Inside a Mellotron M400 and how it works
An evening pause: A very strange instrument from the 1970s whose keys play strips of magnetic audio tape for each note. You can listen to a performance of “Nights in White Satin” on a Mellotron here. This is definitely a sound from the 1970s, used in many songs of that time.
Hat tip Judd Clark.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Mechanical nightmare. i imagine that after trucking between shows you’d have to realign the capstan rollers and head pressure pads.
But, people used them, and they made interesting sounds.
Judd: In posting your suggestion, I also came across this video of Paul McCartney demonstrating his own use of the Mellotron.
judd-
great piece!
I would suggest this version to see what’s going on…
“Nights In White Satin by the Moody Blues, on my Mellotron M400”
Marco Hoogland (March 2020)
https://youtu.be/DUAj3ql1DFI
(2:17)
They evidently underwent significant development after the M400.
Bowie used it as well:
https://www.electricity-club.co.uk/space-oddity-the-electronic-worlds-of-david-bowie/
The unsteady, bittersweet whimsy of the instrument fit his music best.
Better synthesizers demand a Robert Rich/Steve Roach style of ambient.
Mike Pinder of the Moody Blues had worked for the Mellotron’s manufatureer, Streetly Electronics, for 18 months. The experience came in handy on their first U.S. tour. One night the back of the Mellotron fell off and the tapes cascaded out. Pinder grabbed his toolbox and had it fixed in about 20 minutes. Mellotrobs were finicky. They didn’t do well with changes in heat and humidity.
The instrument is amazing but the instructor impressed me the most.
It just struck me. This is an outgrowth of the laugh track machines used (over used) to simulate audience reactions in television shows in the 60s.
Well maybe not.
Wayne
The picture in my mind of the Moody Blues on stage while I listened to Knights In White Satin has been forever shattered. The vision of the violinists in their concert garb drawing the bow across the strings in unison is just a fond memory. The flautist standing in the Eric Anderson style is no more.
Why did I get up this morning?
Thanks for the link. ( not sarcasm)