The Mellotron Group

--- In newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com, Mike Dickson <mike.dickson@...> wrote:
>
> Sean wrote:
> 
> >  
> >
> > It seems that most all the M-Tron sounds (with exceptions like the 
> > cello) have much poorer signal to noise ratio than the real deal. I 
> > don't recall the Moodies or Crimson Mellotrons sounding hissy in 
> > unflattering ways. Mr. Dickson's recordings certainly don't sound that 
> > way.
> >
> 
> My recordings were filtered track-by-track through a very good noise 
> reduction system indeed to eliminate the white noise overhead. Pile up 
> 40 tracks of that and it would swamp everything. The thing is that what 
> you record on Monday has a different sonic picture the following day. 
> They are such fickle creatures.
> 
> I just don't much care for the M-Tron sounds. They seem muffled to death 
> at times and some appear to have been recorded with a mike at the Mk II 
> speakers. I mean...there is 'authentic' and there is 'needlessly 
> hopeful'.....
> 
> Mike
>

I think I just answered my own question just a little while ago. I fiddle-faddled with graphic EQ in real time and I think I gots it.

It's a 31 band EQ

For the MkII violins (M-Tron the "Violins 1" seems to be the MkII direct feed) Tone set to 12o'clock.
I've cut 14kHz  and above -20. That seems to clear up the jaggies quite well.
12kHz -6
315Hz -just a little bit, and steep roll off below that to -20 by 150Hz, to reinforce the highpass I already had in place.
Pull 400Hz, 1kHz, and 2kHz slightly above zero (probably about +2) and the areas in between these maybe -2, slope smoothly.

the 4-8kHz range seems to be where most of the SCREAM is, so I've moderately scooped this out (-4 or -6 or something like that).

The 8kHz-10kHz range seems to bring it forward in a mix if left alone, if reduced say by 3dB it sits better as the typical Mellotron wall-of-sound-ness.

I've compared with the old King Crimson recordings and I think I'm pretty much there. In the Court seems to have tone set to 9o'clock, and the fundamentals a little hotter (the 400Hz area and near neighbors) and the harmonics a little less than what I have, especially, so it seems, everything above 3kHz is a bit less.

The megalithic In the Court sound seems to be the same for lower register notes, but upper register notes I'm guess are recorded with a different EQ that has less fundamental and more overtone, and the tone knob back at around 12o'clock.



Try it, tell me if I'm daft or not.

-Sean


Oh, lots of reverb too.