Support
Looper's Delight
|
Support |
|
|
>>Simulating the timbre of a not-so-well-maintained mellotron would be more accurate; I've grown rather fond of the quirks. But since I'm not using a keyboard, I'm not playing it like a keyboard.<<
ah- gotcha. curiously, there are things you can do on the real thing that you can't really do on other keyboards anyway- in particular, the sideways-play in the keys that can (depending on the state of the pinch rollers) introduce some peculiar vibrato. the only way I've been able to reproduce this with midi is to use a guitar controller- I have a strat with a gk pickup, & a peavey midibase (sic) that I occasionally use for lead lines.
>>The only actual real live mellotron I've ever recorded with was one of the two [snip] One doesn't work and supplies
parts for the other<<
sadly this is often the case with older instruments. there's actually quite a bit of support for 'trons nowadays though; often what's lacking is the inclination &/or financial wherewithal to get them properly restored. mine hasn't left the studio for almost four years, but we used to use it at every gig. only when we started using a drum kit did it become too much to deal with. maybe we should get roadies....
>>But for what I've been doing, recording flutes and cellos onto analog tape before introducing them to the other instruments in the software, the sound has been, to my ear, smooth and pleasant, with a weirdness that's just wrong in the right kind of way [snip] it's a sound I like, mostly as a result of the imperfections of the medium.<<
exactly. this is why I do all my sampling from 1/4" tape. aswell as all that mod-routing, I play with different sample rates too. I have an old 8-bit delay line with dbx either end of the digital bit; this is fantastic for recording drum patterns prior to resampling- makes them sound like you lifted them from some ancient record even though you just wrote them y'rself on a regular drumbox. once you appreciate where the imperfections are, it's a lot of fun to introduce them deliberately by messing about with microtuning & modulation, aswell as unusual signal paths.
>>I could really hear the limitations/artifacts of the old, cheap digital reverb I was using (three letter name, black with disgusting pink and blue graphics) which is just fine when used with analog, albeit noisy.<<
ART? :-) I have one of their guitar "pre-amp" boxes. dreadful.... did you ever see that guitar combo they made? probably the ugliest
>>The two step analog to digital process isn't always the most convenient; maybe I can get round it another way.<<
sometimes when I'm doing a major sampler-population session, I'll route the input via a 1/4" deck & just leave it in record, sampling from the monitor head. maybe you could get hold of an old copicat or a tape echoplex.....
duncan.
***************************************************************************
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE
The contents of this e-mail are confidential to the ordinary user
of the e-mail address to which it was addressed, and may also
be privileged. If you are not the addressee of this e-mail you may
not copy, forward, disclose or otherwise use it or any part of it
in any form whatsoever.If you have received this e-mail in error,
please e-mail the sender by replying to this message.
It is your responsibility to carry out appropriate virus and other
checks to ensure that this message and any attachments do not
affect your systems / data. Any views or opinions expressed in this
e-mail are solely those of the author and do not necessarily
represent those of MTV Networks Europe unless specifically stated,
nor does this message form any part of any contract unless so stated.
MTV reserves the right to monitor e-mail communications from
external/internal sources for the purposes of ensuring correct
and appropriate use of MTV communication equipment.
MTV Networks Europe
***************************************************************************