Arturia Mellotron V User Manual Download Page 12

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1.4. Arturia's secret ingredient: TAE®

TAE® (True Analog Emulation) is Arturia's outstanding technology dedicated to the digital

reproduction of analogue circuits used in vintage synthesizers.

TAE®’s software algorithms result in spot-on emulation of analogue hardware. This is

why the Mellotron V offers an unparalleled quality of sound, as do all of Arturia’s virtual

synthesizers and plug-ins.

TAE® combines major advances in the domain of synthesis:

Linear Frequency spectrum of a well known software

synthesizer

Linear frequency spectrum of an oscillator modeled with

TAE®

Temporal representation of the

"sawtooth" waveform of a

hardware synthesizer

Temporal representation of a

"sawtooth" waveform reproduced

by TAE®

Arturia - User Manual Mellotron V - WELCOME TO THE MELLOTRON

Summary of Contents for Mellotron V

Page 1: ...USER MANUAL...

Page 2: ...ES Ed Ten EYCK Paul SCHILLING SPECIAL THANKS Terry MARDSEN Andrew CAPON Fernando Manuel RODRIGUES Marco CORREIA Gustavo BRAVETTI Matt PIKE Adrien KANTER Ben EGGEHORN Boele GERKES Chuck CAPSIS Hans HOL...

Page 3: ...ment The software license agreement specifies the terms and conditions for its lawful use No part of this manual may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any purpose other than purchaser s p...

Page 4: ...e The information contained in this manual is believed to be correct at the time of printing However Arturia reserves the right to change or modify any of the specifications or features without notice...

Page 5: ...one of the most famous and iconic keyboard instruments of the sixties and seventies one which definitely marked and helped to define the sound of progressive rock and is commonly regarded as the ances...

Page 6: ...ating the Mellotron V with MIDI 19 4 USER INTERFACE 20 4 1 Useful Computer Keyboard Shortcuts 20 4 2 The virtual keyboards 20 4 3 The Upper Toolbar 21 4 3 1 Arturia Menu 21 4 3 2 Preset Library Browse...

Page 7: ...ve Button 48 7 2 4 Waveform Window 49 7 2 5 Pan 50 7 2 6 Gain 50 7 2 7 Trans Transpose 50 7 2 8 Tune 51 7 2 9 Stretch 51 7 2 10 Start Sample Playback Start Point 51 7 2 11 End Sample Playback End Poin...

Page 8: ...system mechanics are similar to how a magnetic tape player works When a key is pressed a mechanism pushes the tape onto the tape head and a roller begins to play the tape causing it to output the reco...

Page 9: ...ble users of the Mellotron is almost a who s who of the rock scene of the sixties and seventies The Beatles come first in our list obviously Their big rivals The Rolling Stones also used the Mellotron...

Page 10: ...wever almost all major samplers have libraries reproducing Mellotron sounds This means that those sounds are still useful and while they may not be the most faithful modern representations people stil...

Page 11: ...of the best original Mello tape sounds If you want to change the sounds new tapes are just a click away You can use your own samples as tapes if you want looped or non looped This way you will have a...

Page 12: ...otron V offers an unparalleled quality of sound as do all of Arturia s virtual synthesizers and plug ins TAE combines major advances in the domain of synthesis Linear Frequency spectrum of a well know...

Page 13: ...two modeled amps A famous guitar Twin Amp modeled amplifier and an equally famous modeled Rotary Speaker cabinet Finally we modernized the collection with a Room Simulator convolution reverb We also a...

Page 14: ...olves a different software program the Arturia Software Center 2 2 1 The Arturia Software Center ASC If you have not already installed the ASC go to this web page Arturia Updates Manuals Look for the...

Page 15: ...We will cover all the options of the Arturia menu later in this manual p 21 2 3 1 Audio and MIDI Settings Windows This is where you define what kind of audio interface will be used to play the instru...

