Synthesist Daniel Perry shared this short demo of how he uses the Korg Volca Sample as a “poor man’s Mellotron”.
The Volca Sample wasn’t designed to play samples chromatically, but Perry came up with a workaround.
“Using an Arturia Keystep and the Retrokits RK-002 MIDIator cable, I filled a Volca Sample with Mellotron samples to give me a poor man’s (albeit digital) Mellotron,” he explains.
You can find free Mellotron samples at Sonic Bloom and Leisureland. Details on the RK-002 are available at the Retrokits site.
Note: Another approach is to replace Korg’s official firmware with Pajen’s unofficial Volca Sample alternative firmware.
new beta firmware for the volca sample which allows chromatic playback natively here:
https://www.gearslutz.com/board/electronic-music-instruments-and-electronic-music-production/1232112-volca-sample-firmware-hack-21.html
Definitely just go for the firmware, the retrokits cable calculates pitch from a midi note and turns it into a CC, but 0-127 is far from accurate for pitch tracking.
The irony that this might sound more retrodentical because it is not that perfect.
you can achieve midi-note chromatic playback with software too, Reaktor users can try my Sample controller ensemble, and yes it’s far from perfect. the unifficial firmware on the other hand turns the Sample into a whole new instrument, like it or not.
https://www.native-instruments.com/en/reaktor-community/reaktor-user-library/entry/show/8363/
Three-and-a-half minutes of Mellotron Flutes. He made his point after the first 10 seconds. Why would anybody continue recording three minutes of that? Aaahgh!!!
(Gods, I hate the Mellotron Flutes sound; for me, that sound is right up there with the sampled dogs barking “jingle bells” on an old Casio SK keyboard, only not nearly as interesting…. :^/ )
At least his keyboard and the Volca are white, that way it looks (slightly) like the Mellotron Model M400! Terrible, boring demo, by the way!