Mellotronists

<< I understand that most grand pianos used in show biz (stage shows, tv,
etc.) are really piano shaped shells with a Kurzweil or the equivalent
inside.   >>

maybe in the US.... like that thing that paul shaeffer stands behind while 
he's mumbling agreements with his boss, the one they call Letterman. the 
grands we get in at mtv come from john henry's, usually, and have to have at 
least three piano-wranglers and a tuner afterwards; they come separated from 
their legs, in a huge padded fabric muff thing (wonder where that idea came 
from...), and travel on their sides. once or twice now, it's been a 
completely ordinary piano- a pricey one, mind, but ordinary. but most often 
they send this midi'd-grand, which is still a real piano but with midi 
generated by it's keyboard aswell as hammer movements, and a little 
sequencer. I don't think they made many of these, I think it's a yamaha. I 
mic'd one up once (mary chapin carpenter) with a pair of 414's, not knowing 
that the things aren't reversible, with the working face of the mic facing 
upwards onto the back of the piano lid, and had to add about 6dB of presence 
to them...... well, they looked better that way up.

so I'm all ready to go with my relacing operation. I've decided to strip a 
frame that has a split cello/string section on it, that we could never get 
used to. it also has 8-voice choir and oboe. so I've dubbed off onto a revox 
the entire cello and oboe at both 'tron speeds and will sample them 
eventually. the oboe is remarkable- the entire 35 note range, for all 8 
seconds of each note, varies in level by +/- 1.5dB at most. the pitch is 
pretty good too, but I couldn't keep from laughing at the undignified effect 
of the tapes running out during the note, especially with no reverb or 
anything. always cracks me up. tonight I'll get started on fitting the new 
tapes.

d/400nr1098 and a growing pile of revoxes.