Mellotronists

yet another dinosaur band is touring.
from what i can find they DID use a mellotron... just once?
no info on band lineup or any other details.

Deep Purple on tour:

Sat 09/11/04 Vancouver, BC Orpheum Theatre  
Mon 09/13/04 Calgary, AB Stampede Corral  
Tue 09/14/04 Edmonton, AB Shaw Conference Centre  
Thu 10/07/04 Ekaterinburg, RUS Palace Of Sports  
Fri 10/08/04 Kamerov, RUS Palace Of Sports  
Sat 10/09/04 Krasnoyarsk, RUS Palace Of Sports  
Mon 10/11/04 Khabarovsk, RUS Palace Of Sports  
Tue 10/12/04 Vladivostok, RUS House Of Culture  
Thu 10/14/04 Irkutsk, RUS Palace Of Sports  
Sat 10/16/04 Novosibirsk, RUS Ice Palace Of Sports  
Sun 10/17/04 Chelyabinsk, RUS Palace Of Sports  
Tue 10/19/04 Yaroslavk, RUS Arena 2000  
Thu 10/21/04 Moscow, RUS Olympiski  
Fri 10/22/04 Saint Petersburg, RUS New Ice Arena  
Sun 10/24/04 Kazan, RUS Palace Of Sports  
Mon 10/25/04 Samara, RUS Palace Of Sports  
Tue 10/26/04 Rostov, RUS Palace Of Sports  
Thu 10/28/04 Xappkob, RUS Palace Of Sports  
Fri 10/29/04 Dnepropetrovsk, RUS Palace Of Sports  
Sun 10/31/04 Kiev, UKR Palace Of Sports  
Sat 11/06/04 Manchester, UK Manchester Evening News Arena  
Mon 11/08/04 Glasgow, UK S.E.C.C.  
Tue 11/09/04 Sheffield, UK Hallam FM Arena  
Wed 11/10/04 Newcastle, UK Metro Radio Arena  
Fri 11/12/04 Birmingham, UK NEC Arena  
Sat 11/13/04 London, UK Wembley Arena  
Sun 11/14/04 Cardiff, UK Cardiff International Arena  
Tue 11/16/04 Brighton, UK Brighton Centre  
Wed 11/17/04 Plymouth, UK Plymouth Pavilions  


========================================================
 mailto:jeffc@...   http://www.netaxs.com/~jeffc/
========================================================
"Since at the beginning and end of our lives we are so
 dependent on others' kindness, how can it be that in
 the middle we neglect kindness towards others?"
- Tenzin Gyatso - His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama
========================================================

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

From: "Jeff Coulter" <jeffc@...>
To: <Mellotronists@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, September 02, 2004 10:11 PM
Subject: [Mellotronists] [OT?] Deep Purple...



> yet another dinosaur band is touring.
> from what i can find they DID use a mellotron... just once?
> no info on band lineup or any other details.

One track each on three albums, to my knowledge, Jeff.

Book of Taliesyn ('69) - 'Anthem'
Burn - ('74) '"A" 200'
Stormbringer ('74) - 'Soldier of Fortune'

Maybe Gillan didn't like them.

Andy T.

I consider myself a pretty big Deep Purple fan (..they are my
favorite band, I own all of the 'official' releases, etc..)

As far as their use of a Mellotron, I can only think of one
song that may have 'tron, "Soldier of Fortune" off of
'Stormbringer'.

The fansite that I've found to be most up-to-date and
informative is thehighwaystar.com.  They just posted an
excellent interview with Don Airey, who replaced Jon Lord in
the past 1~2 years.

http://www.thehighwaystar.com/interviews/airey/da-feb082004.html

Ritchie is long out of the band, but is suitably replaced
with Steve Morse.  I regret that I never saw DP w/Ritchie -
as I highly regard his playing and his solos.

It is interesting that, aside from Ritchie, every other
guitar player is American (Tommy Bolin, Joe Satriani - for
the tail of the tour when Ritchie left, and Steve Morse). 
However, only 1 other member was born in the States, Joe Lynn
Turner (...sang on 1 album, "Slaves and Masters" probably the
worse Purple disc - ever...)

Purple will be in the SF Bay area this weekend, with Thin
Lizzy and Blue Oyster Cult.  I think BOC used some mellotron
on a disc....  yeah, I'm sure that one tune on 'Agents of
Fortune' has mellotron.... i think "Vera Gemini"...not
positive though.