Page 16: ...e menu is where you define how many times per second the digital audio will be sampled before being converted into analog audible sound Higher sample rates mean more definition but demand more CPU pow...

Page 17: ...nstrument will now synchronize to your DAW s host tempo bpm rate when tempo is a factor You can automate numerous parameters using your DAW s automation system You can use more than one instance of Me...

Page 18: ...to make contact with the playback head Add to this the mechanism that takes care of rewinding the tape once the key is released Tuning was not very precise either And the mechanism was prone to probl...

Page 19: ...ld always sound at the original pitch Digital samplers usually repitch the audio by reading the original samples at different speeds resampling This causes a speed up or speed down of the internal rhy...

Page 20: ...everything was set up properly you should hear a flute sound playing Now click the Library icon to open the Library window The Library icon resembles three books aligned vertically in a bookshelf with...

Page 21: ...B Again the Load Sample dialog box opens This time you will locate and double click the M400 8 Voice to load it This sound will be left in the original Mellotron range Time to replace the sound in Tra...

Page 22: ...to the drive and directory where you have your own samples and double click one to load it If the sound lasts for more than 8 seconds only the first 8 seconds will load You will now have a small regio...

Page 23: ...ose the effect you want to replace it with We have three delays to choose from Delay Analog Delay and Tape Echo Let s choose Tape Echo just to check how it sounds Now play something on the keyboard Yo...

Page 24: ...will appear Now move the control knob fader you want to use to control that parameter If the connections are well established you should see the parameter assigned to the Dry Wet control If your contr...

Page 25: ...window appears next to it revealing the value 4 1 Useful Computer Keyboard Shortcuts There are several ways to adjust parameters using the mouse and keyboard when using the Mellotron V Usually to chan...

Page 26: ...nality found on the original units We will have all these features analyzed in detail in the chapter dedicated to it p 38 The FX button in the Upper Toolbar will only be visible when the Advanced Mode...

Page 27: ...g custom names in the respective place This information can be read by the preset browser and is useful for searching the preset later 4 3 1 3 Import This command lets you import a preset file which c...

Page 28: ...as a laptop you might want to reduce the interface size so it doesn t dominate the display On a larger screen or a second monitor you can increase the size to get a better view of the controls The con...

Page 29: ...Then you just need to place the mouse over the name of the preset you want to select that preset name will be highlighted and click it The list changes according to the selected search filter If you...

Page 30: ...ptions and extra features added by Arturia to expand the functionality found on the original units This extra control panel contains several very important pages The features associated with the Advan...

Page 31: ...rols are red That means they have already been assigned to an external MIDI control They can be reassigned though Remember that you can also assign the Preset Forward and Backward arrows to an externa...

Page 32: ...which sends only a few values to indicate the direction and speed at which a dial is turning as opposed to sending a full range of values in a linear fashion 0 127 for example To be specific a relativ...

Page 33: ...setup or delete it import a configuration file or export the currently active one This is a quick way to set up different hardware MIDI keyboards or controllers with Mellotron V without having to bui...

Page 34: ...otron V as a plug in the MIDI channel setting will be ignored and the instrument will only respond to MIDI on the track where it is instantiated 4 4 2 Panic Button The Panic button sends messages like...

Page 35: ...d to filter the preset list by patch name The Results column is updated to show the results of your search Press the Clear All button in the Search field to clear the search 5 2 Using tags as filters...

Page 36: ...s you will see only the presets that match those exact criteria Deselect any tag in any area to remove that criteria and widen the search without having to go back and start again Notice that when you...

Page 37: ...s by Type Designer or Bank tags Click the sort arrow to reverse the alphabetical order As you explore and create presets you can mark them as Favorites by clicking the heart next to their names And th...

Page 38: ...s and Banks You can give a preset more than one tag in the Style category but only one in the Type category The Bank category is automatically written according to the Bank the preset is saved on You...

Page 39: ...hanged here Name Type Favorite etc To make the desired changes you can type in the name fields select deselect Types or use one of the pull down menus to change the Bank or Type You can even add new S...

