The Mellotron Group

Thanks Nick and Nic:

I erroneously thought that the T550's were made from 1976 onward because John Bradley had a direct hand in building those himself and had started with Streetly at that time.

I also thought it could be a looped MK V but when you really think about it - maybe doing that is just asking for trouble.

Wakeman told me in person that "Two went to Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze also took one", but I was thinking he might be counting twice - that one Birotron could have went to Klaus Schulze (a former TD member) and the other went to Chris Franke.

I thought they were made one at a time, which might prevent an accumulated 3 from 'going out the door' like that.

Nic - would you remember how many finished units you actually laid eyes on in a room?

Anyway you can indeed hear it throughout Force Majeure (1979) and Hyperborea (1983) but that Loop Mellotron reference goes back to 1976 I think.

I wasn't sure what to tell the student because although I'm familiar with some of the Birotron sounds, I can't pick out the ones I know on Cyclone or Stratosfear, and I didn't want to give him wrong info.

If TD was using the Birotron that early, they had to be absolutely the first customers to get them.

By the way did the T550 Mellotron ever get used by other groups besides TD?

At 20:07 12/02/2012, Nick Hewitt wrote:

Chris Dale wrote: "Today, a university music student (who is a big Tangerine Dream fan) asked me what model of Mellotron the Loop Mellotron is on the Tangerine Dream albums.

Is it the T550 or was that not made in the 80's?... as a Novatron?? Does anyone know the definitive answer? I asked him to give me a couple of days to find out. The info on the net is far from accurate sometimes.

Chris - oddly enough, I've been recently been poking around the 'net, and I found out a little more on the T550 and the mods that TD did in converting a 'tron to take tape loops.

Firstly, the T550's were built between 1981 and 1983 and they WERE adapted from Novatrons. Only 3 or 4 were produced and Tangerine Dream bought at least 2 of them.

They DID attempt to convert one of their T550's to take a loop of tape, but it wasn't a total success, as the splice could clearly be heard, so TD had to adjust their music to hide it. It has also been stated that TD had a Birotron, which uses tape loops, so there's a possibility it could be that.

TD did indeed have Birotrons - they bought 2 and would very probably have been the only commercial customer we had. Off hand I cannot recall which TD albums the Birotron was used on, if any, but they certainly had a fascination for all these types of machines.

Best Regards,

Nic

Birotron #015 nearly completed :-)