in the Mellotron library like drums, vibes, guitar strums etc. 
would ALWAYS give you that 
> percussive "hit" at the beginning of the sound which is why the 
sounded so realistic...the 
> Mellotron let you hear the hit of the mallet on every note, or the 
articulation of the choir 
> voices "Ahh" at the beginning of the notes.
>  
> Ed went on to say that basically "David Biro was a musician that 
did not have the money to 
> afford his own Mellotron, so he went to an auto junk yard, bought 
37 8 Track car tape 
> players, borrowed a friends Mellotron (excellent player-Jeff 
Batter, I don't know about 
> anyone else's Mellotron being recorded but it's possible), 
recorded all the notes/tracks of 
> the sounds in the Mellotron onto 8 Track tape cartridges and then 
used an old piano 
> keyboard he hollowed out, put switches on the keys that would then 
trigger each of the 
> different 8 track car tape decks to play the correct pitch.  Crazy 
huh?"
>  
> Well the story goes like this.  Ed Cohen, brought this monstrosity 
(I guess it was a huge 
> thing with all the 8 tack car decks in some kind of box) to a Yes 
concert in New Haven, got 
> Rick Wakeman to take a look at it, and convinced Wakeman to invest 
in David Biro's 
> "invention" and try to market and sell it as the "better 
mousetrap" advanced version of the 
> Mellotron.
>  
> As I said earlier, he did get the sounds to play indefinitely, but 
the catch was, because you 
> never knew where the tape was playing from since the 8 track 
cartridges were looped, you 
> did not have that perfect attack of every possible type of sound 
that the Mellotron had.  
> They did add a very limited Envelope Generator that had Attack and 
Decay, so you did 
> have that, which was a good idea since on the Mellotron you really 
have to learn how to 
> use your volume pedal to get smooth fades in and out and make it 
sound musical 
> (Wakeman and Tony Banks were a few of the masters of that 
technique).
>  
> So while it did give you a perceived attack, it was never really 
as good as the Mellotron's 
> (IMHO) ability to really give you the exact attack of ANY sound.  
The Birotron did OK on 
> stuff like strings, cello (still missing that initial bite, there 
too really) but I thought the 
> attack of the Flute missing and the voices singing that 
first "Ahh" really diminished the 
> realism of the great way the Mellotron flutes and vocals sound.
>  
> There were lots of mechanical problems with getting 8 track tapes 
to run consistent 
> speeds when you had 37 of them running together, there were pitch 
problems I relating to 
> I believe individual capstans (not totally sure about that but I 
remember something along 
> that line) and the project never really got off the ground.
> I know there were other business problems as well, (I heard rumors 
that it might have had 
> to do with Wakeman's divorce, but I honestly don't know any 
details about that)  
> 
> I did see and hear Rick Wakeman use three or four Birotrons 
onstage in concert once and I 
> thought they sounded terrible, at least what I could hear of them 
at all. Just like the 
> previous poster "charel196" mentioned, I also thought it 
sounded "distant" and very 
> "muddy".  I didn't think they came anywhere near sounding full and 
rich like the Mellotron 
> did.  I wished he'd had Mellotrons at that show.
>  
> Many years later I told this story to David Kean, (who I had 
contacted when I was having 
> problems with my Mellotron Mark V.  I finally met David Kean when 
I worked for E-mu 
> Systems (Emu had a "after trade show" party at Dave Kean's studio 
when it was in North 
> Hollywood, CA one year) and he had expressed an interest in 
getting his hands on a 
> Birotron.  I told him that I did at one time have David Biro's 
phone number so I looked and 
> found a very old phone book of mine that had David Biro's Mom's 
home phone number in 
> CT.  At the time David Biro still lived there with his Mom.  Turns 
out that Dave Biro did 
> have a Birotron still in his possession.  Dave Kean then called 
and thanked me.  He told me 
> later that he bought David Biro's personal Birotron from him. Not 
sure what he paid for it.
> 
> Ironically, I heard from Ed Cohen over the past year and he 
mentioned that Dave Biro is 
> living in Florida last he heard. 
> Thru my relationship with Ed Cohen I eventually got to meet Rick 
Wakeman and Keith 
> Emerson.  
> I ended up demonstrating the Polyfusion Modular Synthesizers to 
both of them. Keith 
> Emerson basically said, "he's never going to use anything other 
than Moog synths, due the 
> relationship he had with Bob Moog. We took my entire Polyfusion 
Synth in multiple 
> cabinets to Rick Wakeman's hotel room in New York, and he loved it 
so much he ordered a 
> larger system based on what was in my personal system.
> The problem was that Rick never paid for or took delivery of the 
system after they custom 
> built it for him.  Talk about feeling stupid to the owners of 
Polyfusion.
> 
> 
> Sorry for the length of the post and the off topics bit at the end 
regarding synthesizers
> 
> John
>