1. WELCOME TO THE MELLOTRON
1.1. What is the Mellotron?
The first instrument that could play orchestral sounds, and the ancestor of the modern
sampler. That's the Mellotron. Many other "
trons" followed, but the "Mello" remained one of
the most iconic symbols of its era and forever tied to some of the biggest keyboard players
in the History of Rock.
1.2. Some historical facts
Everything started many years ago, in the early fifties, when a guy named Harry
Chamberlin had the idea of building a keyboard that could play magnetic tapes of real
recordings controlled by the keys. The concept was apparently simple: He would record
sustained notes of real acoustic instruments for soloing, as well as musical phrases and
even complete band accompaniments. The main goal was to provide a keyboard instrument
that would serve as a music-band-in-a-box, allowing families to have fun singing along and
performing the music hits of the time.
The keyboard had a tape for each note, that would play for several seconds. The 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 recorded sound. As soon as the key is released, the roller lifts and another
mechanism rewinds the tape back into its original position.
Of course, all this takes time and the mechanism was prone to mechanical problems.
Nonetheless, the Chamberlin saw some success, due mainly to the quality and type of the
sounds produced (at the time, the only other way to get a string orchestra or a woodwind
band sound was to hire real musicians, which was untenable for most, so Chamberlin's
recordings of real players provided a great alternative). Chamberlin also recorded complete
bands, allowing complete accompaniments to be played back with a simple key.
But since he wasn't very successful in solving the technical problems presented by his
machines, another company took over the manufacturing of redesigned musical
instruments following that same basic idea. That company was created in the UK by the
people who were supplying the tape heads to Chamberlin.
3
Arturia - User Manual Mellotron V - WELCOME TO THE MELLOTRON
Содержание Mellotron V
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