Mellotronists

Hello all,

I usually just lurk here, not being a tron owner, or even a musician in 
the usual sense of the word, but the recent discussions about "that 
sound" and the idea of developing a digital tron substitute have made me 
do some thinking about what it is that I find so compelling about the 
sound of these things. (Oops - thinking again. Usually means trouble).

I agree with the consensus about what That Sound is. But there are other 
sounds that have just as much an emotional impact on me. Sounds that can 
only come from one of these machines. Something to do with translating 
the performance of some instrument, like say a saxophone, to a keyboard, 
and allowing the player to create a sound that couldn't have been 
created by the original sax player. One finger, one sax. Three fingers, 
three saxes. Keyboards articlulate and blend sounds in a completely 
different way than one or three sax players.

Okay, any sampler can do that. But there's still something that can't be 
duplicated. There's a fat quality to the sound. Something warm and 
organic. Mysterious. Something that for whatever reason can't be created 
with a digital sampler. It must have something to do with the tape and 
the heads and the preamps. (Norm Leete proposed a theory once that had 
to do with the goodness of the sound being proportional to the number of 
asynchronous tone generators - or something like that - and I agree 
completely).

And yet there's still something more: knowing that something that sounds 
so incredibly sweet is actually coming from some guy with a box that has 
more in common with a sewing machine than a flute or a violin or a 
saxophone. I think that's just as important. It's weird that such a 
wonderful sound can be made by such a mechanical contraption. Maybe 
that's why the non-savy listener doesn't get it.

Here's an example of what I'm talking about:

    http://www.maytag.homelinux.com/sound.html

This is the bridge from Aimee Mann's "It Takes All Kinds". Listen for 
the alto saxes. M2 Chamberlin played by Patrick Warren.

Does anybody else feel this way about it? (i.e. the discrepency between 
the sound and the works in the box) Or have I just been drinking too 
much wine?

Bob S.

The link in my previous post isn't working. Apparently my ISP has 
started blocking port 80. Try this one:

   http://www.maytag.homelinux.com:2828/sound.html

Bob S.

Cheers Bob!!

Just listened to the mp3 clip... Great!... But isn't "Maytag" a 
washing-Machine manufacturer?

C

On Friday, November 29, 2002, at 07:20  am, bob.snyder wrote:

> The link in my previous post isn't working. Apparently my ISP has
> started blocking port 80. Try this one:
>
>    http://www.maytag.homelinux.com:2828/sound.html

Thank you Bob.  Patrick Warren has contributed some great material 
over the years.  He is one of a few Chamberlin specialists.

Clay

In a message dated 11/29/2002 1:19:35 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
bob.snyder@... writes:


> Something to do with translating 
> the performance of some instrument, like say a saxophone, to a keyboard, 
> and allowing the player to create a sound that couldn't have been 
> created by the original sax player. One finger, one sax. Three fingers, 
> three saxes. Keyboards articlulate and blend sounds in a completely 
> different way than one or three sax players.
> 

Good point here.  I always wondered about this, and how one uses the 
properties of the (Mellotron) keyboard to create a unique sound.  For 
example, would a flute player be able to play the intro to "Strawberry 
Fields" as easily on a flute? Never having played a wind instrument, I don't 
know, but I suspect that the note patterns normally played on a flute or sax 
would be different than the note patterns played on a keyboard, because 
things are laid out differently on each instrument.  Same thing with the 
violins.  This leads to the original sounds, but being played in a completely 
different way.

Regarding Aimee Mann and Patrick Warren, excellent choice. I saw Aimee Mann 
in concert about a month or so ago in Portland, Maine, and she was great.  
Excellent singing, songwriting, the band was the best.  No Chamberlin on 
stage, but the keyboard player was right on the money, and the guitarist was 
even better.  I bought her new "Lost in Space" CD which features both Patrick 
Warren and the guitar player (can't recall his name) on Chamberlin.  The 
cellos on "Humpty Dumpty" sound just like they do on our M400s (as KL pointed 
out - another fan).  There's Chamberlin on almost every song on the CD.

Ken M.

>
>Regarding Aimee Mann and Patrick Warren, excellent choice.

Chamberlin is used a lot on Aimee's solo material---vibes, violins, sax, 
cellos.  I am almost positive that Patrick got his Chamberlin tapes from 
Dave Kean and used some of the 'tron set, especially the cellos.

Aimee's music overall is quite basic - guitar, bass, drums, Chamberlin at 
times and Minimoog at times.  Songs are not like 'til Tuesday, 
however---there's slow rock with some more uptempo things, a twinge of 
Beatles or a good hook here and there, and no New Wave synths.  It eases 
toward the folk border but stays well far away from it---fortunately.  Not 
incredibly polished stuff; on one album they leave some extra stuff or 
short passages of someone playing something from the recording sessions in 
it, which is fun to listen to.  Just good, basic rock arrangements, and 
that's that.  Subject matter for the songs?  "Cynical and melancholy...The 
only road these songs follow leads straight to despair..." writes a CD Now 
reviewer.  I think the words are a lot more sad than the overall song 
sounds, so I don't look too deeply into them.

(But for the saddest stuff, try This Mortal Coil (listened to a tape once 
and wanted to drive my car into a bridge abutment) or the Cure's 
"Disintegration," which has 'tron samples somewhere, I think.  :-) )

If you do buy Aimee's "Lost In Space" make sure you get the single CD for 
"Humpty Dumpty" (was included when I bought my copy of the album)---the two 
extra songs on it are worth it and are slightly more polished and uptempo.

Aimee is on tour with Indigo Girls.  Fortunately she is the opening act, so 
you can leave right after she's done.  :-)

...kl...M400 #805 - recognizes the cellos

* Ken Leonard - Web Table of Contents:  http://www.kleonard.com
* Get Outdoors New England:  http://www.GONewEngland.org
** GONewEngland is a neat, fun, and free Internet Bulletin Board
** for outdoor activities in/around the New England area--and beyond!

Chamberlin is used a lot on Aimee's solo material---vibes, violins, sax, 
cellos.  I am almost positive that Patrick got his Chamberlin tapes from 
Dave Kean and used some of the 'tron set, especially the cellos.

  

If you do buy Aimee's "Lost In Space" make sure you get the single CD for 
"Humpty Dumpty" (was included when I bought my copy of the album)---the two 
extra songs on it are worth it and are slightly more polished and uptempo.
  

Reminds me of the true 'multi-instrumentalist', Rahsaan Roland Kirk...a
one-man horn section who played 3 saxes at a time using a circular
breathing technique....a jazz legend.

>> ..... a sound that couldn't have been
>> created by the original sax player. One finger, one sax. Three
>> fingers,
>> three saxes. Keyboards articlulate and blend sounds in a completely
>> different way than one or three sax players.
>

> Reminds me of the true 'multi-instrumentalist', Rahsaan Roland Kirk...a
> one-man horn section who played 3 saxes at a time

Oohhh....Spinal Tap at the *Jazz Club*.

Niiiiiiiiiiice.

Mike Dickson (tron@...) M400 #996
The Official Cynic of Streetly Electronics
Streetly Sample Library http://www.blackcat.demon.co.uk/tron/

On Saturday, November 30, 2002, at 06:40  pm, Ken Leonard wrote:

>
>
> Aimee is on tour with Indigo Girls.  Fortunately she is the opening 
> act, so
> you can leave right after she's done.  :-)
>

Hear hear.

...I've nothing against fat talentless droning lesbians, you 
understand....

C