The Mellotron Group

Hi all-

   Yup, they sure didn't have that fancy little
half-speed switch back then.  I should've remarked
that the brass track could've been recorded at twice
the normal speed (30 ips) on the multitrack tape to
achieve the "half-speed" effect on playback (at 15
ips).  That is, of course, if they had those speed
selections on their recording equipment at that time.

   -Bruce D.


--- Rick Blechta <rick@rickblechta.com> wrote:

> 
> On Jan 22, 2008, at 4:58 PM, Bruce Daily wrote:
> 
> > Sounds like the drone in "Question" may have been
> a
> > half-speed brass of some kind. The opening fanfare
> > (on the orig. album)is anyone's guess. He was also
> > incorporating his Moog a lot on "AQOB".
> 
> One thing that should be mentioned to those who have
> never played a  
> MkII is that the pitch range is a great deal bigger
> than what is  
> available on an M400 and all later mellotrons. So
> Pinder was unlikely  
> to have needed to do anything other than turn his
> pitch control way  
> down to drop an octave. (Not having my MkII here in
> front of me, I  
> can't tell you exactly what the range is; anyone
> else care to step in?)
> 
> Another notable low-pitch mellotron part in "Devil's
> Triangle" by King  
> Crimson, might be slowed down, but possible not.
> 
> I wonder why the pitch sweep was smaller on later
> mellotrons. David  
> and Markus's half-speed switch is a good effort to
> correct this, but  
> I've always wondered why that feature was changed.
> It's great for all  
> sorts of things in the studio -- or for vocalists
> who can't cut parts  
> in the original key. You get to watch the guitarists
> suffer through  
> trying to transpose while you just twiddle a knob
> and are ready to  
> go. ;)
> 
> Rick



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