The Musical Box

Ever since I got the Mellotron bug (in early 2006), I’ve followed closely the work of such artists as Genesis and Yes, listening with longing to the heavenly tones produced by this marvelous instrument.  My favorite banks are the violins and the 8 Choir, both of which reside on the M400.  I never much cared for the MkII sounds, which I find too mid-rangy and shrill.  Imagine my surprise, then, when I discovered that many M400 sounds are merely reworked MkII variants.

Fast forward a year-and-a-half.  I had set my sights on the ultimate prize: a Mellotron (substitute) of my own!  I started with the GForce M-Tron—though a wonderful collection insofar as scope, just somewhat lacking in sound quality.  Try as I might, as I said in my review, most of the sounds I sought just eluded me.  Fast forward a little over half a year again, to the summer of 2008.  When trolling the Internet one evening, I came upon this website, and all my dreams came true.  Contained here, for all to discover, are complete Mellotron banks, recorded note-by-note from a real M400 stocked with brand new Streetly Electronics tape frames.

There was just one problem.  The violins bank offered was the MkII variant.  It looked as though I had some work to do.

Upon compiling these individual files into a SoundFont, I loaded the bank into Cubase and got to work.  Sadly, going on what I’d heard countless times before (even from Streetly itself), simply rolling off the high end does not do the trick.  Several fruitless sessions later, I concluded that there was something Streetly wasn’t telling us, either by accidental or deliberate oversight.  Eventually, I set aside this SoundFont and didn’t do much with it for several more months.

Just last week, I unearthed some work I had been doing with an M-Tron bank, the “MkII Vintage Violins.”  My intent was to make this resemble the M400 sound.  Though it’s in the ball park, something in the sonic character just isn’t there.  That, and of course being an M-Tron sound it has that harsh, off-putting high end that nothing I can do seems to alleviate.  Just today I brought up that M-Tron bank again and, in total disgust at the end result, I sought a project I had long abandoned—the Streetly MkII 3 Violins samples.

To keep a long story short, after half a day and multiple sessions, I have at long last uncovered what it was Streetly Electronics did to the MkII bank over 38 years ago to make it suitable for the M400.  Everything you know is wrong.  Streetly did not touch the high end.  They notched the midrange.

But it’s not as simple as just that.  There’s a whole hell of a lot involved here.  I imagine that the final result came about exactly the way I accomplished it: trial and error, and a really good ear.  You see, there are glaring errors with the MkII sound.  For one, it has a lot of nasty upper midrange frequencies that, while they lend the sound its characteristic timbre, also grate against the ear and cause fatigue.  This is indicative of an awful source recording, which makes since because this particular bank was recorded in 1953.  And herein lies the secret: this is something you could do yourself, given a very good ear, an EQ, and enough time.  All you had to do was identify what it was you wanted to change about the sound, and then try to affect that result with your EQ.

This is precisely what Streetly did, and I imagine the final result wasn’t very pretty on paper all written out.  All told, a lot of volume would have been lost, which would have been compensated for with increaed gain on the final output.  This, I believe, is why Streetly decided to refer to its changes as “high end roll-off”: it would take far too long to list it out otherwise, and most people probably wouldn’t understand it anyway.

So, at the end of all this, one thing holds true: if you have a MkII 3 Violins bank, it is theoretically possible to recreate the M400 strings using EQ.  I have 35 MkII samples compiled in a SoundFont, and I have done just that with them.

Without further ado, the particulars:

First of all, I ended up using three separate instances of the A0 Parametric EQ.  This freebie VST continues to prove its worth in my studio, and I use it for all my EQ work.  Doubtless better EQ modules exist, and any parametric EQ will work, so long as it offers controls over the width of band notches and the slope of pass filters.  I also topped it off with a favorite plug-in of mine, the venerable Ferox.  This simulates the slight generational loss/tape saturation experienced when gain was applied to the original tapes after EQ processing.  Finally, two obvious things missing here are the SoundFont compiler (Vienna SoundFont Studio) and, of course, the source of these wonderful samples.  You may find them here at the wonderful Leisureland, USA page.  Why do I not simply post a link to my SoundFont?  Well, I’m not sure I can do that; the owner of Leisureland and/or Streetly might be upset with me if I did.  So all I can do is tell people how to do what I did and where I found the (free) component parts.

The A0 Parametric EQ has eight separate parameters: four bands, two shelves (high- and low-), and two pass filters (also high- and low-).  As I said, I used a sequence of three instances of this plug-in.  The following is a breakdown—arranged by instance—of my settings.

