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The Mellotron, an electronic keyboard of recorded samples, changed pop music
- sitkack 3y agoThis whole comment section is a beautiful example of what makes hn nice. All the interested folks, sharing their links, not posturing about how smart they are or how stupid the post is. Just wonderful exploration and learning.
- tricky 3y agoI'm a terrible hobby musician and I love using the Mellotron that's in GarageBand or Logic. I had no idea what it really was before today (thanks for sharing the article) but it somehow always adds some sort of perfect, whimsical ambiance to whatever I'm trying to make. Give it a try with some reverb under a good beat. Can't go wrong.
- TheHideout 3y agoTangentially related, Melotron is the name of a fantastic synthpop band. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melotron https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melotron
- alecfreudenberg 3y agoJohn Medeski is a legendary jazz keyboardist who experimentally uses the tape speed to get extraordinary texture out of his OG mellotron. He recently put out a great record called 'Mellotron Variations' with a few other artists that gives you a deep dive into its tonal qualities. The modern digital mellotrons are so satisfying to play, especially with the instrument layering and mixing. Truly feels like like scoring an orchestra at your fingertips.
- stuartmemo 3y agoI made a little online version if anyone's interested - https://sodaphonic.com/instruments/mellotron https://sodaphonic.com/instruments/mellotron
- duderific 3y agoSuper cool, love it!
- Kye 3y agoI have an emulated version through Arturia's V Collection. It's fun to play around with even if newer sampler VSTs are more featureful. It's an easy way to get a specific sound of the era it came from.
- jacquesm 3y agoThe intro to Strawberry fields is a Mellotron: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtUH9z_Oey8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtUH9z_Oey8
- throw_m239339 3y agoDinosaur Jr - Thumb https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUVQSbrZ_Zo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUVQSbrZ_Zo Dinosaur Jr - Never Bought It https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMZvi96CDjE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMZvi96CDjE Dinosaur Jr - Don't Pretend You Didn't Know https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wk28bFikvvI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wk28bFikvvI
- barneybooroo 3y agoI've always loved using a (simulated) Mellotron when making music, without being consciously clued in to which songs first got me hooked on it, but you've just made me realise it was Dinosaur Jr, not Strawberry Fields Forever. Thanks!
- gerdesj 3y agoUp the road from here a new city has formed for about a week. Its population is roughly twice that of the City of Bath, which is close by. It's not actually in Glastonbury but on a farm near the village of Pilton which is way closer to Shepton Mallet than Glasto. However, the Isle of Avalon () n that is in Glastonbury and let's face it "Shepton Mallet" doesn't really cut it for a festy name! Pilton isn't too bad for a name but Glasto does have a Tor and some proper oddness. There is a bloke on the main road in Glasto at the moment, dressed up as Merlin who is blessing everyone who passes through. Nice sentiment. Anyway, I'd like to think that somewhere in the 90 odd stages in this year's Glasto, a Mellotron is wheezing and whining somewhere! The sound they produce is so lovely. Everyone else will be using a synth of some sort, probably on a laptop but it won't ever sound quite like a Mello ... well it will because modern gear can emulate a Mello and other old stuff rather well, for me. I don't buy cables costing £lol ------ () Before the Somerset levels were drained in the C16ish, Glasto Tor was an island as were several other raised bits of villages - eg Muchelney abbey was an island too. On the levels the older buildings are built on mounds for obvious reasons. Ill advised modern housing estates get flooded.
- Gordonjcp 3y agoWhere I used to live, a little north of Glasgow but a little south of Stirling, there was a big flat bit of low-lying ground where a modern housing estate was built, with a nice little stream at the bottom. The ground was flat because it was the bottom of a loch drained in the 1500s, by a culvert to a river a few miles away. All the rubbish that people threw from their cars washed down the stream, into the wetlands that it flowed through, and eventually began to gunk up the culvert. The wetlands got bigger, the stream got deeper, and by the 1970s the housing scheme had a nice little pond instead of a stream, and cracks in every foundation. It's not as bad as the proposed housing scheme further along the valley, where I have a photo (which I can't find just at the moment, sorry) of the developer's 4m tall sign boards just barely sticking out of a pond the size of the entire fenced-off bit. Don't drain wetlands then build on them, folks. Geology will always win against you.
- gerdesj 3y ago
- s1mon 3y agoFor a rabbit hole of sampling which involves Mellotron, Vako Orchestron, Optigan, New Order and Kraftwerk, I highly recommend this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_jrPon8bMg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_jrPon8bMg
- WalterBright 3y agoThe Moody Blues built their sound around the mellotron, I really like their albums. It also appears in the opening of the movie "Aguirre The Wrath of God". I like the dreamy, ethereal quality of it.
- SeanLuke 3y agoIIRC the Mellotron also featured prominently in the beginning of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds too.
