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Why is the Mellotron still popular?

Felken

Felken

Jun 28, 2016
1,622
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Ottawa, CAN
#1
I was listening to some Porcupine Tree the other day. A Mellotron started playing and I immediately recognised it. I got me wondering... Why is the Mellotron still relatively popular in rock?

At the base, the Mellotron is an outdated keyboard from the early 60's. The sounds are choppy and quite limited. So why use it when newer, better sounding keyboards are available?

I'm not saying the Mellotron is a bad instrument, far from it. I'm curious as to how 50 years of keyboard evolution has failed to send the Mellotron into the forgotten pages of history.

Any theories or answers?
 
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#3
It is a very unique instrument, that is obviously (from your post) easy to pick out, unlike the great unwashed variety of modern synths.

I first saw one on April 14, 1973. It had several problems during the performance and Peter Gabriel was quite outspoken about it during said performance (bad words not reproducible on TB)! :laugh:
 
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#7
The Mellotron is hardly ‘still relatively popular’. Steven Wilson is an immense talent, not only with his own projects, but also production/remix work; that being said, the modern day ‘prog’ scene, where a mellotron is most likely to be heard, remains a niche/cult thing. However, as stated above by others, nothing is going to sound like it. It’s technical ‘failures’ and limitations ARE its sound. If you want fake strings, sure, there are plenty of keyboard samplers that do that, and flawlessly. But nothing sounds like a Mellotron. There may be plenty of Kemper profiling amps out there making things convenient, but when push comes to shove, ain’t nothing like a 50 year old Plexi, Twin, AC30, or SVT getting overheated. The acoustic upright bass didn’t disappear because of Leo Fender. The electric might have curtailed its prominence at least in the pop world, but not even the emergence of the electric fretless is going to replace the upright’s distinct sound, because that comes about in large part how the player physically copes with playing the instrument. EHX came out with their Mel9 pedal for guitarists fairly recently. It has its limitations, and a guitarist has to alter their technique to use it. Taking an original Mellotron on the road remains a risky proposition, but in a studio situation no sampler is going to interact with a player like that old beast will, because of its very own quirks. Its flaws are its strengths.
 
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#9
I reckon it's not all that popular, but certainly very noticeable when heard (especially the choir and flute).

I'm personally drawn to the thin timbre of each patch and key being just that (thin and nothing very "heavy"), bolstered by uniform tremolo speed of that darned flute patch. No dynamic control, no decay, it's just a weird organ at heart that can curiously sit well in the right mix.

Along the same lines, the advent of KONTAKT and some excellent 3rd party libraries of the past decade really brought back so many great old keys for us that would indulge ourselves when arranging, including the M400-sampled Newmello I and 8DIO's excellent deep-sampled CP90 library being big faves of mine.
 
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#11
Felken said:
The sounds are choppy and quite limited. So why use it when newer, better sounding keyboards are available?
Click to expand...

As others have already pointed out: Because those newer keyboard instruments only sound "better" if you view the Mellotron's identifying characteristics as flaws. But if those are the very characteristics that you desire in a sound, improving upon them [sic] is the worst approach to take.

I think the problem is everyone gets hung up on the source instruments -- the original input that was used to create the Mellotron's tape banks -- rather than the output sound. "Hey, this is supposed to be a 'cello...my Kurzweil makes a much more realistic sounding 'cello!" And indeed it probably does. But at this point in history people don't play a Mellotron in order to sound like a 'cello; they play a Mellotron in order to sound like a Mellotron.
 
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#12
It's retro and instantly recognizable as such. I loved the instrument when it was first out because I was a prog head, but it was surely a clunky bit of machinery. Synth versions make it easy to get that retro sound.
 
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#13
I find it amazing how Harry Chamberlin (inventor of the Chamberlin) recorded three female violinists from the Lawrence Welk orchestra in a closet in his home in his home in the early 1950's, and that ubiquitous sound is still with very much with us today - mostly in part due to current samples of the 3-violin sound that was later handed over to the Bradley Brothers (the manufacturers of the Mellotron) in a legal settlement in the mid-1960's. The whole fascinating story is out there for anybody curious enough to look it up. So when you're listening to the violins in King Crimson's In the Court of the Crimson King, you're actually listening to, by proxy, three Welk orchestra violinists!

I used to have a "real" Mellotron in the 70's and 80's but I stupidly sold it when I thought sampling would completely replace it. It sounds close, but not exactly the same, as the machine itself adds a lot of character to the overall sound. .
 
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#15
The Mellotron is a big maintenance and setup chore, which is why it's NOT a very popular instrument for bands. However, its sound is good enough that it fooled a few million people into believing that the Moody Blues were backed by an entire symphony orchestra. It also sounds very period and very cool.

For the very few that are still willing to set up and take care of one, it's worth the work.
 
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#18
Felken said:
I was listening to some Porcupine Tree the other day. A Mellotron started playing and I immediately recognised it. I got me wondering... Why is the Mellotron still relatively popular in rock?

At the base, the Mellotron is an outdated keyboard from the early 60's. The sounds are choppy and quite limited. So why use it when newer, better sounding keyboards are available?

I'm not saying the Mellotron is a bad instrument, far from it. I'm curious as to how 50 years of keyboard evolution has failed to send the Mellotron into the forgotten pages of history.

Any theories or answers?
Click to expand...



I have rebuilt two of these beasts.

My keyboard player also has an original room sized Moog..but I digress.

Mellotron, is made up of a tape loop player triggered by the key. Each key has its own player, hence the reason you don't see 88 key versions.

Think about that all those tape transports, all those heads needing cleaning, God forbid you have one that the pitch is off because of RPM problems. Oh yes, and each "patch" or different instrument is on a set of tape loops, all must be changed though you can mix and match if you don't need the full range.

They are unique sounding but they make a B3 look positively modern and easy to tour with. They haven't replaced the B3 easily either, but Joey DeFrancesco makes an awesome unit that is better than original, with hybrid technology.

One thing, that "choppy" sound, especially now, its likely to be a pretty worn instrument. I upgraded the heads, which had worn over the years. The new ones far better along with loading my own cassettes with better quality tape.

Rebuilt units are awesome sounding.
 
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