Page 40: ...and key for macOS and click the names of the presets you want to change in the Results list Then enter the comments change the Bank or Type etc and click Save If you want to alter the information for...

Page 41: ...ull down menu will bypass the Search criteria and show the entire list of presets The Types below the line also ignore the Search criteria and display the presets based on their Type Brass Choir Strin...

Page 42: ...ou want to have in your playlist Once you have found the right preset click and drag it onto the playlist name To view the contents of a playlist click on the playlist name 5 7 3 Re order the presets...

Page 43: ...Tape Track among the three available or a mix between two adjacent tracks The Mellotron V allows to mix variable mix between two adjacent Tape Tracks A B or B C as well as play All three tape tracks s...

Page 44: ...ilter may have varying results depending on the contents of the used samples Usually brightness doesn t increase much Cutoff will have a slightly more pronounced effect 6 1 5 Pitch Pitch controls the...

Page 45: ...dds to the individually set tape or sample envelopes If the added values go over the max value range of a defined segment the final value will be that max value The same applies to the min amount Fina...

Page 46: ...tape speed while paying back the sound At extreme settings the effect will resemble that of a random LFO applied to the pitch 6 2 3 Tape Saturation Saturation induced by magnetic tape is a well known...

Page 47: ...is something we take for granted in all instruments even in hardware But at the time the Mellotron was originally built velocity was a concept unknown to electric musical instruments We have added th...

Page 48: ...own samples or a factory sample using the dialog box At the right hand side of this window we have an Edit button which opens the sample editing page This is the most important editing page of the in...

Page 49: ...x 2 factory samples 6 user samples combined This Tape Tracks page has a much wider range than the original Mellotron However the original tapes that ship with the Mellotron V will span just the 35 not...

Page 50: ...ay all three tapes at the same time we will have a thicker choir sound with the lower voices sounding in the lower region and the higher voices sounding in the higher region This is something that cou...

Page 51: ...th a duration that exceeds the limit will load just the first 8 seconds When you load one of your own samples the region will have a different color Instead of the gray color of the tapes you will hav...

Page 52: ...ng page When that page is opened the button changes to Exit When we press the Exit button it closes the Sample Editing page and the Mellotron V gets back to the Tracks page 7 2 Sample Editing Page The...

Page 53: ...ddle C and a range of three semitones and loads the sample in that region 3 If the selected Track already has a region with a sound it loads the new sound user sample or factory sample in the highligh...

Page 54: ...er is positioned at the extreme left of the sample beginning of the sample Dragging this handler will start playing the sample at the point the handler is located instead of the beginning of the sampl...

Page 55: ...t their position accordingly to the Pan position while stereo sounds will shift balance their stereo image Some effects like the Rotary Speaker force Mono which may defeat this control If you are movi...

Page 56: ...stretch algorithm This algorithm plays the samples in a way so that although they are repitched according to the played note the duration is not affected So the inner rhythms are preserved If we woul...

Page 57: ...is parameter will not have any effect The natural sample envelope contour has to be taken into account also 7 2 12 2 Dec Decay The Decay segment defines the time it takes for the sound after reaching...

Page 58: ...hat limitation This is done by defining loop points and defining a loop playback mode By default this parameter is Off which means the Mellotron V will behave like the original when the sample reaches...

Page 59: ...Any editing performed in this field will be reflected by that handler 7 2 13 2 End Loop End Point Works the same way as the Loop End Handler p 50 Any editing performed in this field will be reflected...

Page 60: ...ired ambience for the sound All these are controlled in the special effects panel that opens when in Open Lid mode by pressing the FX button in the Upper Toolbar Each effects unit as well as the ampli...

Page 61: ...the Room Simulator has its own On Off button When that button is On the slot is active When the button is Off the corresponding slot is bypassed This is a quick way to check the kind of result we get...

