The Mellotron Group

On Fri, 30 Nov 2007, Jack Younger wrote:

>
> OK, these are some obvious choices, but I feel like
> nobody got to 'em:
> Agreement on the DX7


pretty much agreed on, but i don't think the key to
this monster's teeth have been specified, thought it
was touched on by gino: if i recall [and i could be
quite wrong], this was the first synth to have the
"one slider [or knob or whatever] to control all of
the dozens/hundreds of parameters" syndrome. it's
the first one i recall coming across this design
aberation on... unfortunately, it's been around
ever since... not that this was the only problem
with the dx-7, but it's the one that haunted us
all for so long...


> EMI400, as built (I've battled mine enough to know what's up)


damn shame about these.
they are no doubt responsible for much of the
misguided dislike of the mellotron.


> Roland D-50
> Any Yamaha PSR series


these are kind of toys, so do they really count?


> Korg MicroKorg and M1 ( could go on about the Triton
> and Prophecy etc. but that'll take awhile)
> Ensoniq in general but particularly the Fizmo


alright, i have to step in here and come to the
defense of SO many of my friends here. ensoniq
was based about 12 miles from here, and i know
at least 20 people that have worked there over
the years - every one of them a really great
person - maybe i just never met the demons
that designed some of the gear. and it's my
understanding that the fizmo really suffers
from a single fatal design flaw - an underspec-ed
voltage regulator that was the downfall of
most of these units. maybe they sounded bad
too, but i'm not sure i ever heard one up close.
from what i recall, it was like a korg wavestation?


> A whole lot of Casio (although some can be a pretty
> good time)
> Studio Electronics Moog clones (filter sweeps moving
> in steps?!?  Yeesh.)
> Optigan key section, the accompaniment rules and
> always will
> RMI Electric Piano
> Electric home organs in general (with a few
> exceptions)
> That's what I got for now.
> -Jack


...jeff