Nanook Olle plays the Mellotron MK II Brass

Nanook playng the mark II Brass section on the Mellotron 400. This sound was heavily featured on the King Crimson track Circus.

The Mellotron is a keyboardinstrument from the 60´s that uses snippets of tape with prerecorded sounds of instruments. The Mellotron was made infamous by The Beatles when they used it´s flute sound for the intro of Strawberry fields forever. The original idea for the instrument was born in California by Harry Chamberlin in the late 40´s. Nowadays it is used by bands such as Oasis, Sparklehorse, Fiona Apple and many others. At the Roth Händle studio there are two Mellotrons #563 and #1517 as well as a Chamberlin tapeloop drum machine.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Mellotron
• king
• crimson
• tape
• loop
• vintage
• beatles
• Circus
• brass

[Sunchild333]

so how much would one of those cost these days?

[RothHandle]

It all depends on the condition you can buy new ones as well which are kind of pricey but on the other hand you get a guranteed working machine...I bought my first one in more or less perfect condition for 25 000 kr with four tape frames. The second one I bought was for 10 000 kr with two frames so there are still bargains to be made you just have to look where noone else is...

...or you can rent some time in a studio that has one...

[Aspartamebraintumor]

so.. whatever does happen when the 8 seconds run out? Does it just stop? or does the tape actually rip if you hold it too long?

[RothHandle]

It just stops with often a slightly weird sound. Listen to the end of Oasis track Wonderwall.

[PubliusDiamond]

That is the most haunting sound ever...even more so than mellotron strings.

[RothHandle]

You should hear the wineglasses.

[RothHandle]

I have nine or ten tape frames with three to four sounds on every frame. It takes 2- 3 minutes to chenge the tape frames.

[mooghammondb3]

How do you have different patches?

[RothHandle]

There is one tape per key...so it isn't "hundreds" but 35. Best regards,

Mattias

[mooghammondb3]

There's hundreds of recorded tape tracks in the machine, when you push a key, the track plays. It's really pretty simple.

[bloozeman101]

how does it work