Mellotronists

Does anyone know how DK recorded his MKII #123(?) for the video he put out 
which demonstrated the sounds on that particular instrument?  If I recall 
correctly, the guy playing the covers of "Court" , "Watcher" and the various 
Moodies tunes did a very good job and the sound had *that* quality (even in 
mono through my TV speakers).  It was obviously run through a reverb at some 
point, but that's all I could tell.

Ken M.

It was played through his Guitar Amp with reverb I can't remember what brand
it was we used it on all the Mellotron we recorded that weekend 10+ YEARS
ago. We had fun lugging all those trons in and out of his house.
Robert L. (The one with the hat in the videos)

on 8/5/02 11:01 AM, kenmerb@... at kenmerb@... wrote:

> Does anyone know how DK recorded his MKII #123(?) for the video he put out
> which demonstrated the sounds on that particular instrument?  If I recall
> correctly, the guy playing the covers of "Court" , "Watcher" and the various
> Moodies tunes did a very good job and the sound had *that* quality (even in
> mono through my TV speakers).  It was obviously run through a reverb at some
> point, but that's all I could tell.
> 
> Ken M.
> 
> 
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In a message dated 08/05/2002 3:37:11 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
rlaughton@... writes:


> It was played through his Guitar Amp with reverb I can't remember what brand
> it was we used it on all the Mellotron we recorded that weekend 10+ YEARS
> ago. We had fun lugging all those trons in and out of his house.
> Robert L. (The one with the hat in the videos)
> 
> 

Wow, that's interesting.  So did you guys mike the MKII speakers or run 
direct outs into the guitar amp?  Also, was the output of guitar amp recorded 
through microphones, or recorded directly?

I could understand doing that for the M400s, but not for the MKII unless it 
was the only way to get reverb into the mix.  But it sounded great compared 
to what I'm getting, so what do I know.

I also noticed that he had no trouble mixing sounds with that MKII, so I'm 
assuming that he had an original set of tapes (perhaps recorded on the 
"mothertron").  So many variables here.....

When I first got my M400 I ran it through my vintage 1962 Fender Pro amp (no 
reverb), and it sounded kind of "dead".  Maybe that goes with Rick's Fender 
theory.


Ken M


Ken M.

I should point out that the tone controls on a guitar amp are nothing
like hifi tone controls and are responsible for much of the
characteristic amp sound.

Hifi tone controls have a flat response at 12 o'clock, don't interact,
and perform subtle effects on the frequency extremes.  Guitar amp tone
controls don't care about flat response anywhere, interact all over,
and perform mighty radical frequency response changes.

The Fender, Marshall, HiWatt and Vox tone controls are all very
different, and have their own characteristic curves. 

Same deal with speakers and cabinets.  For instance, an open-back
guitar cabinet has it's own characteristic sound.  And closed back
guitar cabinets almost never have any acoustic stuffing, so there are
internal reflections all over the place.  And there are no tweeters.

  -- Don

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

> When I first got my M400 I ran it through my vintage 1962 Fender Pro
> amp (no reverb), and it sounded kind of "dead".  Maybe that goes with
> Rick's Fender theory.
>
>
> Ken M
>

I stand by my findings. Craig Collett (of Col Audio, Official Host of
Tronto MkII) has an outstanding collection of vintage amps, including a
4x10 vintage Bassman, my all-time favorite amp--for a guitar or bass.
I've tried most of them (except some Vox's, which I guess I should) and
the two best-sounding amps were both tube (er, valve) amps and both were
British: Marshall and HiWatt. Go figure. I love Fender amps but they
seem to do something odd to Mellotrons. "Dead" is a good description,
Ken. I should caution against overdriving the amp and getting
distortion. Unless you're into doing something bizarre-sounding,
distortion and mellotron don't go together--unless you're lucky enough
to have the Adrian Belew guitar and you're playing 'Schizoid Man'.
That's AWESOME with a bit of added distortion from the amp.

Rick (SFX 10030--Fripp? We don't need no stinking Fripp!)