Page 62: ...r to the Library icon that is present in the Upper Toolbar When that icon is pressed it shows a menu listing the presets available for that specific processor You can also save changes to the current...

Page 63: ...ich have a sign in the middle of it The following list will open These are high quality effects that span all the usual options available by the time the Mellotron was in use Chorus Flanger Phaser Com...

Page 64: ...modulate the delayed signal to produce the effect Depth Sets the depth of the modulation applied by the LFO Feedback Adds feedback to the chorus to achieve a harsher or ringing tone Delay Controls the...

Page 65: ...the effect Depth Sets the depth of the modulation applied by the LFO Feedback Adds feedback to the flanger signal to achieve a harsher or ringing tone Stereo Will switch the Flanger output between mon...

Page 66: ...ffect Controls Description Freq Sets the harmonic center of the phase modulation effect Poles Determines the steepness number of poles of the all pass filters that will process the modulation signal F...

Page 67: ...evel above which compression will happens Ratio Sets the amount of compression Higher values mean more compression gain reduction Attack Sets the time it takes for the compressor to reach the maximum...

Page 68: ...will repeat more feedback more delay lines Stereo Controls the stereo spread of the signal At the lowest value the signal will be mono Sync Synchronizes the delay time through MIDI with the host expr...

Page 69: ...g is another way to induce distortion As the sample rate is reduced aliasing is introduced to the sound creating ghost partials in the spectrum Controls Description Bit Depth Induces distortion by red...

Page 70: ...balance between processed and unprocessed sound Wavefolder This is a type of distortion effect where the signal is amplified until it clips then the peaks above the clip point are folded downward Usu...

Page 71: ...stortion effect is the result of mapping the input audio to the output audio by applying a math shaping function The result may be anything between overdriven signal to pure noise In this case it appr...

Page 72: ...used for a more surgical cut or boost while larger values affect more frequencies around the center frequency Controls Description LowShelf Gain Controls the gain attenuation between 15 dB and 15 dB o...

Page 73: ...n Size Controls the size of the room or space basically the reverb body The bigger the size the more reverb that s added Decay Controls the length of the reverb effect how much time it will last Shoul...

Page 74: ...the LFO Can be synced through MIDI Shape Controls the LFO waveform We can select among Sine Triangle Saw Ramp and Square Sync This switch turns On synchronization of the LFO through MIDI When On the L...

Page 75: ...me Controls the time the delayed line will sound after the original signal May be synced Feedback Adjusts how many times the delayed line will repeat more feedback more delay lines Sync This switch tu...

Page 76: ...that could potentially cause the signal to clip and result in clicks and pops Controls Description Input Gain Controls the amount of gain added to the input signal The VU Meter will give a visual ref...

Page 77: ...line to be played back Sync This switch turns On synchronization of the echo time through MIDI with the host When On the delay time is expressed in musical values Intensity Basically controls the num...

Page 78: ...odeled microphone placement When On Axis is lit the microphone is pointing straight at the amp When it is off the microphone is pointing at an angle The on axis tends to emphasize the fundamental freq...

Page 79: ...for the Hammond It is a dual speed cabinet Later Leslie created the Leslie 147 intended to be a universal cabinet to be used by any organ It was also dual speed Other instruments also took advantage...

Page 80: ...peed of the horn Good to be controlled by MIDI Drum Slow Sets the drum speaker speed to slow The drum is the bass speaker Drum Fast Sets the drum speaker speed to fast Drum Accel Varies the speed of t...

Page 81: ...oice spanning acoustic rooms plate reverbs spring reverbs and even modern hardware The Mellotron V Room Simulator has just a few controls since there isn t much to control in a processor of this type...

Page 82: ...not be used for purposes other than storage purposes You shall have no further right or interest to use the software other than the limited rights as specified in this Agreement Arturia reserves all...

Page 83: ...pply to you All programs and accompanying materials are provided as is without warranty of any kind The complete risk as to the quality and performance of the programs is with you Should the program p...

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