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Let's have a Mellotron thread

I know the Mellotron from Beatles / Bowie output, but a quick check on my Discogs collection informs me that it is also used on -
Pj Harvey - Let England Shake
10cc - Sheet Music
UNKLE - Psyence Fiction
The Divine Comedy - Office Politics

loads more, but the ones listed aren’t the usual suspects!
 
Somebody gave me a couple of Mellotron capstan shafts - lovely lumps of Brass, just over 3/4 inch diameter and about 5 feet long if I remember correctly, made very nice film rollers.......
 
Marchbanks said:
Plus the action on a MkII was totally different to an M400. I can’t imagine, say, Brian Jones (We Love You) or Ian McDonald (Mars) getting the same vicious attack on a 400.

But really I’m bluffing. We need a proper recorded, touring Mellotron player to tell us - calling @stephen bennett !!
Click to expand...

Having only played an M400 and struggled to get any sound out of it (I am bit effete) I couldn't say either.
 
This thread is carp without some music.

There's at least four going on in this video (Bosendorfer Grand, choir, FX)





 
Seeker_UK said:
ISTR it appears a lot on the "Rite" albums.
Click to expand...
He has a least 2 working Mellotrons. From the link listed above they have been used on

Julian Cope (UK)
Try Try Try (1995 EP) - Julian Cope? REVIEW (***/½)
Julian Cope Presents 20 Mothers (1995) - Julian Cope REVIEW (***½/TTTT)
Interpreter (1996) - Julian Cope REVIEW (***½/TTTT½)
Rite2 (1997) - Julian Cope/Thighpaulsandra REVIEW (***½/TT½)
Odin: A 73-Minute Meditation on Silbury & Waden Hill (1999) - Julian Cope REVIEW (***/T)
Floored Genius 3: Julian Cope's Oddicon of Lost Rarities & Versions, 1978-98 (2000) - Julian Cope/others? REVIEW (***/TT½)
An Audience With the Cope 2000 (2000) - Julian Cope REVIEW (***½/TTT½)
Discover Odin (2001) - Julian Cope REVIEW (****/TT)
Rite Now (2002) - Julian Cope REVIEW (***½/½)
Rome Wasn't Burned in a Day (2003) - Julian Cope REVIEW (****/TTT)
Dark Orgasm (2005) - Julian Cope REVIEW (***½/TTT)
Concert Climax: Live in Hearing of the Motherfucker (2006) - Holy McGrail or Thighpaulsandra REVIEW (***½/T)
Rite Bastard (2006, recorded 1990/2005) - Julian Cope REVIEW (***/T)
You Gotta Problem With Me (2007) - Julian Cope REVIEW (***½/TT)
Black Sheep (2008) - Julian Cope REVIEW (***½/TTTT)
Preaching Revolution (2008 EP) - Julian Cope REVIEW (***/TT)
The Unruly Imagination (2009) - Julian Cope [includes all of the Preaching Revolution EP] REVIEW (***½/TT½)
Floored Genius 4 (2009, recorded 1983-2009) - Julian Cope? REVIEW (***½/TTT½)
Psychedelic Revolution (2012) - Julian Cope REVIEW (***/TTTT)
Woden: One 72-Minute Ambulent Meditation Upon Waden Hill & Avebury (2012, recorded 1998) - Julian Cope REVIEW (**½/TT)
Revolutionary Suicide (2013) - Julian Cope REVIEW (****/TTT)
Drunken Songs (2017) - Julian Cope REVIEW (***½/TT)
Barrowlands (2019) - Julian Cope/Thighpaulsandra [recorded 1995]
John Balance Enters Valhalla (2019) - Julian Cope REVIEW (***/TT)
Self Civil War (2020) - Julian Cope REVIEW (***½/TTT½)
Robin Hood (2023) - Julian Cope
 
Marchbanks said:
But really I’m bluffing. We need a proper recorded, touring Mellotron player to tell us - calling @stephen bennett !!


I like some of the weirder, rarer ones that sound distinctly ill, like guitar (Kinks) and alto sax (Sparks).
Click to expand...
I played a MK II many, many years ago and have played lots of M400s, none of which have ever responded the same! There are a lot of mechanical adjustments on a 'torn (a bit like a Rhodes in that respect) that can affect playability and/or introduce playback artifacts.

On the early M400s, you can press harder/faster on the keys which changes the attack (like the 3 bus bars on a Hammond B3 I guess), but my Novatron (one of the last 'trons') has 'upgraded' felts which make the action more reliable, but you lose the pressure effect.

Swings and Roundabouts (I don't have that tape ...)

I love Mellotrons.

Stephen

PS The weird sounds are in the M-Tron software. It's brilliant to be able to try these out before splashing out on tapes.
 
steve6080 said:
So when you say sample how does that work -- does someone play a real instrument note by note onto the tapes? Presumably the note can only sustain for as long as the tape runs so what happens then does it rewind and start another note?
regards,
Steve
Click to expand...

The tapes were indeed recordings of real people playing musical instruments.

If you hold the key down until the tape runs out, it just stops. You have to lift your finger long enough for it to rewind before you can play that note again.


Each strip of tape has three tracks on it, for three sounds. A standard Mellotron 400 shipped with flute, violins, and choir sounds. Or flute, violins and brass. Or flute, violins, and cello. They seemed to vary. Many more sound banks were available from Mellotron.
 
I have strings, flutes and choir and cello, violins and brass. The sounds are selected with a knob that moves each of the three tracks on the tape over the heads - you can also jam it in between so adjacent sounds will play together. I particularly love doing this with violins/brass-I first heard this combo at the start of the ‘70s Genesis gigs - the intro to Watcher of the skies.

Pitching the ‘Tron up and down also can produce some lovely noises.

Stephen
 
It's a tricky instrument to use successfully I've always thought- it's kinda jarring unaccompanied, & needs to be carefully & sparingly used.

Mark Linkous used it a bit too much, but Elliott Smith made the best use of it to me- this being a great eg:


Capt
 
Yank said:
The tapes were indeed recordings of real people playing musical instruments.
Click to expand...

Some sets you can hear chairs scrape and with the GC(*) brass set, you get uneven volume across the notes and the sound of a man running out of puff after holding a note on the trombone for eight seconds. You know the sound, it's all over KC's "The Devil's Triangle" (Mars) and sits behind the strings to give "The Sailor's Tale" a bit of oomph. TD's "Encore" album has it in spades too, notably "Cherokee Lane" and "Monolight" (at 7:30 onwards)


(*) For those of us of a certain age, you will know George Chisolm (hence GC) who recorded the brass set as a kids' TV regular.

George_Chisholm_%28musician%29.png
 
Some great info here -- Engels' suggestion of the how it works site actually shows a cross section of the mechanism Also great to hear from folks who've played the instrument with all its foibles. Probably a cheek but is there an owner on here anywhere near Herefordshire that could spare a couple of hours to give me a demo anytime?
Wasn't Greorge Chisolm on CRACKERJACK -- the one where the prize was a pencil?
Regards,
Steve
 
Probably the best use of a Mellotron I've ever heard, in this stunning song.

You'll either like the song, or hate it:


Capt
 
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