SampleScience has introduced Mellowson, a new virtual instrument, inspired by the classic sound of the Mellotron.
The plugin has 30 sounds including pianos, vibes, organs, brass, analog synthesizers, guitars, and vocals.
Features:
- 30 lo-fi sounds
- Multi-LFO
- Distortion, Chorus, Delay, and Reverb
- Lowpass/highpass filter
- Low-CPU usage
- Amplitude range controls
- 3 voice modes: polyphonic, monophonic, and legato
- Available as a VST/VST3/AU plugin instrument for Windows and macOS.
Pricing and Availability:
Mellowson is available now for 30$ USD.
Why would anyone buy a VSTI when there are no proper samples of the sounds? Only a crappy couple minute demo.
The moral of the story, if you don’t have time to put together an FX chain with:
sum to mono
band-pass filter
tape simulation (including wow & flutter)
and run some cheap ROMpler type samples through it, then you can buy a library that does this for you.
I’m not dissing/hating. It seems like a reasonable product that uses the above kinds of processes.
There are quite a few good and complete ‘tron libraries out there. It does seem like an interesting idea to “tron-ize” other sounds that aren’t part of that world.
Arturia’s Mellotron V allows you to drop in your own WAV files, but I don’t think that ‘tron-izes” things much. It always depends on your goals.
If you want a “real” ‘tron, its a loose choice between Markus Resch’s M4000 digital hardware or G-Force’s M-Tron Pro. If you want more than that, then a proper sampler is more sensible. The famous strings/choir/brass trio can be had cheap or free as Soundfonts.
I’ve found quite a few samples free/cheap online. Also, iOS has some great mellotron & chamberlain things. There is something kind of unique about the choices of sounds and how they are recorded & looped that adds to the stylistic perception of them being for ‘tron.
For example, if some trove of never-released mellotron tape banks were found in a vault somewhere; would we be able to sort of notice some “tron” quality having to do with aesthetics, recording procedure, etc.?
Maybe! G-Force sells add-ons for M-Tron that come from early Streetly tapes, the Chamberlin (the Mellotron’s predecessor) and the Optigan. While the company maintains an in-house mega-‘tron for perfecting those sources, they each have interesting imperfections. You’d have to be a bit anal to argue over it much, but you’re right about each having its own aroma. We argue synths enough. Arguing Mellotron sets? Duh!