Mellotron tape change

[willibehistory]

Having had both the mellotron similar to Tony Bank's, and a band called Spring,and RJ Jone's studios in Chiswick AND the smaller Mellotron 400, made under license by 2 seperate companies, Bradmatic and the Mellotron 400 made by Novatronics. All are Mellotrons, because of the mechanism by which pre-recorded tapes for each note are drawn over playback heads. They are all notoriously unreliable because they are mechanical, and suffer from oxidisation of the playback heads, giving the SCATCHY sound.

[yuase1112]

めんどくせー

[blueluny]

Meh. Not as a good as a Muppaphone :)

[Mogpiano1]

I owned a Mellotron M400 for a while in a multi keyboard set up in the early 70s. Great sounds but so unreliable. I ended up playing most of the mellotron parts on my Hammond at most gigs because of some fault or other. Ok in the studio maybe but a nightmare on the road.

[alecjahn]

That must be terrifying to do. I wouldn't want to even look at the inside of one of those things without gloves on!

[Penmani]

I hate to disappoint you, but this is NOT a Mellotron. I used to own the ex-Genesis Mellotron, which I bought from a band called "England" (who got it from Tony Banks). I refurbished it at my school's wood- workshops in the late 70's, but sadly, it dissappeared from our recording studio in London Bridge at the end of the 80's. The machine in this clip is a (much smaller) Novatron. You can always tell the Mellotron as it has 2 SEPARATE keyboards. Posted by Ian Penman.

[ezbwoy]

@Penmani true

[Xstractor]

@Penmani This is Mellotron M400. There is Novatrons with dual keyboards too, only difference is the nameplate.

[Callofduty4nub]

@Penmani if its not a mellotron then what kind of keyboard is it then?

[Xend54]

Kontakt's Grandfather.

[2ndAsstJizzMopper]

pure gold. thanks!

[Jay1967]

@wjf Japanese actually!!!

[wjf1950]

It's all Greek to me....

[metamaggot]

loading...loading ..loading...samples loaded...

[chetneyoff3]

this is an awesome clip. i hope his mellotron gear is still intact after the earthquake.hope his family is alright peace to japan

[chuckbyf1]

AHHHHHH! analog. HI!!!!!

[hermitnerd]

wow. he makes it look so easy : )

[JJS4077]

@ skintrade

Run.

[friedegg44]

very good but don't you think its about time you tidied up your bedroom!!!!

[Matrix803]

Fascinating. 

[tapiq]

8: learn to play the instrument upside down

[SamAndrew27]

Wow. Makes you appreciate the modern synthesizer! I know, I know, "but they don't sound as good" But listen to the Abby Roads Mellotron in Reason; it is damn close!

[bigbadwerner]

Weird compared to todays possibilities.

[sleepkid]

I'm fairly sure that's the guy who used to work for 5G music, which is located in Harajuku, Tokyo.

I've seen them work on Mellotrons there.

[eldrickenji]

The end sounds make me think of Radiohead "Exit Music" chorus

[ybrik222]

@eldrickenji

Dude!

[eldrickenji]

@ybrik222 yeah ?

[urckrecords]

arigato!

[jmasters24]

0:00

[clubfun12]

this machine is the Frankenstein of all synthesizers

[RondoRaven]

wow

[DeepestBluestDay]

new tape ftw

[icl8038]

he is in the studio by Isao Tomita?

[ROBOTkw1]

I don't speak Japanese [just a few phrases] but somehow I understood what he was talking about- SYNTHS are Universal! Domo Arrigato gozaimasu!

[drunkenplumber15]

totally amazing.

Musician porn!!!

LOVE!

[skintrade]

what happens if you drop the tapes?

[wpDM34]

It`s fifficult to record those tapes, get a quire ore 20 violines to play all cords.

[ciolamorta]

It's easier to change oil on my Aprilia RST Futura. And believe me, it's complicated.

[rformidable]

i have this.

it's a bitch to change tapes, and maintain, coz i'm never going to get parts for it again.......

so, ergo and such with......

it isn't moving from my studio.............ever.

[TheExeter]

Thank you for the demonstration.

I have never seen the inside of a Mellotron and thought the tapes were looped.

Is it possible for just one note to stop working and was it very hard to fix one tape?

[thinkmorefloyd2001]

sounded cooler before

[ansiaaa666]

what an amateur... he didnt even cleaned the heads before replacing the tape with a new one

[chrisrave]

Yeah, seriously. Noob.

