The Mellotron Group

On what stone tablets is it written that a Mellotron or Chamberlin HAVE to be tape replay instruments? The whole idea was to be able to playback instruments on a keyboard. Who can dictate with absolute authority that this has to be done exclusively on recording tape?
 A bit like saying a car with a computer can no longer be called a car because old cars didn't have computers.



--- In newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com, lsf5275@... wrote:
>
> If you make a digital "violin" that plays back violin samples is it a  
> violin? The very nature of what makes a Mellotron a Mellotron is that it plays  
> tapes. Markus' machine has the name Mellotron on it because he has the right 
> to  put that name on anything he so chooses. He could build a guitar and 
> put  Mellotron on the head stock and we would know it as a "Mellotron" Guitar. 
> In  this case, he has put the name "Mellotron" on a DIGITAL sample playback 
> machine  that shares nothing else in common with a real Mellotron except 
> wooden keys that  are dimensionally similar and a shape that is reminiscent of 
> the top of a M400.  I am not degrading Markus' machine, I would love to 
> have one. I am merely  pointing out that it is no more a Mellotron than the 
> Memotron is.
>  
> If Harry Chamberlin were alive today and made a digital sample playback  
> machine that played his samples or any other samples and put his name on it we 
>  would call it a Chamberlin "..." but it would not be the same thing. 
> "Mellotron"  is not just a name owned by David Kean, it is a kind of thing. The 
> fact that  Streetly makes such a machine that doesn't use the name but is one 
> none the less  supports this position. People look at it and buy it and 
> play it and if you ask  them what it is they'll tell you it's a Mellotron
>  
> If I want to play any other sound than those Markus sells for his digital  
> machine I can't unless I hack the software or find some other way of 
> sneaking  different sounds into it. The nature of a Mellotron is such that there is 
> no  limit to what sounds I can put into it. If they can be put on tape, I 
> can play  them.
>  
> If I make a frame from scratch that substantially duplicates the original,  
> duplicate the original keyboard, make a preamp, line amp and controls like  
> a Mellotron and get a Mellotron tape frame, then I put the whole mess in a  
> white cabinet shaped like an M400, everyone who looks at it and hears it 
> will  say, "that's a Mellotron."
>  
> We could go on and on Charles, and while I respect your opinion, we'll have 
>  to disagree. I'm right and you're wrong. Nyah! 
>  
>  
> In a message dated 1/22/2011 12:18:52 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
> charel196@... writes:
> 
> The  M4000D is a DIGITAL MELLOTRON
>