The Mellotron Group

...this invariably happens when I have guests over and they want a mellotron demo. Not in tune with any other keyboards,nor with each other (I have 2) yet yesterday everything was fine (mellotronically speaking).

Dan

--- In newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com, Mark <markpringnz@...> wrote:
>
> I assume you haven't got CM10 in your tron, mine is never ever in tune, I
> mainly use mine these days for "ambient atonal crap" where it works just
> fine. Still love it.
> 
> Mark
> 
> On Fri, Feb 3, 2012 at 8:59 AM, Mike Dickson <mike.dickson@...> wrote:
> 
> > **
> >
> >
> > ..and this was most definitely *one of those days*.
> >
> > I got home quickly enough because I had the germ of a musical good idea
> > going on in my head and needed to get it down quickly so I wouldn't lose
> > it. All it would need is piano and Mellotron and that's it.  After that I
> > could take it easy.
> >
> > However.
> >
> > First the Mellotron was flat on all counts.  Tuning it up made no
> > difference.  So tune it *way* up and then back it down.  Now it's sharp
> > all round, even when it was wound down beneath where the pitch control was
> > before.  Then I get it to approximate with the piano...just about.  Then I
> > start.  Then I stop.  It's flat again.  Repeat as above.  Great  Start
> > again.  Now it's about a quarter-tone sharp, despite being where it was on
> > the dial when it was flat before.  Then it went flat as I played.  Then it
> > was tuned up.  Then it went sharp.  Notice that *at no time* did the
> > bastard thing ever pass through correct tuning; it went from Sharpville to
> > Flatborough without even passing anywhere close to what I was after.
> >
> > Okay..screw this.  Try the flutes.  Never has there been a worse idea, not
> > even when Archduke Franz Ferdinand said *'to hell with the
> > expense...let's go on holiday to Sarajevo...'*. If the strings are bad
> > then the flutes are going to be worse.  I mean way worse.  I mean it didn't
> > even sound like C#1 was playing the same note any more than once every five
> > minutes.
> >
> > Walked away.  Let it run.  Must be a temperature thing.  Yes...that's it.
> >
> > *The fuck it was.  *I came back to find the strings were flat and they
> > were staying that way, always *suggesting* that they were in tune when in
> > fact they were about as out of tune as those wailing high notes on *'I
> > Will Always Love You'* just before the vibrato mercifully kicks in.
> >  Repeat as above.  Sharp.  Then flat.  Then sharp *and* flat.  The
> > probably neither.  Then musical limbo.
> >
> > I suspect the M400 was trying to tell me that my *germ of a musical good
> > idea* was actually garbage.
> >
> > You'll just never know.  Sat down.  Played Angry Birds.  Forgot.
> >
> > --
> > Mike Dickson, Edinburgh
> >
> >  
> >
>