[beefajerky]

@ansiaaa666 but he has upside down playing skills.

[ssssroryssss2]

Now, all you need to do to change a preset sound is, one mouse click. How times have changed

[guitar17johnny]

he plays the keyboard upside down. lol

this were truly the beginnings of electronic music.

[benklemme]

if you take enough apart you get to china!

[KrlosJapi]

changing AA batteries...? hahaha!!!

[gemankio]

Actually he is talking about how to grow cucumbers in your garden.

[rattu123]

A nightmare to patch changing! LOL!

[WeShotTheMan]

@rattu123 true that

[sergioakaro]

sti spacchimi i cenesi!!

[rushnerd]

This here, no kidding, is my wet dream.

[musi9heaven]

Does someone have any idea how much the replacing tape unit cost? Or you should buy tape reels and use band aids for pathcing?

[garty22]

What's he saying? What's he saying?

[KOTOSAKIMINESUKE]

今まで見たどの動画よりも貴重だ。Thank you!!

[ericmacca]

He could play keyboard backwards!

[ollie3]

Most keyboard players can do it at this level. Please check Keith Emerson: he can play real music backwards, not just simply chords like this technician.

;-)

[AIKevorkian]

Yeah. I got to see ELP in 1992 near Moses Lake, WA. Keith played the keyboard like upside down and backwards and it still sounded awesome!

[djsmithy]

hahahah! :)

[Popoldabboy]

interesting.

[cast390]

Looks like hes changing a car radiator

[sirinferno]

maybe he is

[xwingt65]

Yes, they are still being used. In fact, Rush used one as the only keyboard instrument on their 2007 "Snakes and Arrows" album.

[gxtksh329]

Still being used...and still being built!

For the last ten years or so, Markus Resch in Sweden builds the Mellotron mkVI.

Also, Streetly Electronics (the original makers) makes the M4000 model.

12bar145ne, actually the Mellotron doesn't use tape loops. It uses strips of tape that gives you 8 seconds of a note. But yeah, it's really cool to see how it works.

[CassetteMaster]

Imagine recording voice sounds and different random noises on the tapes then loading it and playing it on a Mellotron.

[CassetteMaster]

Imagine cleaning all the heads, capstan and pinch rollers in one of these!

[coffeehigh420]

that would not be fun !

[acousvnt]

I wonder how long those tapes would last.

[tnpoon]

i don know... by looking at the size of the tape.... maybe 2 hrs or so

[TheGutterTwin]

youre supposed to change them every year

[warpdriveprod]

Wow very cool! So that thing cost a small fortune back in the day? It looks like a bunch of nothingness today.

[TheGutterTwin]

INCORRECT .. this item still sells for 4,000 easy... its very useful and you still hear them in recordings today!!!

[12bar145ne]

WOW....too cool/I knew what a Mellotron was & that it used tape loops but had never seen the actual tape loops. You don't have to understand what the guy is saying to see whats happening! Very cool!

[juuaann09]

no entendi una garcha

[floatershaw]

wots he saying ? lol

[takeo1969]

Do you wanna know??? The same that the user's info or just study japanese!!!

[Envergure]

I'll keep my samplers, thanks. Nevertheless, I thought that was pretty cool and I don't even speak the language!

[thisisnev]

Neil, I think you may have missed the point...

[NelSonOfABitch]

Ha ha, it's called user friendly interface! Thanks God that nowdays we've got samplers!

[rtermini]

Nice Job!

[AirHendrix91]

So that's how Radiohead performed the keyboard section for Exit Music for A Film!

That's friggin awesome!

[GamerConor]

is that what the used for it? cus it really does sound like it!lol

[AirHendrix91]

They probably used a synth that had a mellotron effect cause when they play it live, Jonny plays a synth keyboard, not a huge tape sampling machine keyboard like the Mellotron.

Though if you think about it, that instrument was truely a thing of its time. It brought sampling via keyboards into the light ;D.

