The latest episode of the Power Of Electronic Music (POEM) audio podcast takes a look at Bringing The Mellotron Into The 21st Century.
POEM’s Thomas Janak talks to ‘Mister Mellotron Germany’ Klaus Hoffmann-Hoock about the Mellotron and the Memotron, a ’21st century version’ of the Mellotron:
There are very few instruments so iconic that their name rings a bell with musicians across the globe. The MELLOTRON certainly is one such instrument. Made famous by artists such as Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, Genesis, The Moody Blues, Kraftwerk and The Beatles (to name but a few) it will live on forever on the records of the aforementioned artists. But for one man that just wasn’t good enough!
If you are interested in the Mellotron, make sure you check out Mellodrama – the Mellotron documentary.
thanks for the mellotron piece. but a curious choice of genesis a song to demonstrate the mellotron as Musical Box has no mellotron. a better choice would be Watcher of the Skies
Also, I thought that Kraftwerk used the Ochestron, not the Mellotron, on RadioActivity and Trans Europe Express.
Kraftwerk seems to have bought an Orchestron, when they were touring in the U.S. Because the tones of the keyboard on ‘Radio Activity’ last longer than 8 seconds, it’s obvious they used their Orchestron rather than a Mellotron or Chamberlin.
King Crimson (in its ’69 to ’74 incarnations) is the first band that I automatically associate with the ‘tron…
Kraftwerk did indeed use an Orchestron, and not a Mellotron. Personally, I think the Orchestron sounds way better than the Mellotron (the Orchestron has a far more ‘haunting’ sound). But both instruments were introduced to fill a gap, when sampling or a full orchestra couldn’t be provided. Trying to bring back a 1960’s instrument is simply preposterous. Fine perhaps for those who have got money to burn for the new digital version for eg, but what really is the point? If you want a great sounding Mellotron, then get Manetron for the iPhone/iPad. Manetron will only cost a couple of quid, and on record, you won’t be able to tell the difference.
There are numerous ways to get those Big Three ‘tron sounds, but the thing can go far beyond choirs and strings. IMO, the reigning champion is M-Tron Pro, simply because it offers the entire library and a healthy mass of variations by users. One example: the left-hand keyboard is a juicy pipe organ playing at full tutti while the right is a near-castrati boy’s choir. Its an arresting “patch.” Those are custom sounds often created by players of the real thing, so you’re also getting a good dollop of their personal passion. You can still buy a new Mellotron and the digital version, the M4000D, but this plug has range and flex that those do not. Its a good option.
Actually, I have several Mellotron options at my fingertips, including all the Roland, Korg, Yamaha samples, and the Pinder samples now, alongside the Nord Sample library about a dozen software Tron variants, including the M-Tron Pro.
They sound nothing like the M4000D. When you play them, they sound fantastic, lively, and bring back wonderful memories. When you play the M4000D, it’s not memories you are hearing, it’s a live, vibrant current production that envelops you. Even the MTron Pro and the Nord Mellotron libraries pale in comparison to the actual sound. The one item, that I revert to the Nord on is the sample start sound is missing on the accordion patch on the M4000D. Other than that, they sound like Technicolor in music.
Please before you go all praising the software Trons, you simply must do a real side by side session and if you have any ear at all, you will get chills when you play the new M4000Ds. Not the minis, but the real wooden keyboard models. Simply sonically amazing. They make even the Memotrons sound like cheap 78 records.