The Mellotron Group

Bill - fascinating stuff. Generally prefer plates for recording. For 
live, a Hammond long-spring coupled with my (noisy) DOD Analog Delay 
stomp-box is convenient.
Had the chance to see the live echo chamber at United Western in 
Hollywood that was used by the Beach Boys, etc. A pretty storied little 
room...
Vance

william Beith wrote:
>  
> For the Brick Audio plate we chose stainless steel to avoid the rust 
> problem associated with the cold rolled steel of the EMT plates.
>  
> I worked for Gibson guitar in their string division and through that 
> experience became aware of the effect metal composition has on 
> strings. So when I found I had a choose in types of stainless, I went 
> with a high nickel content which gave a better high end. Thus to 
> flatten the sound we had to roll off the high end which increased the 
> signal to noise ratio.
>  
> Today with the proliferation of outboard mic pre-amps, I am making the 
> plates passive, which allows the user to use their mic pres for send 
> and return. I had had great luck using the send section of various 
> boards (Tascam, Mackie, Soundcraft) to drive the plate, with a mic pre 
> on the return to warm it up.
>  
> Another trick with the plate, a spring or a tape machine functioning 
> as a reverb is to insert a delay before the reverb and send only the 
> delayed signal. Gives the same response as the live chamber that Abbey 
> Road has. That great Beatles vocal delayed cross channel vocal wash.
>  
> If anyone is interested please contact me off group to discuss 
> acquisition of a plate.
>  
> Bill
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From:* Thomas C. Doncourt <tomdcour@amnh.org>
> *To:* newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com
> *Cc:* newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com
> *Sent:* Sun, October 10, 2010 9:54:34 PM
> *Subject:* Re: [newmellotrongroup] Re: Tape echo and spring reverb
>
>  
>
> I've heard of the Brick plates before. Never played the tron through one
> but would like to.
> I've recorded with an EMT gold plate- the old Delta studio had one. It was
> warm, the best reverb I have heard for mellotron to date. I've always used
> a spring reverb- had a Premier in the 70's and one made byamp builder Tim
> Van right now. The current one is tube and has a warm tone but a
> relatively short time. In the 70's if someone had showed me the Alessis
> midiverb I would have thrown my spring unit in the trash. That would have
> been a mistake. Now I'm thinking of finding an EMT somewhere or trying out
> the Brick!
>
> > Univox echos can be had cheap., kind've basic. If you are lucky enough
> > to
> > get a tape echo, don't forget to use back lubricated tape. It can still
> > be
> > had and a $50 reel will last a decade or more, it's the same stuff they
> > fill
> > broadcast carts with, you don't need Roland loops. Lately I like to use
> > shorter loops, I change them according to a schedule, so i have been
> > bulking
> > and cutting down 8 Track tapes, this is the cheapest and easiest 
> method of
> > getting back coated tape. It is good 1/4" hifi tape. A tape echo with a
> > fresh tape sounds amazing. The RE201D is a good device and so is the old
> > Chandler solid state echo emulator.
> >
> > Another great and cheap source of tape echo is reel to reel tape decks.
> > Set
> > the playback source to tape and input to mic or line and then adjust the
> > echo with input volume and to a lesser degree with speed. if you 
> take the
> > physical output and crosspatch it into the input you can get a mild 
> cross
> > channel bounce. All you need is a fresh roll of tape. The stocks of reel
> > tape is the best made in the past 35 years save Emitape whis has always
> > been
> > good.
> >
> > Anybody who needs a reel of 1/4" let me know, I can hook you up.
> >
> >
> > gino
> >
> >
> > On Sun, Oct 10, 2010 at 6:38 PM, william Beith <wbeith@sbcglobal.net 
> <mailto:wbeith%40sbcglobal.net>>
> > wrote:
> >
> >>
> >>
> >> I build plate reverberation units and hold a patent on one under the
> >> name
> >> Brick Audio.
> >>
> >> If anyone has an interest I can send a pdf of the manual.
> >>
> >> Alas....I do not yet have a Mellotron to demo through it. I suspect 
> that
> >> any studio smaller than Abbey Road (which had its own chambers) used
> >> EMT
> >> 240 plate reverbs in their studio. So most 60's European Mellotron
> >> recordings with reverb could be assumed to be plate reverb.
> >>
> >> If American and recorded in the Capitol or Sunset studio's they 
> also had
> >> their own chambers. Everyone else uded plates, generally EMT 240's.
> >>
> >> A 240 was a 3X6 foot steel plate. The Brick Audio plates are 3X3, 3X5
> >> and
> >> 3X7 stainless steel eliminating the rust issues. The driver is 
> bonded to
> >> the
> >> plate itself eliminating the need to calibrate/setup.
> >>
> >> Bill
> >>
> >> ------------------------------
> >> *From:* Sean <fourtytwominds@yahoo.com 
> <mailto:fourtytwominds%40yahoo.com>>
> >> *To:* newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com 
> <mailto:newmellotrongroup%40yahoogroups.com>
> >> *Sent:* Sun, October 10, 2010 3:18:10 PM
> >> *Subject:* [newmellotrongroup] Re: Tape echo and spring reverb
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> I've never run across a real spring or plate unit. If anyone has one,
> >> would
> >> you do a side by side comparison of spring and plate reverb for the
> >> Melly?
> >> Thanks.
> >>
> >> -Sean
> >>
> >> --- In
> >> newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com 
> <mailto:newmellotrongroup%40yahoogroups.com><newmellotrongroup%40yahoogroups.com>,
> >> tspit74@... wrote:
> >> >
> >> > I grabbed a Multivox MX-312 Multi Echo off Craigslist recently and
> >> finally hooked it up to #857. Holy shit! Nothing compares to tape echo
> >> and
> >> spring reverb. The 312 is an off brand knockoff of the Roland RE-201
> >> Space
> >> Echo with some additional features. Particularly "swell reverb" which
> >> adds a
> >> swelling echo to the reverb signal. Lush doesn't begin to describe it.
> >> My
> >> advice: If you haven't tried your tron thru an old tape echo/spring
> >> reverb,
> >> you haven't lived. Tape to tape is a beautiful sound.
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > Now back to playing some Starless...
> >> >
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
>
>