No, I don't have tickets to this show.  I've seen each of
these bands enoug times, in smaller venues.

sorry for the long response

-jh




--- Jeff Coulter <jeffc@...> wrote:

> 
> yet another dinosaur band is touring.
> from what i can find they DID use a mellotron... just once?
> no info on band lineup or any other details.
> 
> Deep Purple on tour:
> 
> Sat 09/11/04 Vancouver, BC Orpheum Theatre  
> Mon 09/13/04 Calgary, AB Stampede Corral  
> Tue 09/14/04 Edmonton, AB Shaw Conference Centre  
> Thu 10/07/04 Ekaterinburg, RUS Palace Of Sports  
> Fri 10/08/04 Kamerov, RUS Palace Of Sports  
> Sat 10/09/04 Krasnoyarsk, RUS Palace Of Sports  
> Mon 10/11/04 Khabarovsk, RUS Palace Of Sports  
> Tue 10/12/04 Vladivostok, RUS House Of Culture  
> Thu 10/14/04 Irkutsk, RUS Palace Of Sports  
> Sat 10/16/04 Novosibirsk, RUS Ice Palace Of Sports  
> Sun 10/17/04 Chelyabinsk, RUS Palace Of Sports  
> Tue 10/19/04 Yaroslavk, RUS Arena 2000  
> Thu 10/21/04 Moscow, RUS Olympiski  
> Fri 10/22/04 Saint Petersburg, RUS New Ice Arena  
> Sun 10/24/04 Kazan, RUS Palace Of Sports  
> Mon 10/25/04 Samara, RUS Palace Of Sports  
> Tue 10/26/04 Rostov, RUS Palace Of Sports  
> Thu 10/28/04 Xappkob, RUS Palace Of Sports  
> Fri 10/29/04 Dnepropetrovsk, RUS Palace Of Sports  
> Sun 10/31/04 Kiev, UKR Palace Of Sports  
> Sat 11/06/04 Manchester, UK Manchester Evening News Arena  
> Mon 11/08/04 Glasgow, UK S.E.C.C.  
> Tue 11/09/04 Sheffield, UK Hallam FM Arena  
> Wed 11/10/04 Newcastle, UK Metro Radio Arena  
> Fri 11/12/04 Birmingham, UK NEC Arena  
> Sat 11/13/04 London, UK Wembley Arena  
> Sun 11/14/04 Cardiff, UK Cardiff International Arena  
> Tue 11/16/04 Brighton, UK Brighton Centre  
> Wed 11/17/04 Plymouth, UK Plymouth Pavilions  
> 
> 
> ========================================================
>  mailto:jeffc@...   http://www.netaxs.com/~jeffc/
> ========================================================
> "Since at the beginning and end of our lives we are so
>  dependent on others' kindness, how can it be that in
>  the middle we neglect kindness towards others?"
> - Tenzin Gyatso - His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama
> ========================================================
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor
> --------------------~--> 
> Make a clean sweep of pop-up ads. Yahoo! Companion Toolbar.
> Now with Pop-Up Blocker. Get it for free!
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> Yahoo! Groups Links
> 
> 
> 
>  
> 
>

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

From: "John Hofmeyer" <j_hofmeyer@...>
To: <Mellotronists@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, September 02, 2004 10:31 PM
Subject: Re: [Mellotronists] [OT?] Deep Purple...



> Purple will be in the SF Bay area this weekend, with Thin
> Lizzy and Blue Oyster Cult.  I think BOC used some mellotron
> on a disc....  yeah, I'm sure that one tune on 'Agents of
> Fortune' has mellotron.... i think "Vera Gemini"...not
> positive though.

Nothing on 'Agents', but Chamberlin strings on 'Nosferatu' from 'Spectres'
the following year.

Andy 'Smartarse' Thompson

On Thu, 2 Sep 2004, Andy Thompson wrote:

> One track each on three albums, to my knowledge, Jeff.


wow - not so far OT as i originally had thought.
i only knew of stormbringer use-age.
jeez - i completely forgot about "Book of Taliesyn"!
i have a vinyl copy in my garage someplace amongst the
old LP collection - MUST dig that one out soon.

[i did not really mean dinosaur in a derogatory way - just
in a descriptive way (though i guess that is kinda
disrespectful, isn't it?) i AM careless sometimes :( ]

> Book of Taliesyn ('69) - 'Anthem'
> Burn - ('74) '"A" 200'
> Stormbringer ('74) - 'Soldier of Fortune'
> 
> Maybe Gillan didn't like them.
> 
> Andy T.

Whoa.  Deep Purple without Ritchie Blackmore or Jon Lord?

Isn't that a bit like saying: "This is the same hatchet that George
Washington used to chop down the cherry tree...  Of course, the head has
been replaced a few times, and the handle has been replaced, but it's the
*same* hatchet"?  :)

Not that I kept up with the band after the 70s ....

