An
Introduction to the Mellotron Project
This
project is all about making the sound of the Mellotron accessible
to all of you EX users out there. As well as providing a batch of
sounds that capture the spirit of the Mellotron, we thought it would
also be interesting and informative to provide some background information
on what makes the Mellotron so special. So well start by giving
you an introduction that places the Mellotron within the roadmap
of the music technology that makes up the EX series of synthesisers.
Well then take you into a description of how the Mellotron
makes its noises, after which youll be amazed that it ever
worked reliably enough for people to make a living out of them.
Finally well give you a potted history of the Mellotron, which
has as many twists and turns as the usual story behind many a rock
band! We hope youll take the time to read these words, as
we believe that theyll help you to appreciate the amazing
sounds that the Mellotron created, and which you can now have embodied
within your EX synthesiser.
The
Road Map of Synthesis Technology (from an EX perspective)
As I write this introduction to the EX Mellotron project, I am listening
to an album by Arena called "Immortal", which was recorded
and released this year (2000), and it features the sound of a truly
wonderful, if somewhat archaic, instrument called the Mellotron.
In some ways that is strange, because compared to the awesome technology
we have available today, we are talking about an instrument which
was and still is a mechanical nightmare, and which in its day was
loved for its sound by some, seen as a means to an end by others,
and generally despised by all for its lack of portability and unreliability.
To
understand what makes the Mellotron so special and to set the scene
of its amazing story, lets look at the Yamaha EX family of synthesisers
which (I believe) represents the pinnacle of many synthesis technologies
at the start of our new millennium, and work our way back along
the technological roadmap of synthesis technology to find the Mellotrons
place in the grand order of things.
If
you think about it, the EX is itself a culmination of several decades
worth of technological innovation. The only major synthesis technologies
of note (sic) left out of the EX are FM synthesis and additive synthesis,
but you cant have everything! FDSP synthesis itself is the
only technology that has only ever been seen on the EX, and so far
it has yet to reappear on any other synth (to me that alone will
always make the EX special). Both
analogue and physical modelling technologies are products that became
available to the masses in the nineties with the AN1X and the VL70m
instruments. Moving swiftly to the EXs AWM engine, the marrying
of sample playback to a traditional synthesiser sound chain was
first seen in the mid-eighties on the Emulator-II. In the same era,
the Roland D50 was the first synth to replace oscillators with short
sample loops, again with a conventional synth processing chain tagged
on the back.
Digital
sampling itself places us in the technological road map at the back
end of the seventies, when most of us could only dream about machines
such as the Fairlight. And of course, analog synthesis was first
available at the tail end of the sixties in those hugely modular
but expensive synthesisers, with the "classic" processing
chain being embodied in the first affordable mono synths of the
seventies. Moving back to sampling, the Fairlight introduced this
to us but it was hideously expensive and was initially the preserve
of rich recording studios or even richer rock stars. Even the Emulator
II had a five figure price tag when it came out. Mass produced sampling
machines only became affordable to the masses in the late eighties/
early nineties.
However,
you may be surprised that, if we throw away the "digital"
tag, sample playback has actually been about for even longer than
all of the technologies we have mentioned so far, and youve
probably guessed by now that this is where the Mellotron fits into
our musical technology map. It was the first commercially successful
sample playback machine, and its inception predates every single
technology we have spoken about so far.
Thus
you can see that the Mellotron was right there at the beginning!
However, if you read the accompanying history (and without giving
too much away, yet), you may be surprised to find out that the roots
of the Mellotron stretch back even further into an earlier instrument
But before we move further into Mellotron territory, consider this:
Given the enormous technological arsenal we have today at our fingertips,
why would anybody even consider using a Mellotron these days? If
it is purely just capable of playing back samples, why bother when
todays samplers are capable of so much, cost less and certainly
weigh less?
The
answer is quite simple; its the sound generated by the Mellotron
that makes it so special. In the same way that vintage analogue
synthesisers are back in demand, the Mellotron is currently enjoying
a renaissance, because people have realised that its sound is so
unique. Heres two recent (and diverse) examples: Steve Hackett
(of Genesis fame) had two Mellotrons rebuilt for his retrospective
look at early Genesis on his "Genesis Revisited" album,
and Noel Gallagher of Oasis has taken delivery of a modern Mellotron
MK VI, resplendent in its custom chocolate brown finish; all the
Beatles each had one, so naturally he had to copy them!
Yes,
the beast is back!
And
although there is no absolute substitute for the original, the sounds
you can download from this site are pretty damn close. And anyway,
I could never get a real Mellotron up into my attic studio
humping the EX up there is bad enough!
|