Mellotronists

Hi All,
At 21:55 14/10/03 -0400, Chris Dale wrote:

>According to an April 1981 interview, Edgar Froese bought one of the first
>Birotrons for a Paris tour

We (Birotronics) actually shipped 3 to them, I'm not sure if any were ever 
paid for.

>  and found the 8 track cartridges to be
>problematic.

They'd have been fine if the design had stuck to Dave Biro's original prototype
but someone had the 'brilliant' idea to make the machine more compact by
mounting the cartridges on their side and using a common drive and head bar.

Sadly no-one had checked the working specs for 8 track cartridges (well
documented in both US standards and British Standards). They are not intended
to be used vertically, and due to being a loop of tape the action of the 
pulling of
tape from the middle of the loop makes the tape wander when in the vertical
position. When used horizontally gravity keeps the tape relatively flat.

Sadly this was not the only problem with them but that's for another time.

Ho hum. Don't you just love hindsight?


>That and their interest in "electronic envelopes" from
>synthesizers at the time made them (Froese/Franke) lose interest in both the
>Birotron and Mellotron.

I think the developments in synths at the time was the death knell for the
Birotron, but the Mellotron had (has?) a much longer history and better
pedigree and seems to have succeeded in retaining a place in contemporary
music.

Hope this OT stuff doesn't offend anyone


 From an occasional poster.







Best Regards,

Nic