“Can a tool worth more than $ 2,000 make you a better musician?”, This is the title that begins the vintage advertising of the cult musical instrument for the progressive rock of the 70s, the mellotron. The name is formed from two words, from English melody and electronics, which corresponds to its sound.
We will tell about how this unusual instrument appeared, what made it popular and what role it played for British rock and ... the series “Doctor Who”.
Photo eric haller / CCWhat is mellotron
Mellotron is an electromechanical polyphonic instrument with a set of piano-type keys. The basic device is the same for all models and resembles a tape recorder.
Mellotron was the forerunner of the modern digital sampler — however, unlike the digital instrument, it used magnetic tape. A strip of magnetic tape with a recording of the corresponding sound was under each key. When you press a key, the instrument played the sound, and when you released it returned the cassette to the beginning. The tapes were not stretched in a circle like in tape reverbs, so the duration of the note was limited to eight seconds. The keyboard was completely polyphonic and could reproduce a wide range of wind and stringed instruments, as well as percussion.
Among the sounds most popular were the choir, string ensemble and flute. The musician varied the timbres with the help of a switch, it was possible to position the heads between two tracks - this made it possible to mix sounds. They sold frames with banks of sounds of various instruments. In models without banks, it was necessary to replace tape cassettes.
"Now, thanks to the amazing instrument Mellotron, anyone who has even the slightest ear for music can command their own orchestra — using three fingers to create a multitude of orchestral sounds from one keyboard." Renowned conductor and presenter of the BBC musical program Eric Robinson (
Eric Robinson )
considered Mellotron "the greatest home entertainment since the days of television."
Despite the popularity of a musical instrument, the production of mellotrons is hardly massive. From 1963 to 1986, only 2500 copies
were produced .
The history of the creation of Mellotron and its predecessors
The history of the mellotron begins in California in the late 40s. Harry Chamberlin invented the instrument using tape recordings, his first model was called the Chamberlin100. The production of the following models (300/350, 400, 600/660) began in the early 50s and continued in the 60s, but the unreliability of the mechanism became a significant disadvantage for the buyers, according to one
version , “the track switching system caused tape damage”.
In order to improve the mechanism and increase sales, the inventor hired salespeople Bill Fransen, who, trying to solve the problem, showed Champion Bradley brothers, engineers and manufacturers of tape heads from England. According to the legend, Fransen offered them to modify the tool in order to improve the technology, make it more reliable and popular. The brothers agreed with the idea and started to release a new improved tool - mellotron. Later, Harry Chamberlin sold the rights to use the technology to the Bradley brothers for £ 30,000.
In 1962, in the suburb of Birmingham, Bradley opened a plant for the production of mellotron and tapes for it and called themselves
Streetly Electronics .
The first Mellotron Mark I
appeared in 1963 and used the same system as its musical predecessor: two keyboards for instruments and accompaniments, thirty-five keys on each side, non-standard tape width 3/8 inches with three tracks. The case of the model was made of polished mahogany veneer, for the year about 55 copies were produced.
On the next model, Mark II (1964), tapes made by Harry Chamberlin were rewritten. At this time, the factory worked musician Mike Pinder (
Mike Pinder ), who was responsible for the build quality and checked the tools before the release. He liked the sound and possibilities of the mellotron so much that after leaving Streetly Electronics he created the group The Moody Blues - one of the first where the songs were recorded on this instrument.
Pinder had the
idea of replacing the sounds of the accompaniments of the left keyboard with the sounds of the instruments, which gave him 36 options for mixing sounds. “I didn’t want to play the tunes of other musicians, I just wanted to use their instruments.” It was Mike Pinder who introduced the group The Beatles to mellotron. Later, they use the sound of the instrument when recording psychedelic Strawberry Fields Forever.
Photo of The Moody Blues (Mike Pinder, leftmost) / Nationaal Archief / CCIn 1965, an enhanced version of the Mark II, a gray-colored FX Console model, was released on the order of the BBC. FX Console recordings were made for radio and television programs and included over a thousand sound effects. Each bank contained its own set of various sounds: the sound of footsteps, the creaking of doors, shots, fireworks, laughter and applause from the crowd, and others. The FX Console recorded sound effects for the Doctor Who series.
The most successful model was created in 1970 mellotron M400. It was produced until 1980, about 1800 copies were sold. In 1972, at a music exhibition in London, this model was presented in a transparent Plexiglas
case - this made it possible to examine the entire filling and trace the operation of the device. The instrument in its classic form is still on
sale in the vintage online markets of musical equipment. You can read and read about how the musician and enthusiast of Mellotron Donald Tilman (J. Donald Tillman) bought and restored the model M400.
Electronics time
At the beginning of the 80s, interest in the mellotron was falling - electronic samplers, for example, Akai 1000, Roland, replaced bulky electromechanical keyboards. Polyphonic synthesizers come into mass production, devices are lighter, smaller in size, inexpensive and reliable.
However, despite the flaws in the mechanics, the excessive sensitivity and the requirement for constant maintenance, the mellotron attracts musicians with its unusual mesmerizing sound. In the 90s, mellotron was used by Radiohead, REM, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Air, Oasis, Monster Magnet, Manic Street Preachers and others.
At the same time, the son of Leslie Bradley, John Bradley and his friend Martin Smith are organizing a repair and restoration company for the mellotron under the familiar name Streetly Electronics. In May 2007, they presented a new model M4000, with a similar playback system that was installed on the Mark I, Mark II, SFX and M300.
Photo Buzz Andersen / CCIn the 2000s, the instrument sounds in pop music (Dido, Nelly Furtado, Robyn), as well as in indie rock music by The Strokes.
Party hard
In a 1965 British television
video , the mellotron was advertised as a tool for the perfect family party, but it was popular with progressive rock bands. What are the reasons for this seemingly inconsistency? There are several:
- An ordinary family could hardly afford to pay an astronomical sum of £ 1000 for a musical instrument at that time. For comparison, the cost of an average house at that time was £ 2000 - 3000.
- The peculiarity of the magnetic recording of that time and its imperfection gave rise to a special mystical melancholic-dramatic sound, corresponding to the mood of music of a progressive style.
Mellotron albums
used such albums as Deep Purple, Aerosmith, Genesis, Pink Floyd, Yes, King Crimson, Premiata Forneria Marconi (PFM), Beggars Opera and others.
Interesting Facts:
- The first Mellotron Mark I model weighs 159 kg .
- Mellotron FX Console was sold at a 1994 auction for £ 10,000 to Paul McCartney.
- Mellotron is popular in the film industry: the German band Tangerine Dream used it in dark and depressive music for the existential thriller “Sorcerer” ( Sorcerer ) by William Friedkin. Mellotron is also used in relaxing electronics, for example, in the soundtrack of the Air group to the film The Virgin Suicides by Sofia Coppola.
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