The Mellotron Group

I like your answer better than mine, John.
 
 
In a message dated 7/20/2009 5:57:12 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
astroboy@cinci.rr.com writes:

 
 
 
The consensus is that Tuesday Afternoon is Tenor Sax and Three Violins -  
you can hear it pretty clearly, and since you have M-tron, you can try  
it out. I've done it and that is the sound.

fourtytwominds  wrote:
> 
>
> Hello all.
>
> My name is Sean  Lowrie. Sadly I do not own a 'tron, just the M-Tron 
> samples;  a
> MkVI is on my wish list. I've asked this question at the 
>  "Mellotronists" group and a member there suggested I should ask this 
>  group as well.
>
> I've had the samples for about a year and a  half and I'm still trying 
> to come up
> with the correct signal  handling and mixing to get the megalithic 
> Moody Blues
> and  King Crimson sounds I'm used to.
>
> Last week I made a  breakthrough. I'm currently splitting the output 
> and taking
>  that into to separate unbalanced inputs on my small multitrack mixer. 
>  First
> channel I leave dry, cut the low and high, and boost the mid  range. 
> The second
> channel I send all the signal to the  internal effects unit on this 
> board for
> reverb. (It's an  Alesis board and I'm fairly happy with their 
> electronic  reverb
> circuitry, which even creates slightly different results for  left and 
> right
> channels) I have this signal boosted in lows  and highs but scooped in 
> the mid
> range: an approximate mirror  of the dry channel settings. On my board 
> L is 80Hz,
> M is  2.5kHz, and H is 12kHz. I'm getting fairly close to the sound I 
want,
>  fairly close indeed, but I'm not there. I finally have the presence and  
in
> general a megalithic quality in sound.
>
> What I don't  have is the chocolate-smooth sound that I'm used to out 
> of  King
> Crimson. I'm thinking specifically the studio tracks "Lament" and  "The 
> Night
> Watch" from the 1974 album Starless and Bible  Black. When I listen to 
> these
> tracks I notice that the sound  has more... for lack of a better term 
> "breath."
> The sound  seems to be of much higher fidelity than I'm used to out of the
>  Mellotron while still retaining the distinctive Mellotron  sound.
>
> Through research on the internet I'm sure these tracks  were studio 
> recorded on
> two well maintained M400s. I've tried  every sort of search I can 
> imagine in
> Google, I've been  hitting the King Crimson fan sites hoping for 
> information.
>  I've learned that RF scuttled an entire 2009 KC West Coast USA tour, 
>  that's
> where I live, over some hurt feelings or something, it's not  clear 
> what, but
> nothing on their mixing  techniques.
>
> I'm listening to The Night Watch as I'm writing  this long question. 
> The sound is
> not any more present, and  actually less megalithic than what I have, 
> but it has
>  time-CLARITY (not just a boost in the 4kHz area) that I cannot seem to  
> achieve,
> along with a slight bit of chorus type phasing I  think.
>
> On the front of the Moody Blues sound, I can't seem to  get my sound as 
> sleepy as
> Mike Pinder can. I understand his  MkII he modified himself, but to my
> understanding he only removed the  pre-amp circuit that boosted the 
> signal at
> 10kHz. The "tone"  knob on M-Tron, as on the real deal (to my 
> understanding) is
>  also at 10kHz and so I keep that real low, around 9'o'clock...
>
>  The sound still isn't there. Infact, it seems too dull and smeared. I 
>  pulled out
> Days of Future Passed and listened to Tuesday Afternoon.  I'm fairly 
> sure the
> lead is "Trumpets and Trombones" doubled  with "MkII Violins" and the 
> harmony is
> "MkII Brass" again  doubled with the violins. However, I'm noticing 
> that the note
>  attacks on the record have more of a harsh garbled attack, and my  
samples
> actually sound more like the instruments sampled than Mr.  Pinder's 
> MkII does. If
> it's a matter of tape cutting I'm sure  I can't do anything about it.
>
> But still that's not entirely  the whole problem. I'm still not getting 
the
> chocolate-smooth sound  that is also hollow and graceful. I asked Mr. 
> Pinder on
> his  own forum, but that was nearly a year ago and I don't think he's 
>  logged in
> to the forum in all this time. His right certainly to do so.  Doesn't 
> solve my
> ignorance though...
>
> Is it a  matter of compression technique? Using a haphazard collection 
> of  all
> digital equipment I don't have access to real-time compression,  only 
> after the
> fact in Audacity and so I tend to avoid  compression as it becomes too 
> much of
> guess-and-check work.  Is there something else I'm missing out on? When 
> it comes
> to  the violin sound I've taken the care to exclusively use what M-Tron 
>  names
> "MkII Vintage Violins" which is by far the highest fidelity  version of 
> that tape
> set the sample set has. It's REALLY  good. Still, I know I'm missing out 
on
> something.
>
> So,  after 3 chapters worth of ranting (damn this is a loooooong 
> question  I've
> got) I ask you all, you who are lucky enough to have and use a  real 
> Mellotron
> (or those who have gotten really good at using  the sample software), 
> for your
> expert opinions and advice.  I've been banging my head into a wall on 
> this one
> and I've  lost confidence that I'll get any further than this on my own.
>
>  Thanks to you all so much, you deserve a cookie or dinner or something  
> for even
> reading through what has got to be one of the  longest emails in the 
> last decade.
>
> -Sean  Lowrie
> _fourtytwominds@fourtytwo_ (mailto:fourtytwominds@yahoo.com)   
<mailto:fourtytwomimailto:fourtmai>
>
>  





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