- TonyTrapp 3y agoNote that there is barely any electronics in the Mellotron (the motor control). Here's a great breakdown of the instrument: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByD8gH7kYxs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByD8gH7kYxs
- zaplin 3y agoInterestingly, in a recent interview Damon Albarn, the guy behing Gorillaz revealed that the song Clint Eastwood is a Mellotron preset. You can check the interview, featuring the sample here > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDX6l9_58RA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDX6l9_58RA Btw, if you're interested in synths and music gear, I run a newsletter about music producers and their studios > https://www.gasnewsletter.com/ https://www.gasnewsletter.com/ [edit] uugghh, I messed up. I had in mind the omnichord. Damon Albarn used the omnichord, not the mellotron.
- mft_ 3y ago> I had in mind the omnichord. ...as also used by Bowie in a lovely cover of America, once upon a time. https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/david-bowie-simon-and-garfunkel-classic/ https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/david-bowie-simon-and-garfunkel...
- denton-scratch 3y ago> tape loops were heavy, and therefore difficult to export or take on tour. What could be lighter than a tape-loop?
- TheOtherHobbes 3y agoThe Mellotron is really more of a sound transformer. The playback system is so analog and wonky you get a kind of warbly soft focus evocation of the original sound with a surreal, often epic, edge around it. Musically it's not at all a straight copy. Which is why it was so popular for prog, especially during its drug-enhanced heyday. The magic isn't in the reproduction, it's in the unique atmosphere it creates.
- karina22222 3y agoNice
- Perenti 3y agoMy Boss back in the 80's bought one and I had the job of restoring it. The worst was jam on the drives and heads (a capstan drive and playback head for each key). The magazine where the tapes hang was full of ferrite dust. We ended up using a DX-7 and a Tascam to make new tapes that were not transparent from so much use. Since musicians favour particular keys, some notes get more use than others, so in theory you'd rebalance the volumes using a pot for each tape. A truely unique sound though, something about the analogue process just makes it lovely.
- dang 3y agoRelated: The Mellotron In Action [video] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17939204 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17939204 - Sept 2018 (44 comments)
- retrac 3y agoConceptually similar, there was also the ANS synthesizer [1] designed by the Soviet engineer Evgeny Murzin. Unlike the Mellotron, it was opto-electronic, giving the composer more direct access and control over the "samples". Waveforms were drawn on glass plates, and pressing one of the keys would scan across the associated plate, feeding the generated signal through various filters, etc. It features prominently in the soundtrack by Eduard Artemyev, for the historical film Siberiade from 1979. [2] [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANS_synthesizer https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANS_synthesizer [2] https://youtube.com/watch?v=sJj9y4t9UnU https://youtube.com/watch?v=sJj9y4t9UnU
- rodgerd 3y ago> Waveforms were drawn on glass plates Interestingly enough the documentary "Sisters with Transistors" show some British pioneers adopt a similar approach, but drawing on film rather than glass plates, in the 40s and 50s.
- TheOtherHobbes 3y agoThat was Daphne Oram, who was a pioneer and all-round innovator. You can find her book online and it's a fascinating insight into a different cultural universe than the one we have today. But her Oramics system was more like an automation controller hand-painted onto film strip than optical waveform synthesis. It was a direct ancestor of the automation in all modern DAWs.
- joezydeco 3y agoA somewhat distant cousin to that is the Mattel Optigan, which used waveforms printed on a transparent sheet of plastic and spun over a photocell. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optigan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optigan
- epcoa 3y agoThat’s how sound movies worked for years.
- 3y ago
- noizejoy 3y agoThere’s a fantastic free collection of samples recorded from real Mellotrons, which is worth knowing about for anyone desiring to experiment with creating their own virtual Mellotron. “Tajiguy mellotron samples” in your favourite search engine, should hopefully get you to the right place.
- w0mbat 3y agoThe original article is wrong to use the term "samples". That only applies when making a digital representation of an analog signal by "sampling" the amplitude thousands of times a second. These are recordings. The Mellotron is still alive and well, both as a mechanical instrument still supported and made by Streetly Electronics, and in digital form by the official plug-in versions from GForce Software like https://www.gforcesoftware.com/products/m-tron-pro/ https://www.gforcesoftware.com/products/m-tron-pro/ . I suppose with the plug-in virtual Mellotron the sounds really are samples.
- epcoa 3y agoThe term sampling is used in DJing and music production for a short “sample” of a whole, long before digital recording technologies were used. You’re too ridgid in your definition. (I am also surprised why this specific “well akshully” comes up - it’s not like DJ sampling or hip hop sampling is obscure.)
- dekhn 3y agoI believe the term "sampling" was introduced with the Fairlight, which was digital. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairlight_CMI https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairlight_CMI although I would refer to previous analog work as sampling, since a sample is a generic term.
