Mellotron inside

Mellotron is an ancient sampler. It records a sound in analog tape without using the computer technology.

Mellotron was used a lot in progressive rock.

One tape recorder supports each keyboard. This tape recorder is only for playback, and the recording is not possible.

There are three trucks in each tape, and each truck can play a sound recorded beforehand. A violin section, a solo flute, a solo cello are recorded in normal tape.

There is one motor in the main body bottom and turns the big pulley which there is in the main body right with a belt. A long capstan sticks to a pulley. This capstan always turns under tape when switched on.

A pressure pad and a rubber pinch roller are installed under the keyboard. When a key is pressed, a pinch roller holds the tape to a capstan, and tape begins to work.

A pressure pad pushes tape to the playback head at the same time, and a recorded sound is played.

The tape is over from a start in 7-8 seconds. Therefore, the sound stops suddenly on the way. A spring sticks to each tape, and the tape is rewound at the top position by about 0.5 seconds when release a key.

When you want to change a sound recorded in tape, you move the position of the head in right and left with a truck selector.

A famous performance :
King Crimson, Yes(Rick Wakeman), Herbie Hancock, Moody Blues

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Mellotron
• Progressive
• Rock
• Instrument
• Sampler
• Music
• Techno
• Trance
• analog
• synthesizer
• keyboard
• vintage
• メロトロン
• ビンテージ
• サンプラー
• プログレッシブロック
• プログレ
• Rick
• Wakeman
• classical instruments
• symphony
• orchestra
• instrumental music
• electronica
• electro
• ambient
• korg

[videoeer]

Ancient? Indeed, yes. I understand that some of the Egyptian pharoahs were buried with their mellotrons, though usually these with the first things stolen when their tombs were looted.

[767fife]

@videoeer The Mellotron itself though was invented in the Akkadian Empire under the reign of Sargon the Great.

From there it went to the Egyptians, who introduced it to the Greeks,

and then the Romans,

who introduced it to Tony Banks

[marginallymental]

OMyGosh......Radiohead's "Exit Music (For a Film)..! Oh, what an ignorant fool I was, sixteen seconds ago. Jonny Greenwood! Mellotron!

[marginallymental]

Fantastic vid, and the thing's guts really demonstrated the 8-second rule. But I have so many questions! The tape actions..did they come only in string-sounds?  Did an instrument come with an assembly of string loops, for instance, and other assemblies could be bought (pipes/woodwind...Strawberry Fds, for instance)? I'm freaking and reevaluating my entire childhood Romance With ProgRock...just how few human instruments was I listening to? Plus, they kind of frighten me: the Ondes Martenot.

[srv1959]

They used a Mellotron on Stairway to Heaven. Duh.

[eugeene42]

sounds awesome... Admire those old pharoahs...

[worldofjimjim]

Hail Mike Pinder formerly of The Moody Blues, the undisputed king of the Mellotron. As a young man in the early 60s he even worked as a tec in the factory that produced them in Birmingham, England. Good story at Mike Pinder.com

[2ndAsstJizzMopper]

this video rules. had never seen the tapes cycling like that at the end. thanks. explains the peculiar detached style in so many classic mellotron songs. remember it being talked about, but doesn't compare to seeing it.

[echo680]

excellent. mellotrons rock



[CayleyBeiseker]

I bet some fucking muslim claims mohammad invented it.

[CayleyBeiseker]

ESL anyone?

[MoveOverCasanova]

the final chords of watcher of the skies in the end --- yes, to show a mellotron in full flight it is still best to play genesis!!!