[universzero100]

はじめまして！質問させてください。この説明していただいてる方­はどなたでしょうか？あと今話題のmemotronはどう思われ­ますか？

[btpro]

こんにちわ。説明をしているのは、私（安西史孝）です。このビデ­オは１９９０年代に学研から CD-ROM として出したビンテージシンセの資料集に使用したものです。

Memotron はまだいじっていないのでなんとも言えませんがソフト的にはテー­プの巻き戻し位置のシミュレーション等色々と加えないとただのサ­ンプラーのようには行きませんね。その辺興味はあります。

[universzero100]

安西さん、ありがとうございました。

[vegitarean44]

you got to be fast in doing that so you can have two sounds in one song from same key board

[urbania70]

Incredible, I din't know that the tape rack could be changed!

[wehrhalder]

che ponja... cuando le hacemos el cambio de aceite?

[chazum0]

hahaha

[mindstormsabrewin]

I'm always amazed at human ingenuity. This was basically the first sampler keyboard if you think about it. Amazing. That thing must've been a bitch to maintain. Did those tapes go round in a loop or were they on a reel and need to be rewound after some time?

[btpro]

Tape is not loop.

When release the keyboard, tape quickly rewind (about 0.5sec).

[mindstormsabrewin]

Very interesting! Thanks.

[767fife]

@mindstormsabrewin

the chaimberlin is the predessecor to the mellotron

[EduCamargo]

@mindstormsabrewin And samples had approximately 8 seconds in length. Today all we need is an HD, and programs with some set of samples; you just click and... Woh, Nelly!

[iletelyastraightmate]

now we just click a button to change a preset

[mrkallen]

the shit we take for granted

[nfera]

i had no idea how awesome this thing was!

[barnyardstory]

Guy's a gorilla! Go easy on the tapes man, looks like your changing out the radiator on a 68 Chevy. Great vid though.

[redindustrial]

This is how they changed a preset in the old days...

[vegunited06]

coolest instrument ever

[mellotrongirl]

cool--he had the aluminum shield between the keys and the tapes--hopefully everyone's M400 has one. More important than than an Optigan without the music stand, that's fer sher.

[AMOKIAN]

Is that one of the guys from YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA?

WOW, how primitive is that keyboard? AWESOME!

Can you immagine trying to find sounds for that

WHOA?

[HemlockDKiller]

He might...He has Moog III-C...XDDD

[djrolf]

Very simple change the cartridge sounds!! :))

[duncanrmi]

nice demo. maybe I'll post my 48 minute film of me actually replacing the tapes on a frame, rather than just whipping a frame out & replacing it. the real thing is better than the plug-in, believe me!

[mathuetax]

I'd love to see that film if you ever post it.

[obnostic]

Do you dub off the tapes before or after you put them on the frame?

[hamdemon99]

obnostic: Mellotron owners bought new racks of tape with new sounds (one rack is flutes, another is male choir, another strings...)from the maker or a shop just like you'd buy a sample CD these days. Listen to live King Crimson from 72-75and you'll hear them tuning their Mellotrons between every song. Fripp once said "Tuning a Mellotron doesn't"

[Gazdatronik]

is that tomita?

[montydj]

Wow! that was amazing!

[johnfright]

Awesome. I've always wondered if you can put the tapes in backwards and play backwards sounds forwards ! Probably not.

[Wyrehedd242]

crazy how far technology has come... very cool to see the old gear... wouldnt mind having one! im sure they sound really great live! :)

[tyronix]

wow! i want it! :D

[amigaknight]

so how does it work? is that like magnetic tape yeh??

[Shtove]

What a difference! This guy knows his stuff.

[sampleandhold]

i never thought it could be so hard to change sound of a sampler :D

[theproffet]

Amazing!

[franciscobantoni]

So easy to change the sounds, I could spenad all day long doing this...so basic!

[xiec]

that's pretty hench :)

[Patrickillian]

cool :D

[gothec77]

New sound by the touch of button. Almost. The ideal stage instrument. :-)

I like your demos!

[synthforhire]

I love the sound but I don't regret selling my Mellotron... too much hassle and mechanical issues... going out of adjustment every time the weather changed. A sampler is much simpler 8^).

[mootbooxle]

I wish you had sold it to me.....I'm using a sampled tron too, but I'm a purist and I'll never be happy until I have the real thing.

[synthforhire]

also I had a very early model, there was some mold in the woodwork and I am allergic to mold! :-) A friend left his "Tron at my house for a couple years for me to repair, I was glad to see that one go too. Guess I'm too old (46) to mess with these contraptions! Oh yeah, I almost forgot the Sore Fingers from playing it!

I'm new on this site,don't know how everything works yet... personal messages are welcome! Tim