Information AboutMellotron |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT MELLOTRON | |
| electric and electronic keyboard instruments | |
| electronic music instruments | |
| keyboard instruments | |
| companies based in birmingham, england | |
| music from birmingham, england | |
|
The Mellotron follows its direct ancestor the Chamberlin which was, in effect, the world's first Sample-playback keyboard. The heart of the instrument is a bank of magnetic audio tapes (these tapes were parallel linear, not Looped as has sometimes been reported or presumed), each tape with approximately eight seconds of playing time; playback heads underneath each key enables performers to play the pre-recorded sound assigned to that key when pressed. The earlier MKI and MKII models contained two side-by-side keyboards: On the right keyboard were 18 selectable "lead/instrument" sounds (such as Strings , Flute s, and Brass Instrument s). The left keyboard played pre-recorded musical rhythm tracks (in various styles). The tape banks for the later, lighter-weight M400 models contain only 3 selectable sounds such as strings, Cello , and the famous eight-voice Choir . The sound on each individual tape piece was recorded at the pitch of the key to which it was assigned. To make up for the fewer sounds available, the M400 tapes came in a removable frame, which allowed for relatively quick changes to new racks of sounds. HISTORY Although tape samplers had been explored in research studios (e.g., Hugh LeCaine 's 1955 keyboard-controlled "Special Purpose Tape Recorder", which he used when recording his classic "Dripsody"), the first commercially available keyboard-driven tape instruments were built and sold by California-based Harry Chamberlin from 1948 through the 1970s . Things really took off, however, when Chamberlin's sales agent, Bill Fransen , brought two of Chamberlin's instruments to England in 1962 to search for someone who could manufacture 70 matching tape heads for future Chamberlins. Harry Chamberlin was not at all happy at first with the fact that someone overseas was basically "copying" his idea, and that one of his own people (Bill Fransen) was the reason for this. He eventually found a UK company that were skilled enough to develop the idea further and a deal was struck with Bill and Lesley Bradley of tape recorder company Bradmatic Ltd. This resulted in the formation of a subsidiary company named Mellotronics, which produced the first Mellotrons in Aston , Birmingham , England . Bradmatic later took on the name Streetly Electronics. Many years later, following financial and trademark troubles, the Mellotron name became unavailable and later instruments were sold under the name Novatron. A small number of the instruments were assembled and sold by EMI under license. Through the late 1970s, the Mellotron had a major impact on Rock Music , particularly the 35 note (G-F) model M400. The M400 version was released in 1970 and sold over 1800 units, becoming a trademark sound of the era's progressive bands. The novel characteristics of the instrument attracted a number of celebrities, and among the early Mellotron owners were Princess Margaret , Peter Sellers , King Hussein of Jordan and Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard . Mellotrons were normally pre-loaded with string instrument and orchestral sounds, although the tape bank could be removed with relative ease by the owner and loaded with banks containing different sounds including percussion loops, Sound Effect s, or Synthesizer -generated sounds, to generate Polyphonic electronically generated sounds in the days before polyphonic synthesizers. The unique sound of the Mellotron is produced by a combination of characteristics: Among these are tape replay artifacts such as Wow and Flutter , the result being that each time a note is played it is slightly different from the previous time it was played (a bit like a conventional instrument). The notes also interact with each other so that chords or even just pairs of notes have an extremely powerful sound. Another factor in the strangely haunting quality of the Mellotron's most frequently-heard sounds is that the individual notes were recorded in isolation. For a musician used to playing in an orchestral setting, this was unusual, and meant that he/she had nothing to intonate against. Thus, the temperament of the mellotron is always somewhat questionable when it is used in the context of other instruments. Perhaps for this reason, and perhaps also to allow easy transposition of the instrument's limited range, the pitch control is placed closest to the keyboard on the M400 model. This temperament issue has led to the Mellotron being rather unfairly regarded as difficult to tune. There certainly could be mechanical problems that would also contribute to this. The original varispeed servo design was poor, for instance, but later improved dramatically. The tapes would stick inside their frames and refuse to rewind if the frame became distorted due to careless handling of the machine. Properly maintained, though, the machines behave a lot better than their reputation suggests. Although they enabled many bands to perform string, brass and choir arrangements which had been previously impossible to recreate live, Mellotrons were not without their disadvantages. Above all, they were very expensive – they sold for £1,000 in the mid-) typically took two Mellotrons on tour with them to cope with the inevitable breakdowns. The original Mellotrons (MkI/MkII) were not intended to be portable (they often become misaligned when jostled even lightly), but later models such as the M300, M400 and MkV were