Mellotron

Klaus Hollinetz
The Smooth Electrons

Everyone knows the characteristic “flutes” of the Beatles’ hit Strawberry Fields Forever¹ or the “strings” of the Moody Blues’ Nights in White Satin. These were the first instances of a sound that in a remarkable manner made the crossover from an electronic sound, generally still regarded as “out of this world,” and a “more human” sound generated by a machine. This thin, almost whining sound with its magical and irresistible effect on the audience was soon to be heard on countless music productions. The name of this fascinating instrument was the Mellotron, the first machine to use tapes on a large scale to generate sounds.²

It was back in the 1940s that Pierre Schaeffer, a pioneer of electronic music, invented the phonogene, an instrument that used a keyboard and the stepped drive of a sound tape to generate exact pitches. But it was the Mellotron with its possibility of polyphony that gave this technique its breakthrough. The instrument was based on the Chamberlin, created in 1962 by the eponymous inventor, the technology of which was adopted and put into series production by the Bradley brothers in Birmingham. The Mellotron is practically the first sampling keyboard, a type of “early Fairlight.” The manufacturer’s individual tapes were not arranged in a loop, and allowed the use of the starts of sounds and percussive elements – because the tape starts from the beginning whenever it is played, although it does not permit long held notes. The Mellotron also had a slight delay in the reaction to the pressing of the key, which made playing fast music difficult. These qualities, together with the characteristic “wobbly” sound are what result in its typical character.

The original Mellotron used in recording studios from 1964 primarily served as a source of film-like effects and as a substitute for musical instruments, comparable with its later digital equivalents, but it was a slow, laborious and painstaking task to record the tapes. The Mellotron Mk2 for instance was able to reproduce 18 instrumental sounds and 18 different rhythms, which allowed the sound of a complete band to be generated by the two manuals. This complex instrument was then further developed to produce a simpler version, and 1970 saw the creation of the M400, which was soon to be a worldwide sales success. It soon became an integral part of the music scene despite having only 35 keys and only three different sounds to choose from. Although it would have been possible to produce unique sounds for each instrument, it was the well-known factory sounds (flutes, choir, strings) that constituted the unmistakable charm of the Mellotron.

And it was these sounds that had a decisive influence on an entire generation of pop music. Whether as a magical antithesis to the distorted guitars and impassioned voices in King Crimson’s In the Court of the Crimson King or to the echoing drums in Tangerine Dream’s Atem – it was difficult to imagine many of the art rock productions without the Mellotron. Iconographic images, such as that of the Yes keyboarder Rick Wakeman with his flowing white hair, switching wildly between two white Mellotrons with two Minimoogs on top, were part of the pop music scene of the mid-70s. But by the end of the decade the hype was over, the flowing white hair had disappeared and the bands had turned to other sounds, the “gentle electrons” having little or no place in punk and new wave. The Mellotron, with a degree of complexity and technical vulnerability that was a nightmare for the stage crew, was quickly superseded by the first string synthesizers and digital samplers.

But even today, the fascination continues, kept alive by digital simulations, determined collectors and a few musicians. Today, there is a successor to the popular M400, fitted with additional features such as a knob-controlled pitch adjuster.

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