Mellotron

[garyb]

it's not the same.
play with a real one and see.

it's plenty close, though.

[Nestor]

After this little video, I saw the real intro in a Genesis concert and it seemed quite similar to me, now, I have never played one or have had one in front of me, so I don't know much.

It really is cool and it has its own magic to it, even having all we have today. Beautiful instrument!

[krizrox]

I did a session with the M-Tron today. The client can play keyboards and seemed very happy with the results. Some of the patches are a bit noisy but I assume that was true with the original too. Part of the charm I guess lol.

[astroman]

After this little video, I saw the real intro in a Genesis concert and it seemed quite similar to me...

the basic sound is exactly the same as both Omenie and G-Force emulate the physical behaviour of tape playback
(a mellotron only plays continous for the length of the tape, then a spring loaded mechanism rewinds the tape)
but the the software triggers instananeously, while the original adds keyboard latency and of course some analog deviations that are inevitable with this construction
so the final result will always be a little bit different

considering the time those 'samples' were recorded, the quality (and beauty) of the sounds is amazing
and it's cool that the company still records new 'tapes' on original equipment and transfers them into software afterwards

cheers, Tom

[krizrox]

We worried a little about that 8 second limit but it didn't seem to be a problem as none of the notes played had to be held for 8 seconds. There are some remastered sounds that were bundled with the program that allow continuous looping and they were cleaner sounding than the original.

fascinating history and story about these instruments. I learned a great deal since acquiring this program.

[Nestor]

Learning is so cool! Great brother, one more step

[dante]

After this little video, I saw the real intro in a Genesis concert and it seemed quite similar to me!

It seemed the Mello went out of fashion after the prog peak of 1973, and was replaced by lighter synths easier for roadies. But a bit of research shows Genesis were using it right into the late 70's for writing, and beyond or live performance of tracks from the 70's

http://www.planetmellotron.com/revgenesis.htm

I would agree with author - FoxTrot was by far their peak album and the best use of the MelloBabe, featuring on all tracks but 2, one of which was Steve Hackett's 'Horizons' solo guitar piece.

WOW ! The early days when they weren't too rich yet - they hired one ! Ain't history grand !

Mellotrons used:
•Trespass: hired-in MkII
•Nursery Cryme/Foxtrot/Live: band's own MkII
•Selling England - Archive #2: one of three M400s owned sequentially by band

[krizrox]

yes very expensive at the time (about as much as a house lol) and stupid heavy lol

[dante]

Yeah like the first Fairlight a decade or so later - weighed and cost like a house. In concept, really it was a digital version of the Mellotron with a sequencer tacked on. Even down to the problem of loop point.