Birotron B90

The rarest manufactured instrument - the extinct and impossible to find Birotron playing worn out mixed tapes of string section, brass, violas, choir, and flutes across the keyboard.
The musician is Chris Dale who very kindly let me do the video.
So what did this instrument sound like with a decent set of unworn tapes???? That is a mystery.....Sadly we may never know.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Birotron
• birotron
• mellotron
• Mellotron
• Chamberlin
• chamberlin keyboard
• Rick Wakeman
• Yes
• Orchestron
• orchestron
• Optigan
• optigan
• Yes music
• Yes band
• Chris Dale
• 8 track tape
• Prog Rock
• Roger Dean
• Tormato
• Yesshows
• Tangerine Dream
• Loop Mellotron
• Beatles Mellotron
• 1970's Mellotron
• world's rarest instrument
• synthesizer
• piano
• organ
• new age
• electronic music
• electronica
• ambient music
• techno
• synthesized music

[muzboz]

Wowsers, that sounds like a really epic archiving process in the works! Great to hear an update! Keep me in the loop as things progress. I'm still keen to put together some Birotron sample banks for everyone to share, if some source audio can be gleaned from the old beast! :) All the best @tapediskmagic.

[tapediskmagic]

@muzboz I'm sorry for the late reply. This YouTube channel belongs to my friend (the videomaker). I'm doing the actual Birotron work which leaves me almost no time for anything! Yes, I'll definitely keep updates here. All this work will hopefully be appreciated by someone. Repairing 8 track tapes is very arduous and frustrating. Also - putting in Silica gel packs inside tape canisters to help preserve the masters. Hopefully the instrument and it's sounds can be saved from complete extinction.

[nedmarc]

I loved Wakeman's Birotron on Tormato

[tapediskmagic]

@nedmarc I loved it too but I wish it was louder in the mix.

[RoomWithaMooseDash]

This instrument is used in the song Reeperbahn by Tom Waits. It gives it a very unique sound.

[Dolores5000]

Sweet Nektar!

[neil73]

Quite possibly the worlds rarest musical instrument. You are doing a great job sir! I think if these were manufactured again, they would sell.

Surely there is a market for the old and analogue amongst keyboard players? I know I'd buy some if they were available! (and if I had thousands of expendable income!)

[AaronWelchMusic]

If someone could get all the original master tapes for one of these and restore it fully, they could make a fortune of selling a sample pack of it! I'd love to hear these come back into music :)

[earwicker]

I love the sound of these worn out tapes, really perfect for the ambient stuff being played here. I have a feeling with unworn tapes it would sound a bit cheesier.

[RunningManOnMars]

I dig this man. Get to hear it. Rock on!

[tommyo777]

The inventor used to let us rehearse in his basement; for a guy who has brought so many angelic sounds to the world, he sure allowed some horrible noise in his home! Thanks Dave, and sorry about working on 'Jamie's Cryin' long enough to make you all cry upstairs! We never did play that one out...

[muzboz]

@tapediskmagic For the making of a sample library, you don't actually need to sample every single note, although that is the ideal case. You can build a sample library by using any number of samples, and then assigning which ones should be used across which RANGE of notes. The playback system then "stretches" the notes to cover each key, so a D sample could be used to also play the sounds for C, C#, D, D#, E for example. You may not really notice the difference, so bare that in mind. :)