First Instance:

-High-Pass: 196 Hz
-Band: 440 Hz, width 2 Oct, -12.00 dB
-Band: 1480 Hz, width 1 Oct, -3.00 dB
-Band: 2960 Hz, width 2 Oct, -12.00 dB
-Band: 5920 Hz, width 1 Oct, -6.00 dB

Second Instance:

-Low-Pass: 11,000 Hz, slope 12 dB/Oct, 0%
-Band: 292 Hz, width 1 Oct, -3.00 dB
-Band: 784 Hz, width 1 Oct, -3.00 dB
-Band: 3520 Hz, width 1 Oct, -9.00 dB

Third Instance:

-Band: 392 Hz, width 2 Oct, -6.00 dB
-Band: 1760 Hz, width 1 Oct, -9.00 dB

Taken together, though some consolidation might be possible, these add up to what Streetly Electronics did to sweeten those MkII strings for use in the M400.  Is it exactly what they did?  Not a chance in hell, but it’s damned close—as will be borne out in the following examples.  There is one thing, though: I said that Streetly didn’t do anything to the top end at all, and yet I included a low-pass filter.  What gives?  Well, the only reason I included this filter is because the hiss was very noticeable otherwise, particularly in chords.  Thankfully, the hiss was located mainly above the actual frequency response of the instrument itself, and the filter gets rid of it with minimal loss to the actual signal.  I assume the hiss was a specific element of the samples I had (and the particular Mellotron that played them) and probably did not exist in the original master tapes that Streetly had at its disposal.

And I haven’t forgotten: in the Ferox plug-in, I used the “Analog circuitry sim” preset but lowered the output gain to 0 dB.

My first example is right off Streetly’s own website, Mellotronics.com.  The link is to an audio example of their own, authentic M400 Strings offering.  The second link is my own approximation of the example using the MkII Violins without any EQ.  The final link is that same approximation, but this time with my EQ and the Ferox effect added.  The final two examples are both normalized to -12.7 dB (an arbitrary number based on the highest peak in the EQ’ed example).

-Streetly M400
-MkII
-MkII EQ’ed

Notice how, though the two are fairly close, the Streetly M400 Strings manage to have a greater clarity and silkiness that my EQ’ed MkII strings just don’t quite achieve.  Considering Streetly had the original master tapes to work with, while I had essentially a Mellotron bank, it comes as no surprise that Streetly’s results will sound better.  But not by much, and in context, it’s a difference you wouldn’t really notice.  Part of the deficit is due to the low-pass filter cutting a little of the sparkle off the top end, but mostly it’s due to the generational loss when the sound was transferred to the Mellotron tapes.

My next example is from one of my all-time favorite Genesis songs, “Mad Man Moon.”  The M400 Strings were used to exquisite effect in this song (Tony Banks is an underrated genius), and for the first time I was able to emulate one of these passages with something approaching the splendor of the original Mellotron M400 that was used.  The example following it is the M-Tron bank I had been using prior to this new M400 formulation.

-“Mad Man Moon”
-“Mad Man Moon” (M-Tron)

There’s something rather interesting about this track, aside from its singular beauty: it’s sharp.  Half of the A Trick of the Tail album is sharp, which makes me wonder if the master tapes might not have warped a little over time, or more likely that they might have been recorded on a slightly slow reel-to-reel.  In any event, in order to play along with this track, I had to bend the pitch up a bit.  I needed to find a SoundFont host capable of fine pitch adjustment, and one such host is Font!, a lightweight but very capable VST plug-in.  It also has velocity sensitivity adjustment, which saves me having to turn off velocity at the controller level (Mellotrons are not velocity-sensitive, you see).  But, back on topic, play this bank along with the track, and it’s indistinguishable from the real Mellotron M400.  Not bad at all.  Notice how, though decent, the M-Tron example just doesn’t compare to the EQ’ed MkII example.

Finally, here’s the ultimate test: a real M400(0).  The following YouTube video features a piece of eye candy demonstrating the various features of a brand new Mellotron, playing brand-new Streetly tapes.  Play along with her, and I swear you can’t tell them apart (except for the crappy YouTube sound quality).  Ladies and gentlemen, that’s a real Mellotron.  You don’t get more canon than that.

