UVI releases "Mello" for UVI Workstation and MachFive and offers it for free for a limited time

UVI has announced availability of Mello, a software recreation of the tape-based pioneering precursor to today's ubiquitous sampling instruments.

Mello is the latest addition to UVI's stable of software instruments, delivering a complete and authentic-sounding software recreation of the popular music landscape-changing 350lb behemoth beloved by The Beatles — think 'Strawberry Fields Forever' — and countless others, including The Moody Blues, classic prog-rock era Genesis and Yes, as well as electronic music trailblazers Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream during their so-called 'Berlin School' days. This was the 'must-have' sound of the '60s and '70s. And while it inevitably fell out of favor as technology marched onwards and upwards, its implications became fundamental to modern music production — so much so that those retro sounds eventually found themselves back in fashion in the new Millennium and beyond with the likes of Brit-poppers Oasis and experimentalist rockers Radiohead leading the nostalgic way.

UVI has multi-sampled dozens of original tapes on three different machines to reproduce each of the 28 available sounds within Mello. These include: Brass, CelestaAndVoice, Cello1, Cello2, ChoirFemale, ChoirMale, ChoirTron, ChurchOrgan1, ChurchOrgan2, ChurchOrgan3, Clarinet, Flute1, Flute2, Guit12Str, GuitElectricA, GuitElectricB, GuitSpanish, Harp, Oboe, Piano, Sax, Strings1, Strings2, Strings3, Strings4, Vibraphone1, Vibraphone2, and Viola.

Tape noise and key-off sounds have been captured by UVI for added authenticity and are all mixable to taste, while flexibility comes courtesy of an analogue-modelled tape delay, built-in SparkVerb (reverb), three-band EQ (with sweepable mid frequency), switchable multimode filter (with cutoff and resonance), ADSR envelopes (for amplitude and filter with velocity sensitivity), and a custom unison mode (to provide stereo sound without unwanted transposition or chorusing).

John Lennon defined the Mellotron's magical sound in the swinging '60s with 'Strawberry Fields Forever'. In the spirit of John — and the Lennons' ongoing humanitarian efforts, UVI is pledging to match donations made by its customers to the Japanese Red Cross to help survivors of the Fukushima earthquake over the next three months, during which time Mello will be available for free from here: www.uvi.net/vintage-corner/mello.html

Mello requires an iLok USB smart key — check out UVI's Free iLok offer, an iLok account, and the latest version (2.1.5) of the free UVI Workstation or MOTU's MachFive 3.

Price: Free for a limited time only.

Watch trailer on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhVdyOsMxfY

Listen to audio demos on SoundCloud: soundcloud.com/uvi-official/sets/mello