Mellotronists

Well it wasn't eBay so I have to give feedback to the list...

I got some new tapes from Martin and co. at Streetly, and framed them up on
Friday night. It took about an hour, starting with a frame of old crummy
tapes that needed replacing (a couple were broken and repaired, creased and
ugly). The Streetly gang has a way of marking the tapes very clearly, so
that you load one up and tighten it down, clip it off, and it becomes the
anchor point of the next note, with no wasted tape at all. When you have old
tapes already framed up it becomes very fast and easy as you can pull the
new through by splicing the start of the new to the end of the old tape.

The sounds are Ian McD flutes, Sad Strings, and Russian Choir. It's a common
combination with a nice twist - everything is very much in tune and clean
sounding. The Ian flutes are very well played with a bit of vibrato added as
you get into the notes. Beatiful in a wet mix. The strings sound very
tronnish overall but with a nice slow attack. The choir is frighteningly
bold and up front, with everybody in tune across the keyboard. What it lacks
in charming discord, it makes up for in scary seriousness. The lower notes
especially have a strong vibrato male character reminiscent of the
Chamberlin male solo voice.

Oh and by the way, delivery time from money-wire arrangment to arrival of
the package was just under a week!

I have a new question -  what is the thread type for the anchor screws on a
tape frame? Threads per inch, pitch, stuff like that? I have a big drawer in
the garage which is full of screws (it's the result of years of
screw-gathering) but I found no match in there. I'll be doing some google
searching to bone up on thread types, but I wanted to see if the list could
shortcut my research.

Best Regards,

- Gene

> From: Gene Stopp <gene@...>
> Date: 2004/05/10 Mon PM 02:08:47 EDT
> 
> I got some new tapes from Martin and co. at Streetly, and framed them up on
> Friday night.

Hiya folks,

This post got me thinking about a couple of things:

1/ Has anybody ever framed up a set of tapes backwards? Either intentionally or not? (i.e. so that the start of the note is at the end of the tape)

2/ Is it possible, on a MkII, to leave off the index markings and have one 48-second note?

Hey, I'm not an owner, so forgive me if these seem like silly questions. :-)


James Bailey
host: Electric Storm / A Missing Sense
CKLN-FM 88.1 Toronto www.ckln.fm
electricstorm@...

>1/ Has anybody ever framed up a set of tapes backwards? Either 
>intentionally or not? (i.e. so that the start of the note is at the end of 
>the tape)

I ran into one machine with the tapes in upside down.  The owner was 
wondering why the sound was so muffled.

On #805's original tape set there was one tape in backwards.  This was 
because the tape had been replaced with one recorded with the A & C tracks 
swapped.  So the guy put it in backwards instead of getting the tape fixed.

>2/ Is it possible, on a MkII, to leave off the index markings and have one 
>48-second note?

No.  Essentially a Mark II becomes a Mark V when the stations aren't 
cycling.  Instead of having the tapes fastened to the retention bars in a 
frame as in the M400, they're fastened to the drums and are locked into one 
station that way--one bank of sounds.

If you took the chain off the front drum and allowed it to turn, then, 
theoretically, yes you could have a very long note, but the take-up box 
wouldn't handle all that tape!

...kl...
M400 #805 - !seltaeb woh--ojom sdrawkcab taht sekil!
M400 #1037 - needs tape replacement

* Block Lists:  If your e-mail address is on a block list
*   such as SpamCop, I will no longer receive your e-mail.
** Ken Leonard - Web Table of Contents:  http://www.kleonard.com
** Get Outdoors New England:  http://www.GONewEngland.org

On Tuesday, May 11, 2004, at 12:31  am, Ken Leonard wrote:
>
> No.  Essentially a Mark II becomes a Mark V when the stations aren't
> cycling.

So it morphs into a smaller cabinet and catches fire?

Cx



http://www.s-club.co.uk
        Sundae Club*
    [there ain't no party]

> 1/ Has anybody ever framed up a set of tapes backwards?

Yes. I played the first three notes and heard Satan telling me to kill
my parents.

Mike Dickson (tron@...) M400 #996
The Official Cynic of Streetly Electronics
Streetly Sample Library http://www.blackcat.demon.co.uk/tron/

That's odd. Middle C was my wife saying, "When are you getting that 
white piano out of my dining room"?

G Wong (arsonist)

On Tuesday, May 11, 2004, at 05:10  PM, tron@... wrote:

>> 1/ Has anybody ever framed up a set of tapes backwards?
>
> Yes. I played the first three notes and heard Satan telling me to kill
> my parents.
>
> Mike Dickson (tron@...) M400 #996
> The Official Cynic of Streetly Electronics
> Streetly Sample Library http://www.blackcat.demon.co.uk/tron/
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>

----- Original Message ----- 

From: <tron@...>
To: <Mellotronists@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, May 11, 2004 10:10 PM
Subject: [Mellotronists] Happy Customer


> > 1/ Has anybody ever framed up a set of tapes backwards?
>
> Yes. I played the first three notes and heard Satan telling me to kill
> my parents.
>
> Mike Dickson (tron@...) M400 #996
> The Official Cynic of Streetly Electronics
> Streetly Sample Library http://www.blackcat.demon.co.uk/tron/

That's what happened when I played mine *forwards*. That'll teach me to buy
Streetly tapes.  :-)

Andy T.

p.s. You may laugh... Selection B was the infamous cats. I'm sure I'd
ordered M300b violins...

Yes. I played the first three notes and heard Satan telling me to kill
my parents.

Mike Dickson (tron@...) M400 #996

Yeah, so what! Satan was born in Scotland and he invented golf.

fritz