The Mellotron Group

--- In newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com, Bruce Daily <pocotron@...>
wrote:
>
> Welcome, John-
> 
>    Checked out your pictures.  Judging from the metal
> edging, it looks like your 'tron IS the roadcase. :-)
> 
>    Yep, that CMC-10 has gotta go!
> 
>    Say, what voices are on your tapeframe?
> 
> 
>    -Bruce Daily
>    M400 #1221 (in the midst of lacing a frame)
> 
> 
> --- John LeVasseur <jrlaudio@...> wrote:
> 
> > Hi All,
> > 
> > New member here just saying hi. The name here is
> > John and I own a M400
> > #752. 
> > 
> > Love to use Mellotron in my music. If you want you
> > can hear it on my
> > MySpace page at http://www.myspace.com/airfoilband
> > of which there are
> > three songs featuring the M400. 
> > 
> > Check out the song named "Next Step Off" for the
> > classic mellotron
> > string thing. The song titled "Return of the Parson"
> > features about 8
> > tracks of various mellotron choir parts
> > multi-tracked. I had to
> > multitrack because this M400 still has the CMC10
> > board and the pitch
> > drop was too much to deal with. Haha! Most of these
> > songs are works in
> > progress and do not have vocals and guitars yet, and
> > are ruff mixes as
> > well.
> > 
> > Also, I just finished the final mix on a Bach
> > Concerto (Concerto in Dm
> > (BMV-1052) which was recorded in a church with a
> > real Harpsichord, a
> > Hammond C3 and a large analog modular synth from
> > Synthesizers.com. The
> > piece is a rock adaptation with drums similar in
> > style to something
> > ELP or Rick Wakeman would do. A bit off topic since
> > it has no
> > Mellotron, but I happen to be a little proud of it,
> > so there it is.
> > 
> > I also posted some pics of my M400 in the photos
> > section of this
> > group. Will be posting soon since the ol' dog is in
> > need of
> > restoration at this point and I will have some
> > questions very soon.
> > 
> > Thanks,
> > 
> > John LeVasseur
> > 
> > 
> 
> 
> 
>      
____________________________________________________________________________________
> Never miss a thing.  Make Yahoo your home page. 
> http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs
>

Hi,

The metal edging was something a keyboard tech I had years ago did. He
got tired of touching up the paint, so he covered the whole thing in
hard white vinyl and added the metal edging. I do have a "muff" cover
for it as well as a rolling hard ATA flightcase as well. This
particular tron has been on the road for some twenty years, and is
only now ready for a little restoration.

As far as the tapeframe collection, I have six tapeframes which has
the usual collection of the various string sounds (3-violins, string
sections, etc.) all of the various choir sounds, and the various
woodwinds (solo and sections, plus flute). Oddly I do not have any of
the brass sounds. All of the tapes are original tapes and are actually
still in surprisingly good condition. But I think I will soon retire
these tapes and buy new sets, archiving the originals. I recently
created samples (24/88.2kHz) of my total tape collection (for my own
use only) understanding my original tapes will eventually succumb to age.

I plan on upgrading to new electronics as well (controller, PSU, etc.)
very soon. Funny thing about the pitch issues with the CMC unit; over
the years I had come accustom to having one hand on the pitch knob at
all times and correcting for pitch by ear in real time. Later I went
over to using the hardware version of the Antares AutoTune. Now since
I went to digital control and mix automation of my keyboard rig, I use
the Antares AutoTune plugin, both of which do the job very well and
frees both hands for playing. Hopefully with the new electronics I can
eliminate this compromise.

JRL