So, after all this, what have we accomplished?  Well, we’ve settled an age-old mystery.  Streetly routinely states that the M400 Strings are just MkII ones with the high-end rolled off and some individual notes tweaked.  Actually attempting to make M400 Strings from MkII ones using this prescribed method proves futile.  Instead, Streetly must have actually done a lot of midrange notching in order to iron out the nasty, shrill tone of the MkII strings.  And now, thanks to my painstaking work, so can you.  Follow my settings or, if you desire, tweak them to taste if you think you can come even closer.  And, remember, what I have done just produces the straight, full-on, unfiltered variant of the sound.  To emulate the work done by Rick Wakeman in Yes, for example, you’ll need to (ironically) roll off the high end in addition to the settings I have listed.

Like I said, if I were sure I could legally do so, I’d save everybody the trouble and offer a SoundFont containing all 35 pre-processed samples for free download.  As it is, I can tell you exactly what I did and point you in the direction of each of the component parts.  I hope all this helps somebody out there who was looking for a way to faithfully emulate M400 Strings.  If you prefer the MkII variant, well, to each his own, but I think you’re mental.

EDIT: As I knew I would, I’ve refined this process since I wrote this blog.  Basically, I’ve discovered that by modulating the third EQ instance, I can achieve various different M400 Strings sounds favored by various artists.  For instance, the settings indicated above work best for Genesis compositions.  If you’re after the Yes sound, however, your third EQ instance should look like this:

-High Shelf: 2093 Hz, -11.00 dB
-Band: 272 Hz, width 2 Oct, -6.00 dB
-Band: 392 Hz, width 2 Oct, -6.00 dB
-Band: 1760 Hz, width 2 Oct, -15.00 dB

The exquisitely smooth tone I used for the Suspension Chords example uses the following:

-High Shelf: 4435 Hz, -6.00 dB
-Band: 392 Hz, width 2 Oct, -6.00 dB
-Band: 1760 Hz, width 2 Oct, -12.00 dB

Here are some more examples (this list will grow as I further develop my technique):

-Suspension Chords (smooth, with heavy reverb)
-Yes Strings 1 (Tales From Topographic Oceans-style—clear, with notched midrange)

Price: $99-$129
Manufacturer/Distributor: GForce Software, M-Audio
Format(s): VSTi, RTAS, Standalone
Install Media: Four sequenced CD-ROMs
Product Activation: Yes     Method: S/N
OS Support: Windows XP/Mac OS X (I haven’t tested Vista yet)
Sample Format: .CPT, presumably Mono (obviously), 44,100 Hz, 16-bit

Overview

I have been using this piece of software for almost a year now.  It was the first virtual Mellotron I ever bought, and it remains the overall best in terms of scope.  Though the M-Tron was initially offered as a base product with a series of expansion libraries, the current offering includes all these expansion libraries (three, in addition to the original product) in one monolithic package.  There are over 100 separate virtual tape banks, most of which span the full 35 notes of the original M400 Mellotron.

Installation

It’s not rocket science, which is quite welcome in my book.  Basically, you insert the installation disc (disc 1) and follow the on-screen prompts.  At some point you’ll be asked for the serial number, which should be printed on one of the disc sleeves.  Be sure to choose carefully which versions of the product you want installed (e.g. VSTi, RTAS) and where you want the installer to place the files.  Then, just let the installer go about its business, supplying the next disc in sequence where prompted.

Ease of Use, UI, and Features

The M-Tron is exceptionally easy to use.  Merely load up your DAW of choice (I use Cubase SE3), open or create a project file, and follow the procedure for loading a virtual instrument.  Once there, make sure your MIDI keyboard (if you’re using one) is assigned to the proper instrument or instance.  The M-Tron can function on any channel (except obviously the drum one).

One rather confusing bit is that the selection knob is initially set to position A, which has no function at all.  Position C allows bank selection—clicking on the current bank opens up the bank list, a columned view of all your choices.  Position B offers attack and release sliders.  While of course the original Mellotron lacked these, I fail to see the argument that optional extra functionality somehow detracts from a package.

The Volume, Tone, and Pitch wheels are modeled after the controls on the original M400, and they function in similar fashion.  Unfortunately, unless you have an external controller to which you can map these functions (channel assignments are given in the instruction manual, downloadable here in PDF), these are really awkward to impossible to use in any musical manner (i.e. in real time).

The M-Tron emulates several quirky aspects of the original Mellotron quite well, including the fixed length of individual notes (7-8 seconds each, without looping), the use of a single sample per each note (no sample stretching), and lack of velocity sensitivity.  Also, the playable region—shifted up one octave from where most of the banks sound—is restricted to the sample range (i.e. the top and bottom samples don’t extend up and down the entire keyboard, respectively).  Unlike other solutions I have tried, individual samples have their release trail-offs left intact.  In other words, when chords are played, some notes end before others.  It’s little bits of authenticity like this that perhaps aren’t noticed at first, but which add that special touch of realism to recordings.  In fact, in one of my recordings I purposely let the virtual “tapes” run out in the final chord, so as to capture this effect.

