Expressive Tron is a free sample library for Kontact that features ‘enhanced’ Mellotron M400 samples.
The free sample library features Flute, Strings, Cello and Male Choir tape banks from the classic Mellotron m400. Do not expect pristine samples, these have been re-sampled by recording to worn tape.
For Kontakt 5.2.1 or later – full version needed.
Download at the Tronsonic site.
Wow, their product page isn’t very good at showing you where to get the samples.
Go to the homepage and click the image:
http://www.tronsonic.com/
That’s a nice bit of work for casual messing-around purposes. I checked out several Mellotron alternatives and finally coughed up the $149 for G-Media’s M-Tron Pro. Freebies and side-road versions have their pluses, but once I dove in properly, I got the ‘tron I really wanted. Having the majority of the library in-hand with a solid GUI is well worth the price. If you only want the Big Three sounds, no problem, but the rest of the sounds you almost never hear are like a big bag of great “B-sides.” There are alternate choirs and flutes that rock, plus 2 banks of old BBC sound effects. Its a shinier secret weapon than you think, so enjoy the iPad/Phone versions, but remember that you can also step up pretty inexpensively. Just FYI.
“For Kontakt 5.2.1 or later – full version needed.”
Or just use the included WAV samples in your favourite sampler 🙂
yeah, I checked this out, and also own the wonderful GForce Mtron Pro, this is a great ancillary instrument, not meant to replace mtron necessarily, but a different take, and the Kontakt interface is really interesting for taking the degradation to another level, with all sorts of interesting grime and distortion and delays and filters etc… it really is worth trying out in the Kontakt interface. Thank you for this Tronsonic. It will definitely be used!
I’m sorry that so much comes in only Kontakt format, for several reasons, but A) it adds some variety and mystery to things when you have to scavenge further for usable oddities in your format and B) I’m brave enough to drop WAVs into the slots. Sometimes I get bigger, badder weirdness because I had to bake it from scratch. The Mellotron is simply one of those unique things you can’t fake effectively, just like no one will ever mistake Vocaloid for Etta James. 😀
Hope some of you like this – the aim of this instrument is to offer a very ‘bad’ sounding tron – as for me, I enjoy the character of an un-serviced machine with very used tapes (not everyone agrees though of course, including the guys at Streetly who still make the trons, who suggested the instrument I sampled would have badly needed a service).
The original samples I took 8 years ago were further ‘enhanced’ to sound even worse 🙂 – there are also some ‘degrader’ controls in the Kontakt instrument to further warble the sound should you wish etc (and a lowpass filter to roll off the top end too).
Hello, I ran into this forum after researching available mellotron plugins, and after having used M-tron several years, I’ve been duly spoiled!
Now, I am having to work with an older macbook and have no access to M-tron (using Garageband) and it’s been a few years since I’ve done music production seriously, but I now need something decent and free to use with garageband and can’t find anything. Windows on the other hand, has a slew of free and small plugins that emulate the mellotron decently, but what about for mac?? Please help!