BabzKat


on 9/3/04 3:54 AM, Mellotronists@yahoogroups.com at
Mellotronists@yahoogroups.com wrote:

> [...]
> 
>   They just posted an
> excellent interview with Don Airey, who replaced Jon Lord in
> the past 1~2 years.
> 
> http://www.thehighwaystar.com/interviews/airey/da-feb082004.html
> 
> Ritchie is long out of the band, but is suitably replaced
> with Steve Morse.  I regret that I never saw DP w/Ritchie -
> as I highly regard his playing and his solos.

I still have not manged to purchase a mellotron for myself,
so I've been using mellotron samples with some of the
recording projects I'm working on (...none of which are
complete, yet...)

Using the VSynth sampler, I am able to trigger the Mellotron
sounds (or any other sample) and create a fairly accurate
mellotron take.  Borrowing from this idea, I've created some
sample sets from guitar players who have been coming in to
lay down tracks.  Once we get a tone dialed in and determine
what type of attack/decay I'd like to capture, the guitarist
simply plays through 2 octaves of notes - holding each note
for ~10 seconds or so.

The result is pretty fun - basically a digital 'tron.  With a
close mic, a couple room mics, and some mics in the hallway;
I can mix in the desired delay/reverb for each take.  This
adds to some variety in the tone and avoids excessive,
digital processing (...though we are recording these takes,
digitally...)

Has anyone made tape racks (recently) from this type of
approach?  ...ok, I'm assuming this isn't significantly
different from how the tape racks are made - I guess I'm just
curious if the process of creating the tape racks is cost
prohibitive for this type of transfer, or if the flexbility
that I'm accustom in the digital domain does not translate to
mellotron tape rack?

-jh

<< With a close mic, a couple room mics, and some mics in the hallway [snip] 
Has anyone made tape racks (recently) from this type of approach?>>

back in the mists of time, & before there was such excellent support for the 
remaining mellotrons, I had just one slightly mouldy tapeset in my 400. it 
occurred to me to try some loops of 1/4" in there, with some 'tron-like sounds 
from my sample library.  I knew edgar froese had done something like this in 
1977.

up until this point, I had been becoming expert at recreating the 
idiosyncracies of the mellotron using samplers, & I used to sample everything from 1/4" 
anyway for added authenticity. 
with modern samplers & romplers, it's a lot easier to do things like, say, 
use a tiny bit of noise-modulation to vary the pitch &/or amplitude of a sample, 
to reproduce the random quirks of tape replay. used sparingly, these sorts of 
technique can make a sampler sound a lot less sterile anyway.

but I digress. the loops of 1/4" wobbled about in the 3/8" tape guides & 
would continue to do so if I didn't secure them in my one & only tapeframe. the 
looping part was really just because there was no other way to mount the tape 
without doing this- the edits were pants, by my high standards. so I cleaned my 
mouldy tapes instead (meths, since you ask- a heavyish fraction of alcohol, 
less volatile than head-cleaner) & made the best of what I had. 

I even asked a colleague at work if he knew anything about the BBC machines & 
whether they had ever had their own tape-maker.....

much later on (1993 maybe), I discovered streetly & bought more frames, + a 
1/4" comb kit. since then, on several occasions, I've loaded 1098 with 1/4" 
tapes with various noises on them. oddly, though, the replay path in the machine 
(which runs at 7-1/2 ips, by the way), is almost too good, & the anticpiated 
"tronification" of the sounds is not as apparent as one might expect. 
& the new sounds being supplied ready-made sound a lot less "tronny" than new 
copies of older tapesets too.

I've had a lot more "success", if you want to call it that, in producing what 
is commonly held to be a mellotron-like effect by doctoring samples with 1/4" 
transfers & the various modulation techniques I've mentioned here & in the 
past. the proteus 2000 synth module, if you can get y'r own samples into it 
(torture!) or the alesis q-synth series (not much memory for samples, but ok 
nevertheless) are well-equipped for modulation madness. I expect the korg triton 
would be reasonably good, though it's mod matrix is more basic. don't know about 
the yamaha samplers, & I don't use computers as instruments....

hth-
duncan/r.m.i./400 nr 1098 (no longer creaking under the weight of the cs50)

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Does anyone have an extra tape frame for a M400? I have a set of tapes that
I need framed up. I heard that someone in the Los Angeles area may sell
them. Is this true?
 
David

Talk to Martin at Streetly (tronbros@aol) I recently got one of their new frames and the build quality is outstanding.

fritz