Mellotron sounds (3 Violins)

Ednys · Post by **Ednys** » Wed Jan 20, 2010 4:39 pm

Hello!

Does the M50 include by default the famous Mellotron sound called "3 Violins", as used in many 70's progressive rock bands (King Crimson, Genesis, Yes...)

I think it has the Mellotron "Flutes" sound, as it was used by the Beatles in Strawberry Fields Forever intro.

Do you know if all of the Mellotron M400 sounds are in it?

Thank you!

X-Trade · Post by **X-Trade** » Wed Jan 20, 2010 5:43 pm

It does have 'legendary tape playback' strings, choirs, and flutes, however I could only find a 'TRON Choir' program when demoing the unit in the shop. I switched the multisamples for that program to find the strings and flutes. I imagine they are used in other programs (possibly layered with other sounds), but aren't named so obviously.

So the samples are there. Although they are looped and cleaned up and pitch corrected somewhat so they do not maintain the original mellotron character where you could only hold a chord for so long before it cut out, or certain combinations producing really out of tune chords (apparently genesis' wachers of the sky intro was originally conceived because only two chords on their unit would actually play perfectly in tune). It does maintain a kind of tapey bandwidth limited warmth though.

you could recreate some of this behaviour and character through programming. That is what they synthesis engine is there for, but it depends how far you want to go. It probably isn't really necessary.

By the way, I love prog! I started playing keyboards in a prog rock band but there isn't much of a market for small prog bands here...

mocando · Post by **mocando** » Wed Jan 20, 2010 9:05 pm

Awesome news, X-Trade. I would like to know which TRON Choir was the one you found. I'm using a good program for my Los Endos and Afterglow combis, but I wonder if there could be improved.

Aussie-Andy · Post by **Aussie-Andy** » Tue Jan 26, 2010 12:11 am

Hi,

On the Mellotron front there are genuine (although mediocre) samples of 3 Violins and Flute contained in the M50. No 8 Voice Choir, the program in question is a Korg choir processed to imitate the Tron one.
Strangely though the Micro-X has a proper Tron 8 choir sample in it derived from the Triton banks. I was so dissappointed that the M50 did not have this, it is so much better than the unconvincing choir the M50 has. I would have traded all the choir sounds in the M50 for this one.

Who makes these bad decisions - vintage sounds are a cornerstone of the market, why skimp on them when you can recycle what you've got anyway. An M400 Tron had 3 sounds per tape, why does the M50 have only 2 ?

Aussie-Andy · Post by **Aussie-Andy** » Tue Jan 26, 2010 10:45 am

Hi again,

I was wrong in my last post, the 8 Choir is there in all it's glory. I had another look at the Tron Choir program tonight and the wave in question is buried beneath other Korg choir sounds. The sample is called Voice-Choir LP (sample # 208) and the best way to create this sound is to disable the others and set both Osc's 1 & 2 with this sample either same pitch or an octave apart. You could then add effects like tube-amps, tape echo, etc, to add more vintage warmth to the sound.

Sorry I dissed you before Korg and thanks for not forgetting to add this sound, if I only bothered to look closer I would have seen this in the first instance.

Now, if only you had added the MK2 Brass sound you had on the Triton Extreme, we could all play Cirkus or Watcher of the Skies till our hearts are content. Did I miss that one as well ? Wishful thinking ?

X-Trade · Post by **X-Trade** » Tue Jan 26, 2010 1:03 pm

Aussie-Andy wrote:Hi again,

I was wrong in my last post, the 8 Choir is there in all it's glory.

glad to hear it! I was going to say, it was there when I looked!

Now, if only you had added the MK2 Brass sound you had on the Triton Extreme, we could all play Cirkus or Watcher of the Skies till our hearts are content. Did I miss that one as well ? Wishful thinking ?

There is a 'Watcher of the sky' program in the triton series that actually uses a synth bass wave layered with a tape string like sound.

Anyway, for something more realistic the string should be more prominent than the brass, and you wouldn't necessarily notice in the layers, so you should be okay just to use a normal brass ensemble sample.

BillW · Post by **BillW** » Tue Mar 16, 2010 5:44 pm

Actually, the Triton Watcher patch uses Syn-Ghostly and a string ensemble waveform to mimic the original Genesis Mellotron recording. I used to have an M3 and was able to get this sound pretty close to the Genesis recording.

Here are some of the original Triton parameters...it should be enought to get you started on the M50. The Syn-Ghostly multisample is in the M50, but you'll have to substitute something for String Ens:

OSC-1
High 225 Syn-Ghostly
Low 000 A. Piano

Oct-1, Tran +6, Tune -0600, Delay 0000Ms

OSC-2
High 123 String Ens
Low 000 A. Piano

Oct +0, tran +6, Tune -0600, Delay 0004Ms

IFX 008 St. Graphic 7EQ and 040 Rotary speaker.

SW1 Mod. SW2 JS-Y & Ribbon Lock

MFX1 015 St. Analog record
MFX2 Reverb wet plate.

keego · Post by **keego** » Tue Mar 16, 2010 6:00 pm

I used to change the multisamples to tape strings and tape brass on the Watcher patch. Gave it a darker dirtier sound

mocando · Post by **mocando** » Tue Sep 22, 2015 1:18 pm

BillW wrote:Actually, the Triton Watcher patch uses Syn-Ghostly and a string ensemble waveform to mimic the original Genesis Mellotron recording. I used to have an M3 and was able to get this sound pretty close to the Genesis recording.

Here are some of the original Triton parameters...it should be enought to get you started on the M50. The Syn-Ghostly multisample is in the M50, but you'll have to substitute something for String Ens:

OSC-1
High 225 Syn-Ghostly
Low 000 A. Piano

Oct-1, Tran +6, Tune -0600, Delay 0000Ms

OSC-2
High 123 String Ens
Low 000 A. Piano

Oct +0, tran +6, Tune -0600, Delay 0004Ms

IFX 008 St. Graphic 7EQ and 040 Rotary speaker.

SW1 Mod. SW2 JS-Y & Ribbon Lock

MFX1 015 St. Analog record
MFX2 Reverb wet plate.

Hey Bill, I'm resurrecting this post, since we are rebooting our band. Now, thanks to your help, I was able to get the sound very close to it, but there is still something that might be equalization, that kind of lacks something. Thankfully the microSTATION I'm using now, have the Syn-Ghostly wave sample, but is not so rich on strings, so I had to use the Strings Ensemble wave. But is ok.
Now, do you remember which specific settings did you used on the 7EQ effect?

Thanks