HiFi Subjectivist ¦ Audio Forum ¦ NVA User Group

Had an extended King Crimson / Moody Blues session today and it has made me fall in love again with the Mellotron. I met and knew the old guys in the white coats who made them in a small factory in Birmingham. Totally Heath Robinson creation with tape loop racks, many different ones with different recordings on them, keys that pushed tape heads on to the tape loops. A tape playback system as a musical instrument. It's musical character is unique, no attack as the head touches the tape, so only for large chord like effects. PA:CE who I worked for in the very late 70's up to 1980 and my original company was formed out of took on the distribution and tried to resurrect it but its time had gone.

I now understand from the Wiki article it came back into production, this I didn't know. It can't be the original guys at Streetley Electronics as they were ancient back then.

https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Mellotron

"King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King" is a Mellotron Masterpiece "21 Century Schizoid Man" the show case......

You might want to checK out "Tangerine Dream's - Phaedra" also.

I heard Graham Bond playing one at the Flamingo club in the late '60's.Interesting sound,but the next time i saw him he was using a Hammond C3,which was more his style...and if you cut off the pedals,much more ford transitable.

Mike Pinder of the Moody Blues designed and built an alternative version of the Mellotron, and King Crimson's Robert Fripp is an acknowledged expert in repairing and restoring them.

I was going to add mid 70's Tangerine Dream as well. 'Mysterious Semblance at the Strand of Nightmares' from Phaedra is a Mellotron masterpiece (RIP Edgar).

Prog hardware.

I've got several Mellotrons...the software versions that is.

These little beauties were/are totally free and are probably the best ones I've got. They're based on real Mellotron samples.

https://sites.google.com/site/artifakelabs/

That is cheating

When I can afford a real one and develop the patience that allows me to nurture the little bugger and not kick it for being more temperamental than me I'll stop cheating.

At a Frankfurt show I had to change tape racks so I know what a PITA the thing was, and it wasn't particularly well made. The tape heads regularly started to bounce off the tape loops especially if you hit the keys hard, this created some very weird effects.