I need a GOOD mellotron soundset (preferably soundfont)

[Sascha Franck]

IMO, the Hovercraft samples (and most others) suck ass. [...] as opposed to Hovercraft's truncated versions. This makes all the difference in the world when it comes to Mellotron sounds.

Well, quite some of Hovercraft's samples feature a sufficient length.
In addition, they are looped in a really professional way, and any further inaccuracies can probably be emulated by whatever FX you may want to slap onto them.

http://home.arcor.de/s.franck/temp/Hovercraft.mp3 - took me like 2 minutes, try to get much closer with any other Mellotron set. And yes, you're happily invited to play this against the original intro. IMO it's getting pretty close.

[whyterabbyt]

why was that guy singing like that

Its part of the genre, really.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_grunt

It was actually quite remarkable to see him recently effortlessly switch between that growl style of vocal and a (pretty good) 'normal' singing voice from one line of a song to the next. Very capable bunch of musicians all round, actually; great live.

Several sources quote this as being an organ on the track, and not a mellotron, btw, although the 'Tron is quoted as being used on a couple of other tracks.

[Pantsdown666]

why was that guy singing like that

Its part of the genre, really.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_grunt.

I can't believe that there's actually already a Muppets reference in the Wikipedia description .... I swear the reference in my post above was spontaneous ...spooky

[Chris Roberson]

I have the M-Tron, and while it is a comprehensive collection of Mello sounds, it seems like they picked out and sampled the warped and wonky tape on purpose. Some of the guitar samples for example are wobbly as all hell, and I've heard them before on the real thing and they of course weren't that way.

I don't know how well the others are, but just as a reference for you if you're looking for high quality samples (as in high quality original source, not high fidelity reproduction of said source) of the Mellotron then M-Tron may not be the way to go.

[mumpcake]

why was that guy singing like that

Its part of the genre, really.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_grunt.

I can't believe that there's actually already a Muppets reference in the Wikipedia description .... I swear the reference in my post above was spontaneous ...spooky

The term "Cookie Monster Vocal" has been used for that type of "singing" for at least a decade.

[mistertoast]

>>Melotrons were early samplers, so you hear a lot of funny lo-fi sounding choirs, flutes, strings, and brass sounds.

Early sampler? Yeah, sure but on TAPE. I don't think of the sound as lofi-sampler. I think of the sound as creamy tape. It could sound spooky (Genesis use of the choir on "Selling England By The Pound") or dreamy (uses by the Beatles in the Pepper era).

[BertKoor]

Who said a sampler or lo-fi should be digital??

[mistertoast]

My favorite Cookie Monster vocalist...

http://www.kompressormusic.com/

http://www.kompressormusic.com/mp3/

[C00kie]

Mjam mjam, me like singing!!
(and cookies...)

[taijiguy]

IMO, the Hovercraft samples (and most others) suck ass. [...] as opposed to Hovercraft's truncated versions. This makes all the difference in the world when it comes to Mellotron sounds.

Well, quite some of Hovercraft's samples feature a sufficient length.
In addition, they are looped in a really professional way, and any further inaccuracies can probably be emulated by whatever FX you may want to slap onto them.

http://home.arcor.de/s.franck/temp/Hovercraft.mp3 - took me like 2 minutes, try to get much closer with any other Mellotron set. And yes, you're happily invited to play this against the original intro. IMO it's getting pretty close.

The Hovercraft samples really are crap. They are harsh-sounding, poorly-sampled truncations. And looping Mellotron samples is sacrilege. The Pinder CD is recognized as the best source of samples by every Mellotron owner I know (literally dozens, including myself).

The later M-Tron samples are decent, but the earlier ones were sampled from what appears to be poorly maintained Trons with wornout tapes.

[Martin E]

Found a link for the song at Roadrunner Records, here...
http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/music/ ... ileID=1888

That's a lengthy and diverse track... At what minute:second does the sound you're looking for come in?

The closest sounds would be at ~0:11-0:20 and especially 1:50-2:20.

The tremelo mellotron I'm thinking of is from a live DVD I saw (not Opeth - can't remember who). But if I could get the sound of those bits in the Opeth track I'd be well chuffed.

SOULARFLAIR

As far as I can tell the only mellotron sound in this song is at 08:36-08:50. Well you have to listen through it all the way guys. Strange song by the way. Never mind the singing.

[james0tucson]

That's an organ run through a Leslie rotating speaker (or something emulating both) not a Mellotron. Probably a Hammond B3, so the Native Instrument's B4 (or the latest version, B4 II) will handle that, as will several other organ VSTi's.

Yeah, I don't hear anything that sound remotely like a Mellotron. I barely even hear anything that even sounds like an organ... and BTW, what a crappy track!

Well, Opeth is not my style, but I have been *quite* surprised at certain arrangement qualities that they work into their music. *Somebody* in that band went to school and didn't sleep through Jazz Theory. They may be 20 years too late for the whole Swedish Death Rock thing, but I'd put them in the same schema as, let's say, Phish circa 1994, on a couple of counts. They have a cult following and are extremely famous, in an unknown way, so secretly famous. And they put elements of every genre under the sun into their work. Even though I want to hate them, I'm forced to appreciate how *well* they do their thing.

As for the organs and mellotrons, I definitely hear a crunchy B-3 and overdriven leslie later in the track. I think I hear a mellotron string set padding the guitar around 1:01 thru 1:20, but there is a ton of stuff going on there. Around 1:55, that organ ain't nothin' but a Hammond sound!

I like the breakdown at 3:30 with the vibes and the nice piano and the tight, dry drumkit. What's not to like here?

5:59 I definitely hear a Mellotron choir, no question about it. Sounds just like Genesis from Trick of the Tail or whatever.

They go all power trio at 6:55 or so. 7:29 I hear the Tron strings again. Could be any of a thousand string synths these days, and let's get real -- you know it's just a Motif or a Korg or whatever production synth they happen to use.

In the 8:20's we get that really nice acoustic guitar and the toms, and then a bit later, the Tron strings are plain as day.

10:14 it comes in again, and the player holds a string chord to the end of the track.

Now my question is, what's the problem? These are bone stock sounds. What "mellotron" soundset *can't* do this choir and string patch???

I may not be a big fan of this genre, but I *like* this band because their *execution* is so damned good. And I want to know which one of them was the music professor from Stockholm or whatever. (It's not obvious in *this* track, but you will hear some things in other Opeth tracks that don't add up.)

[Sascha Franck]

The Hovercraft samples really are crap. They are harsh-sounding, poorly-sampled truncations.

Did you listen to my "demo"? Does it sound harsh?

[taijiguy]

The Hovercraft samples really are crap. They are harsh-sounding, poorly-sampled truncations.

Did you listen to my "demo"? Does it sound harsh?

I'm not currently in a location where I have access to a decent sound system. But I have used the Hovercraft samples as well as the Pinder, M-Tron, CrimeSounds and a host of other samples, as well as samples of my own Trons. I've owned Mellotrons for 30 years. I know what they sound like. You can't seriously believe the Hovercraft samples come anywhere near the quality of the better sample sets (which still can't match the real thing). There are only 5 or 6 samples per sound instead of 35, they are not full length and the beginning of each sound has been truncated so they can be looped. You get what you pay for.

[Sascha Franck]

I never said the Hovercraft samples were near anything else. All I said was that you can do quite some decent things with them.