Sounds, Sound Quality, and Musicality

Sounds

The M-Tron, as I mentioned above, has an extensive library of old ‘Tron sounds, though it is heavy in strings and choir banks (nothing wrong with that!).  In fact, it gets you right past the basics—sure it has three versions of the classic MkII 3 Violins sound, but it also has a wealth of string section and M300 banks, combinations of strings and other instruments, and of course solo strings such as the rare Viola and the popular Cello.  As far as the choirs go, there are three variations on the classic 8 Choir, as well as several other very rare varieties, including the virtually-unheard 15 Choir—when properly EQ’ed, a thing of exquisite beauty.  There are even several modern chorus recordings made just for the M-Tron.  The rest of the collection consists of instruments running the entire gamut of the ‘Tron’s original tape banks, including of course the classic Flutes among many, many others.  Stay tuned for the Notable Sounds section below, in which I list several of my favorite M-Tron sounds along with audio examples.

Sound Quality

Yeah, yeah; lots of sounds is a great thing, but cheap Casio home keyboards have lots of sounds, too, but they all sound like crap.  How does the M-Tron stack up?  Well, I suppose that depends on whether you want the short answer or the long one.  The short answer is, “it depends.”  The long answer is that it depends widely on which specific sound you choose, what you think that bank should ultimately sound like, and whether it’s possible—given the raw bank you’re work with—to closely approximate the tone you had in mind via EQ and/or effects.  For some M-Tron sounds this is very easy; others require a lot of coaxing to bring them to life.  And, sadly, there are still others that either require extreme modification (read: resampling and recompiling) or are simply unusable.

However, there are some general comments that can be made.  Most of the sounds, though it seems most prominent in the strings and chorus samples, suffer from a rather harsh high range, bedeviled by what almost sounds like resampling artifacts.  Whatever this is, it can be corrected (sometimes with difficulty) using EQ.  A low-pass filter usually gets rid of it, though with the strings some additional band-notching is often necessary to eliminate the ear-piercing shrillness some banks possess.

There is a more detrimental issue with the M-Tron, though: its stock Mixed Choir (8 Choir) bank is virtually unusable without heavy modification.  An extreme EQ pattern—with a huge cut to lower midrange and various boosts and cuts in other places in the frequency spectrum—only fixes one half of the issue.  The other half is that the 8 Choir included with the M-Tron sounds like a specialty version, or else a very early generation version.  In this I mean that, unlike any other version of this sound I have encountered, the vocalists scoop up to their notes in the beginning of each sample.  This is what leads me to believe that this is an early generation copy of the sound—subsequent production copies would have been made from an edited master that removed this annoying artifact.

The solution?  I went ahead and sampled every bloody note in this bank, lopped the beginnings off each sample, and then recompiled them as a SoundFont.  This worked beautifully, but it’s an extreme and laborious workaround.  Another option is to open two instances of the M-Tron, set the first to Choir 1 (male) and the second to Choir 2 (female).  In essence, you would be “making” the 8 Choir from its separate components.  You see, when the Mellotron choir sounds were originally cut, the male and female components of the 8 Choir were recorded separately, so that three sounds—male-, female-, and mixed choir—could be offered.  Running both the male and female choirs at the same time should produce a similar effect, though of course not as good as the real thing.

Musicality

Many instruments (virtual and real) sound great in isolation.  What’s important in many cases, however, is that they sound equally nice or better when used in a mix.  In this capacity, the M-Tron excels.  It never fails to paint just the right sonic picture; the trick is finding places to use it.  In this, it’s (presumably) a lot like a real Mellotron.  The M-Tron is not a composition engine, but its sounds can be inspirational.  Basically, it adds color and interest to an otherwise standard, bland mix.  Its characteristic sound imparts a somewhat proggy, old school mood if used conventionally, but if used experimentally, all sorts of new textures are possible.  Blending several different sounds (via multiple instances of the plug-in) is one way to take things to the next level.  Effects are another.

The M-Tron is also right at home in place of more traditional instrumentation.  Need a small string section?  Try using an M-Tron string bank instead of session players or squeaky clean digital samples.  Background vocals?  It’s a stretch, but a chorus bank might lend a unique cast to your song.  Even tiny, four-bar long smatterings of ‘Tron can add interest.  One of my songs uses an extremely short flute passage—you wouldn’t even know it was there if it wasn’t specifically pointed out to you, but if it were removed you’d sense something was missing.

