Sampled/virtual Mellotron...which one?

[Cygnus64]

I'm not trying to be snarky. This is a serious question. Unless you are playing Moody Blues covers, why would anyone want to use a mellotron anything. Any way you slice it it's a wobbly-pitched, looped low-fi string recording.

 

Because it sounds cool. Why else would you use an instrument and/or sound? Because you think it sounds cool. If you don't think it sounds cool, then don't use it.

 

Why is that hard to understand?

 

 

It's not hard to understand, it's the irony involved.

I love the sound, some of my favorite recordings of all time have it. But there's a delicious irony that would be akin to watching "Avatar" on a black and white TV.

 

It would be fun to time travel. One of my favorite mellotron uses is on "Foxtrot". It would be great to go back, bring a laptop with E/W orchestra samples, and ask Tony Banks which machine he would like to use.

[mate stubb]

I cannot imagine listening to "Court of the Crimson King" played on modern orchestral sample libraries.

 

That's just WRONG.

 

http://www.classicrockmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/court-crimson-king.jpg

[Tusker]

I think the mellotron evolved into it's own voice, just as the B3 and the rhodes evolved into their voices. It's a fantastic evocative sound.

 

To me though most modern romplers do mellotron flavor better than they do B3 or Rhodes because they have the same basic functionality in digital form. Use orchestral samples recorded with vibrato. Engage those LFOs for the wow and flutter. Add a sprinkling of white noise (tape hiss). Savagely EQ out the top end of the samples. Run through a tube sim at zero gain, and you are so very close, you can smell Rick Wakeman's cape.

 

If you want to play honest, you could even set an 8 second limit on the envelopes with most of synths. Don't forget the 'swell pedal' for playability. Reverb bath is optional.

 

Hey, I am the guy who refuses to use a garlic crusher when the broad side of a knife will do.

[Mark Schmieder]

A new expansion for G-Force M-Tron Pro was just released, including a lot more Chamberlin sounds:

 

http://www.gforcesoftware.com/products/chambertron

 

Meanwhile, I bought SampleTron during the August 3-for-1 sale, and must say that I find it sonically superior in several categories -- probably due to leaving the original attack intact instead of cleaning it up like G-Force did.

 

Nevertheless, I am happy to have both products as there is VERY little overlap in the supplied tape banks and especially the artist's banks. Right now, I'm using M-Tron Pro more for choirs and Chamberlin (+ Optigan etc.) and SampleTron more for strings.

[CrimsonianKing]

I cannot imagine listening to "Court of the Crimson King" played on modern orchestral sample libraries.

 

That's just WRONG.

 

http://www.classicrockmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/court-crimson-king.jpg

 

+1 More than wrong

[Dana.]

Right now, I'm using M-Tron Pro more for choirs and Chamberlin (+ Optigan etc.) and SampleTron more for strings.

Mark, why do you prefer M-Tron's Chamberlin and Optigan sounds to SampleTron's?

[Mark Schmieder]

Probably because there are more of them in the G-Force product, and I haven't had time to thoroughly compare them on that level yet, so I wasn't really finding comparable patches.

[Dana.]

OK. Apparently the Chamberlin and Optigan sounds don't come with M-Tron Pro but are only available as expansion packs? If so, that makes them less cost effective than the all inclusive SampleTron.