- epcoa 3y agoYes, sample is generic, which is why I admit a little bit of skepticism with the claim that Fairlight coined the term and that it wasn't used prior to 1979 by turntablists/DJs earlier in the 70s, or with analog tape sampling. Is there a strong reference? I know that's in wikipedia, and the primary reference appears to be https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/lost-art-sampling-part-1 https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/lost-art-sampling-pa.... As much as I love SOS, this is rather flimsy evidence that Fairlight "coined" the term. I think we agree that it's irrefutable that the use of the term sample in the past 30 years is unrelated to digital vs. analog both on wikipedia and numerous scholarly and printed works. That doesn't speak to origin of the term of course. The OED doesn't cite uses prior to 1985, FWIW. Edit: Ok that was pretty easy to debunk with Google Books. Selected Reports in Ethnomusicology Volume 8, UCLA School of Music from 1974 refers to sampling: "the sounds (or "samples") are not created within the instrument itself but are recorded sounds from some external source which are fed into a sampling instrument". There are some other usages from around that time-frame.
- weinzierl 3y agoVulfpeck's Woody Goss has a short but excellent video about vintage keyboard instruments, one of them being the Mellotron. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rK8FhHt0iO4 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rK8FhHt0iO4
- MontgomeryPi2 3y agoObligatory Moody Blues song link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlMebMCru9s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlMebMCru9s
- rwmj 3y agoOr most Van Der Graaf Generator songs. eg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDDf_SuAlBA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDDf_SuAlBA (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Plague_of_Lighthouse_Keepers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Plague_of_Lighthouse_Keepers)
- beders 3y agoOr Genesis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2agWXrNJGjg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2agWXrNJGjg
- jim-jim-jim 3y agoThey bought their mellotron used from King Crimson, who must have upgraded to a different model. I'm not dedicated enough to know the differences in the makes, but Genesis' would break down with enough regularity that Gabriel and Collins had a little story and drum routine they'd distract the audience with whenever it needed to be repaired.
- metal13 3y agoPicked a good day to wear my Opeth hoodie...
- volfied 3y agoIsn't it all Steven Wilson playing the mellotron on Opeth records? Damnation is one of those albums where if you hear a song from it, the whole thing is getting played.
- squigg 3y agoIf the Panoptigon playing Kraftwerk "Uranium" does not send a shiver up the spine of anyone in tech, then you my friend should have a good hard look in the mirror. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6uvpd38msA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6uvpd38msA
- Lio 3y agoAn article about the Mellotron that doesn’t mention King Crimson’s In the Court of the Crimson King? Disgraceful! :P https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ukgraQ-xkp4&pp=ygUta2luZyBjcmltc29uIGluIHRoZSBjb3VydCBvZiB0aGUgY3JpbXNvbiBraW5n https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ukgraQ-xkp4&pp=ygUta2luZyBjcml...
- Applejinx 3y agoOne could also mention the Birotron. It was a mellotron-type instrument that Rick Wakeman had in the mid-seventies, but instead of the Mellotron strips of rewindable tape, it used 8-track tape housings to hold its tape. The members of Yes are said to have pranked Rick one day, by swapping out all the tapes for commercial 8-tracks, so when he began to play it was a cacophony of pop songs overlaid onto each other, rather than the appropriate sounds. It's said that Wakeman was quite cross :) (the instrument is heard on Tangerine Dream's album Force Majeure: strings and male choir https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Afqgm3CzzQY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Afqgm3CzzQY )
- devnull255 3y agoRight? And King Crimson sold one of theirs to Tony Banks of Genesis. At least that's a claim here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mellotron https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mellotron I loved its use on The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.
- hondo77 3y agoOr Michael Pinder from The Moody Blues. You know, the guy who also introduced the Mellotron to The Beatles?
- hayley-patton 3y agoOrchestral Manouevres in the Dark also used the Mellotron in the early 80s, all over Architecture and Morality and Dazzle Ships. > But without actually having the confidence or the guts to work with a real choir we had to employ other means of trying to reproduce that massed choral sound, hence the Mellotrons. For example the Mellotron provided the violin lead and choir background in their single Maid of Orleans: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmwMhjbThKg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmwMhjbThKg
- joemi 3y agoThere's a group called Mellotron Variations (led by a great organist, John Medeski) where all four members play Mellotrons. It's very interesting, and much more varied than you might expect if you're familiar with the typical Mellotron uses. There are some videos of their live performances on youtube, including an NPR Tiny Desk concert.
- FpUser 3y agoThis is absolutely genius. I love it. Too bad I did not know about them before. https://youtu.be/B7XF3tINSyI https://youtu.be/B7XF3tINSyI
- acomjean 3y agoIs that the John Medeski of Medeski Martin & Wood? I have a couple albums from them I need to listen to again, but he was on a Hammond or piano. I can see this new thing being fun.
- joemi 3y agoIndeed, it sure is him! I love that he's still doing awesome stuff. The early MMW albums will forever hold a special place in my heart.
- rwmj 3y agoI'm thinking about the MTBF of Mellotrons, and thinking it's a miracle all 4 band members were able to play together ...
- niccl 3y agoI think the BBC used a version of the mellotron with sound effects instead of instruments, so they could quickly access effects during a radio show