Changing the tape cartridge on a Mellotron at The Bunker Studio.

Описание: Each Mellotron tape cartridge is recorded with three sounds. For different options we need to change the tapes. A harrowing experience the first time it gets quicker and easier with practice. We have two tapes here with flutes, vibes, 3 violins, cellos, 8 voice, bass clarinet.


Some interesting Mellotron information from our Instagram.
The #Mellotron uses an even-more-primitive technology—actual analog tape with pre-recorded sounds! In this way, the Mellotron was also oddly forward-looking, as it operates on basic a principle very similar to a modern sampler.
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When the original Mellotron tape libraries were made in the middle of the last century, actual instruments and ensembles were recorded playing each pitch one at a time. The famous “three violins” sound dates from even earlier, to Mellotron’s predecessor the #Chamberlin.
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As a result of the way they were made, the Mellotron sounds sometimes have some interesting quirks. A chair scrape is audible in one of the “three violins” notes, and the bottom several notes of the ‘cello have a different timbre.
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The latter phenomenon is because those notes were actually played on a double bass. A bit of Mellotron lore is that ‘cellist Reginald Kirby refused to re-tune his instrument to get those lower notes, and insisted on playing them on bass instead!