Musician Gear & Tech Discussion

Ok, I hear you loud and clear, Howlin'.

But what would be your suggestion to get that "Lucy in the sky with diamonds" type sound of the Mellotron?

Tell me how to get it, without divine intervention.

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fu ... id=3155175

Hypatia Lake -

These guys are a-ok by me. I got a bite from SADROBOT an indie label, I just need to put a few up for review. 1:17 of "Bridgette Fountainhead" has the Mellotron effect.

Forgive me sad robots lol, but I do not speak the synthesizer electric..lol

Yeah, HJ...I seem tp remember all sortsa complaints about Mellotron tapes busting...hence they disappeared when digital sampling came in vogue.

There are lots of good synths out there with sampled strings, horns , piano, etc, Cap, whose sounds are as good or better, with many more choices of instrumenta & sounds than the old Mello's. While the Mello's were analogue, the keys outnumbered the tapes, & the tapes had to be played at various speeds to change pitch. This stretched and wore out a lot of tapes. Now, the modern synth speeds up the signal digitally, changing the pitch of the sampled note. Sounds the same to the human ear, is less bulky, breaks down less often, & is overall cheaper to use.

Yes, but for instance, I was playing with some people I know last night and one of them had a mini moog. I asked innocently, "what's that?" He smiled evily and said, "you don't know?" I didn't but I do now.

He likes the mini moog the best and I thought it had some great sounds on it, but the price tag is a joke.

And I do not speak synth, thus I don't know...

So the song remains the same, what does one try to procure in order to get that trippy type of "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" at about 1:17 of "Bridgette Fountainhead". I have a decent tune and am trying to finish so I can post it and get slapped by the bandmix world in general, so ultimately it can be tweaked a little and added to the set list.

Who knows, maybe I won't even tweak it..but I need that sound to use as fill for the space time continuum. lol MUST..

Oh crap. Hey Captain I just noticed you’re pretty local. If you want to borrow or check out a synth let me know. The zoom mixer has some great effects and I still have an operational Juno-G (both are really light and travel well). Send me a PM if you’re interested.

In the next few days I’ll be getting a replacement, I have been putting it off. I’m trying to get an Alesis A6, I have heard nothing but good things about it, but the local Sam Ashe’s seem to be pushing the Access T1 instead.

LOL I prefer not to buy anything from Sam Ash. They messed with me once and I still snarl when I think about it.

You know I am like the elephant in the regard that I never forget a slight. (I detest DAVE PHIILPS SOUND AND MUSIC as well, as they cheated me on a guitar repair and I verbally bash them every time we play, stores in Flemington and Phillipsburg BEWARE!!!!!!!)

I don't borrow anything from anyone, as if it breaks I feel compelled to replace it. (cost me dearly already once) (morals suck)

I can't PM you, as mine is the free membership.. LOL And I like it like that. I had a few hits here and there from people to play with, but I had to basically go out, play at a few open mics and then gather people that thought similarly.

The only people I culled here were drummers??!!??!!! And I still have no idea why.

Lalong, did you listen to the snip I mentioned at 1:17 of Bridgette Fountainhead? That's exactly what I need to complete something I am working on now. My third eye is open and trying to finish before I lose something. (once it closes, that project is lost)

If I could get a reasonable synth that did the 1:17 thing alone and nothing else, I probably would. Then all I have to do is teach what I wrote back to the gents.

O-k, Lance just wrote me back.

I have to laugh, Lalong. It turns out it is an Alesis Andromeda A6 with a mellotron selection.

Uggghhh, now all I need is a couple of grand to blow. UGGHHHHHHHHH

It’s pretty fat, so it’s tough to pick which individual sound. I think you are referring to the ethereal sound in the background. In either case the Juno has about 10 patches that get close. The problem is as I swap through patches I forget exactly how the original sounded.

You were asking about the Mellotron in earlier posts, if you need that exact sound, then the Juno can import wave and AIFF samples. I only recommend a Juno because you probably already have a full sized keyboard (although not full 88 keys, it will play full 88 through MIDI) and it has the Roland fantom x insides at like ½ the costs. So after you get that exact sound, you still have lots left over for the future. From what I came across it seems they have mellotron samples on the Roland Ultimate Keys Expansion card. I can’t find a complete listing of what exactly is on the card though.

If any of your keyboards does sampling then disregard all of this. You can buy samples directly from these folks:

http://www.vintagekeyboardsounds.com/pa ... otron.html Although I have heard you can get them free on the web, I haven’t seen any.

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/G ... -main.html Looks like a software hardware combo.

Hopefully some of this helps.

EDITED: lol You must have posted while I was listening. I found out today the A6 is discontinued, so if you’re thinking about getting it, you better not wait. I can’t find it used anywhere, so I’m assuming the folks who have them are satisfied with it. I'm going to harrass the Sam Ash guy see if any of there stores has one floating around.

LOL WTF is with the discontinued stuff? Soon as I find something I like, I always seem to find out it's rare or discontinued.

I found a buddy that wants to sell me his A6 for a cool grand, but that's a lot of money to be blowing on something I don't even really play.

I have a guy who can play keys kind of, he's a feel player. But he doesn't know anything about synths either. So I'd have to set him up and I don't think I am willing to do it as I don't know what his level of commitment is.

I don't have a full sized key board. We usually use this beat up organ type thing with a leslie sounding feature on it. (i live in that stuff) It's not mine and I'd be hard pressed to tell you exactly what it is.

So I think I will just wait and see what transpires. I have a little show coming up in May in rural NY, after that goes down I will better know what the situation is at hand.

BTW Lance from Hypatia Lake wrote me earlier and told me it was an Alesis Andromeda A6 with a mellotron patch. I told him to stop using all the expensive sh*t. lol I wasn't sure if you got that. I had to laugh, as Lance knew exactly what I was referring to. He told me that "Bridgette" is a 75 track layer cake PLUS the mellotron sound I liked. 76 tracks? WTF!!!

Hey Scott. I have a Korg DSS-1 digital sampling synth I'll sell ya...uses small floppies...but you can even draw your own sound waves on it...I have 2 instruction manuals, stand, & a bunch of floppies that don't work anymore...LOL

I only paid $1850 for it, & used it twice on stage & a few times in the living room...

Sounds expensive. LOL

I love it, my magic guitar only cost me 165$, my marshall head 625$ with shipping and to get a reasonable synth to do my mellotron stuff is easily over a grand and I don't even play keys!

"it is to laugh"..lol