designed for portability. All models, when installed permanently in a studio, provided a very realistic effect. An example of this can be found on Elton John 's '' Goodbye Yellow Brick Road '' album. Despite these shortcomings, Mellotrons were prized for their unique sound, and they helped pave the way for the later Sampler . THE MELLOTRON IN POPULAR MUSIC British multi-instrumentalist Graham Bond may have been the first "rock" musician to record with a Mellotron, beginning in 1965. A year later The Beatles used it prominently on their groundbreaking single " Strawberry Fields Forever " (recorded November-December 1966). However, it was Mike Pinder of the Moody Blues who brought the Mellotron to the fore of popular music with the 1967 album Days Of Future Passed in songs including " Nights In White Satin " and "Tuesday Afternoon". Pinder, who worked for Mellotron for 18 months before joining The Moody Blues , actually suggested to The Beatles to use the Mellotron. Pinder made regular use of the Mellotron on the Moody Blues' studio albums from 1967 through 1971. Their 1972 album Seventh Sojourn employed the Chamberlin. The Mellotron was also used by The Zombies ("Changes"), Donovan ("Celeste"), Manfred Mann (several Mike D'abo -era recordings, including "So Long Dad" and "Semi-Detached Suburban Mr. James"), Lynyrd Skynyrd ("Tuesday's Gone"), The Rolling Stones (" 2000 Light Years From Home "), The Bee Gees ("World", "Every Christian Lion-Hearted Man Will Show You"), Traffic ("House for Everyone", "Hole In My Shoe"), Pink Floyd (" A Saucerful Of Secrets ", " Julia Dream ", " Sysyphus " and " Atom Heart Mother "), Procol Harum ("Magdalene (My Regal Zonophone)"), The Left Banke 's "Myrah", Marvin Gaye 's '' Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology) '', Big Star ("Kangaroo", played by producer Jim Dickinson ) and others during the Psychedelic era. The Kinks featured the instrument prominently in their recordings between 1967 and 1969, most obviously on 1968's "Phenomenal Cat," from '' The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society ''. The Mellotron was widely used to provide backing keyboard accompaniment by many of the Progressive Rock groups of the 1970s and alongside the venerable Hammond Organ it was crucial to shaping the sound of the genre. It features on albums such as '' Once Again '' by Barclay James Harvest , '' Grave New World '' by The Strawbs , '' In The Court Of The Crimson King '' by King Crimson , '' Space Oddity '', '' Hunky Dory '', and '' Diamond Dogs '' by David Bowie , '' 2112 '' and '' Snakes & Arrows '' by Rush , '' I Robot '' by The Alan Parsons Project , '' Fragile '' and '' Close To The Edge '' by Yes , and '' Nursery Cryme '', '' Genesis Live '', '' Foxtrot '', '' Selling England By The Pound '', '' The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway '', '' A Trick Of The Tail '', '' Wind & Wuthering '' and '' Seconds Out '' by Genesis . Tony Banks; keyboard player for Genesis; also achieved the greatest peaks of darkness with this instrument in the songs '' The Fountain Of Salmacis, '' ''Blood on the Rooftops,'' and the outro to the bonafide Mellotron classic '' Entangled ''. Especially haunting was the chorus used on '' Los Endos '' on '' A Trick Of The Tail '', and the famous introduction to '' Watcher Of The Skies ''. Led Zeppelin used a Mellotron to recreate the Recorder arrangement for live performances of " Stairway To Heaven ", and is featured prominently on " The Rain Song " from '' Houses Of The Holy ''. It was also used extensively by pioneering German electronic band Tangerine Dream through their prime, including solo work by Edgar Froese . The Tangerine Dream albums ''Phaedra'', ''Rubycon'', ''Ricochet'', and ''Encore'' as well as Froese's ''Epsilon in Malaysian Pale'' provide excellent examples of Mellotron playing. Another example of mellotron sounds can be heard on Immediate Curtain , played by former Soft Machine -percussionist Robert Wyatt on the first album of his second band Matching Mole . The advent of cheaper and more reliable polysynths and preset 'string machines' saw the Mellotron's popularity wane by the end of the 1970s. Following the impact of punk, the Mellotron tended to be viewed as a relic of a pompous era. By 1980, Switzerland's progressive rock band Flame Dream used the Mellotron on all 6 of their Vertigo, Phonogram albums; and its status had diminished to the extent that Captain Beefheart was able to reappropriate it almost as an archaic "found instrument". One of the few UK post-punk bands to utilise its sounds were Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark , who featured it heavily on their platinum-selling '' Architecture & Morality '' album (1981). The Mellotron experienced a revival of sorts in the 1990s. A variety of bands began using the instrument, including You Am I , Marillion , The Smashing Pumpkins , Oasis , Barenaked Ladies , Incubus , Tori Amos , Spock's Beard , Lenny Kravitz , The Flower Kings , Nine Inch Nails , Muse , Grandaddy , Tom Waits , The Brian Jonestown Massacre , Radio Massacre International , Radiohead , Porcupine Tree , Air , Opeth , No-Man and Waterclime . On Porcupine Tree 's 2005 album Deadwing , track six is titled "Mellotron Scratch" and includes lyrics about the sound of a Mellotron causing a woman to cry. Porcupine Tree 's Steven Wilson prominently used the haunting choral mellotron sounds on No-Man's 2003 album Together We're Stranger . In late '89/'90, R.E.M. laid down those mysterious sounding cello parts that are so prevalent in the cut " Losing My Religion ", using the Mellotron. REFERENCES
SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS
|
|
|