The Mellotron Group

Ok, I'm going to have to take a stand here.
 
 
In a message dated 11/6/2010 7:03:41 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
rick@rickblechta.com writes:

 
 
 
 
Mark






The new sounds are just what they are: new sounds. They are trying to add  
to the "library". Obviously, Mark, you've never played a mellotron with some 
 of these sounds installed, or I think you'd change your rather narrow 
view.  Case in point: the Ian McDonald flute. It is an incredibly flexible, 
utterly  delightful voice. Why? Because the person who created it understands 
what a  mellotron is. I don't want to speak for Fritz or Norm or any of the 
other  people who created some of the new voices, but the ones we did here in 
Toronto  with The Mellotron Recording Society are, in my humble opinion, way 
more than  what you might expect. Yes, they sound much better (more real?) 
than the old  ones, but they're still "mellotron sounding" and respond the 
same way the very  limited selection you have above also respond. They don't 
sound  like samples; they don't sound like the real thing; they have that 
same  indefinable quality that the entire library has.


It seems to me that you're living in the past. You' re trying to turn  this 
instrument into a museum. Case in point: when my old band from the '70s  
got together in 2001 to just "do a gig for the hell of it", I was equipped  
with a full 36-voice FX console. They'd been used to the same instrument, but  
with 400 tapes in it (6 sounds). At our first rehearsal, we were farting  
around with some of the cover songs we'd decided to play for our first set.  
One was "In the Court of the Crimson King". I used the MkII violins until 
the  end of the song, then cycled to Les Bradley's "Orchestra" mix. The band  
stopped dead in their tracks. The singer looked at me and asked, "Holy shit! 
 Have you been feeding that thing, steroids?" They all agreed that it was  
definitely still a mellotron, but with the new sounds it just widened the  
whole horizon of the instrument. (I won't tell you the response when I used  
the Adrian Belew guitar voice at the gig for "Schizoid Man". The guitarist  
still hasn't forgiven me.) Clay and Chris were at that gig. Ask the m.


Maybe Mike did too good a job with his recording of the new pipe organ  
voice. It does sound incredibly real, but that's probably what he was going  
for. With the new sounds you can do that if you want, but you can also do a  
lot of other things. I, for one, would certainly hate to be limited to just  
3-violins and choir -- not when there are all those other sounds available.  
I've played some of the very expensive samplers, and side-by-side with a  
mellotron, they do not sound the same. For some reason, throw a bunch of  
magnetic tape on one of these ridiculous machines and something magical  
happens. That's what I love about them -- and I'm sure I'm not alone.


I think you need to visit Streetly World Headquarter in Greater  
Metropolitan Blithbury nr Rugely and experience some of these sounds for  yourself. I 
think you'd change your tune. (You'll also have a hell of a  hangover 
afterwards...)


Respectfully,
Rick