The 10,000 Foot View (My Overall Opinion)

I’ve spend a lot of time writing this review, mostly because the M-Tron is something I use virtually every day.  I’ve both praised and criticized this product, but where do I ultimately stand?  I believe that, despite its flaws, it’s an all-around good emulation of the classic Mellotron.  It’s definitely not perfect, but for many people this will be just what the doctor ordered.  It covers a wide gamut of sounds, with some tweaking some banks really shine, and it’s both easy to use and works well in a mix.  I definitely recommend this product to anybody looking for a good Mellotron emulation, and also to those musicians who are a little more open-minded and want to try something experimental.

Notable Sounds

I haven’t forgotten, see?  I remembered that way, way up at the top I mentioned an upcoming section with audio examples of some of the M-Tron sounds.  As mentioned, the amount of EQ/effects I’ve used for these examples is all over the place.  Some, like the MkII Flutes, are absolutely bone dry.  Others, like some of the choirs, have had tape delay added and have been panned accordingly to center the pseudo-stereo image.  Most (with the exception of the MkII Piano and the MkII Flutes) have had some degree of reverb added.  Most have also had at least some degree of EQ in order to coax them to life.  I also have a YouTube channel in which many of these examples exist in video form.  Check it out if you like.

Now, the list:

• 15 Choir
• Boys Choir
• Mixed Choir
• Mixed Choir (Mod)*
• Classical Choir
• Violins 1
• MkII Vintage Violins
• Cello
• Clarinet
• MkII Flutes
• MkII Piano
• Pipe Organ
• Mellotron Tune (context demonstration)
• Choir Tune (context)

Comments:

15 Choir – An absolute knockout.  Heavily EQ’ed, but it’s worth it.  Heavenly, haunting tone.  Unlike anything you’ve heard before, Mellotron or otherwise.

Boys Choir – It would be beautiful, were it not so out of tune.  Nice tone, anyway, though nothing on the above.

Mixed Choir – The prototypical 8 Choir, the M-Tron’s stock rendition is fundamentally flawed.  Listen to those awful, scooping attacks.  Also, this took a lot of EQ to make it sound authentic.

*Mixed Choir (Mod) – Much better!  Now you can appreciate that this M-Tron bank really is capable of that haunting, classic tone.

Classical Choir – Interesting choir sound—quite different from the standard 8 Choir.  This might be the Russian Choir currently offered by Streetly Electronics (original makers of the Mellotron, back in business again)

Violins 1 – Your standard MkII violins.  This particular bank is in bad shape and needs a lot of EQ.  Not bad, though.

MkII Vintage Violins – Much better than the above!  These are very similar to the typical M400 strings, as shown by my example from “Mad Man Moon” (pitch-shifted sharp, too, like in the original!).

Cello – Ah, the wheezing old cello.  I never liked this sound, particularly the upper ranges.  Still, this example shows it has its charm.

Clarinet – A hidden beauty!  I have yet to hear any sampled clarinet sound beat this one!  To listen is to believe (and want!).

MkII Flutes – The classic sound popularized by the Beatles in “Strawberry Fields Forever.”  There’s a non-MkII version (read: M400) called simply Flutes that I like better, but this one is more characteristic.

MkII Piano – This sound has a surprising following for being so awful.  I place it here only because many people on my YouTube channel have commented favorably about it.  Apparently Pink Floyd used it somewhere, which must make it canon.

Pipe Organ – Now here’s a wonderful, characteristic sound—now correctly tuned!  Wish they could have tuned the Boys Choir the way they did the organ.  Wonderful, powerful, awe-inspiring sound.  You could use a modern sampled organ instead, but why?

Mellotron Tune – This is a context example—it uses MkII Vintage Violins, Masterbits 8 Choir (slightly better than the M-Tron version), Flutes, and Halfspeed Tron; along with Kawai ES3 piano (this was before I got my Boesendorfer) and an acoustic guitar SoundFont.  This demonstrates the way the M-Tron sounds can fit well in a mix.

Choir Tune – Here’s another context example—the choir, alas, is of the Mike Pinder variety (the best I’ve used so far), but that magnificent bass is Halfspeed Tron.  Nothing else quite produces this effect, this monstrous low end, and the M-Tron version is both detailed and warm.  One of my favorite sounds from the collection.