[linux-audio-user] Re: Mellotron sounds

Rob lau at kudla.org
Thu Jul 14 21:14:15 EDT 2005


On Thursday 14 July 2005 11:45, Juhana Sadeharju wrote:
> How important it is to have the original Mellotron sounds?
> Mellotron is well known from songs like White Satin (by who?) but
> the guy recorded his own violin sounds. Why would we be happy with
> the factory sounds if he was not?

I don't think most people who are interested in the Mellotron sounds 
are hoping to do a cover version of Nights in White Satin (by the 
Moody Blues.... the keyboardist at the time being Mike Pinder, who 
put his name on a Mellotron sample CD that you used to be able to get 
for about 200 bucks.)

Nothing else sounds like the Mellotron strings and choir sounds.  
People who just try to imitate it using synthesis or even recording 
actual string sections or choirs don't "get it"..... the idea isn't 
to sound good or realistic, it's to sound like a Mellotron.

I made a Gravis patch a few years back out of samples I found on 
someone's mellotron fan page, which I used in some of my later 
pre-Linux doodling found at http://www.kudla.org/mymusic/ .  I'd 
distribute the .pat but I really have no idea what the copyright 
situation is and I don't want to taint anyone's collection.  My stuff 
is pretty awful (and nascent) but you can probably tell that I'm 
trying to use Mellotron sounds to get a surreal, lo-fi thing going.

Rob





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