Mellotron M4000D - Card 05

[@pierre-olivierturmel1705]

Although not a fan of looped Mellotron sounds, I can see that others who brought machines of the M40000d line request those sounds and the company filled those request, which is great! I am an happy owner of an M4000d since 5 years in recent days (aug. 2017) and this keyboard still fascinated me after all those years! Still my favorite piece of equipment!

[@JohnLRice]

I do agree. With card 04 that is only optical disk sounds like Optigan the continuous looping made sense but I was hesitant when considering getting card 05 because I didn't want the looped versions of Mellotron sounds to possibly make me "lazy" and rely too much on them instead of embracing the charm and creativity inducing 8 second limitation of normal Mellotron operation. It was actually the inclusion of the Larry Fast Synergy sounds on card 05 that pushed me over the edge to buy it since I'm a huge fan! ;-)

[@AriannaCunningham]

Wow! Most of the Mellotorn sounds are looped now? Awesome! I really hope that the Chamberlin sounds will get looped as well, maybe there will be new rhythm and fill tapes too.

[@JohnLRice]

Yeah, it's pretty cool! Although it's not really "most" of the sounds since there are hundreds, but here's the count by Mellotron model that are looped on card 05: 12 MkI sounds, 13 MkII sounds, 16 M400 sounds, and 12 NEW M400 sounds. I really wish Markus would have looped the M400 Wine Glass sound! 🥰

[@PNovak87]

i had no idea that there was moog samples available for this, thank you for the upload!

[@JohnLRice]

You are most welcome! 🙂

[@maschinen-raum]

So nice sounds...

[@JohnLRice]

Thank you! 🙂

[@DavidV63]

Thanks for these cards demo !

[@JohnLRice]

You are welcome David, thank you for watching and commenting! 😎🙏

[@synthblock]

How did miss this? Another fantastic walkthrough!

[@JohnLRice]

Thanks much, Jonathan! 🙂

[@carobpinnock]

Thanks for these soundcard demos! I want to get some rhythms, and it was really helpful to compare soundcards 2 and 5.

[@JohnLRice]

You are welcome, thanks for watching and commenting! 🙂

[@stargate1555]

Sound cards 02 & 05 are my favorites. There is such a huge learning curve with both cards that will keep one occupied for hours and hours. I'm disappointed with the sounds that are not keyboard synchronized. I'm guessing Marcus used them as fillers.

[@JohnLRice]

It's funny to think that most people that famously used tape Chamberlins and Mellotrons probably only had 3 (or maybe 6 to 12 sounds if they had multiple tape frames) at their disposal and now with the digital versions we have HUNDREDS of sounds instantly available! 😄 And yeah, there are occasionally some sounds on the M4000D cards that have issues on one of more notes, like timing, tuning, and/or start point issues.

[@stargate1555]

@@JohnLRice I am astounded when hard core Mellotron M400, or the Mark V, which is made from two M400's, brag about how great the "tape versions" are compared to the digital M4000D. What they don't understand is the M4000D can be tweaked to replicate the M400 and Chamberlin sounds with zero tape wobble, pinch roller twangs, or broken or faded tapes, not to mention tape head cleaning chores.

[@JohnLRice]

@@stargate1555 Yeah, the digital versions are preferable to me, including the ability to play them via MIDI, but . . . if I was rich I'd probably buy a tape Mellotron just to have one?! 😅

[@stargate1555]

@@JohnLRice Robert Fripp of King Crimson called their Mellotron "the black bitch" because it was always breaking down. I found that a funny analogy.

[@stargate1555]

@@JohnLRice You know what? I probably would too......but which one? The M400, the Mark I, the Mark IV, or the Mark V?..........if money wasn't the deciding factor..........all of them. I've have my Mellotron since 2017 and I haven't made a dent in the sound possibility combinations. Then there's that damn "low mode" that doubles all the sound stuff. Nobody posts videos of the Mellotron M4000D low mode stuff sounds. My favorite is the 16 strings and accordion in low mode. Holy moly. That combination is awesome. ♫♪♪♪♫♪ Rock on man. Peace/rockn' roll.

[@indiefilmcomposer]

John card 5 sounds great, nice instrument loops, a little similar to card 1 , do you find it a useful expansion of more card 1 type sounds to expand on card 1? I don’t care for the full band loops pre recorded performance accompaniments stuff I like the solo or section instruments or duets but this one I think has more instrument loops?

[@JohnLRice]

I think card 05 is mainly for people who really want to have the main/typical Mellotron sounds in looped form or for people who are a obsessive compulsive completionist like me! 🤭 The good news is that you should write to Markus at Mellotron and ask him to sell you a combination card that just has lead instrument sounds from both cards 02 and 03 and none of the band accompaniment samples! I've read that several people have obtained one of these combo cards and while they said it was more expensive (I've never heard what it costs) it is less expensive than buying both cards and you wont have to do card switching to get to the lead sounds. I unfortunately heard about this long after I had already purchased both cards 02 and 03 so it didn't make sense for me to get it but the convenience factor is still temping. There is contact info on their website: www.digitalmellotron.com/

[@indiefilmcomposer]

@@JohnLRice good to know thx much

[@troublesomecorsair]

23:41 heehee nice

[@JohnLRice]

😄 To be fair I'm a pretty marginal keyboardist but long ago I sort of learned that bit of Tarkus because ELP is awesome and ever since it's been my default thing to play when a good Hammond sound comes up. 😊

[@stargate1555]

There's a sound card 06 now too.

[@JohnLRice]

I know! Unfortunately I don't think I'll be getting it as money is tight now as I'm working on digging myself out of debt! My biggest disappointment is that I wont be able to do a demo for card 06!

[@stargate1555]

@@JohnLRice I totally understand. Marcus offered a "package deal" for cards 02-03-04 so I jumped on it, but I haven't seen a deal for 05 & 06 yet. I appreciate your demo immensely and you pretty much covered everything on the 05 card. Thank you for that. If I could "do over" I would pass on card 03 & 04 due to the number of unusable sounds because they're not tuned to the keys, just random stuff and a lot of repeats from card 02. I will definitely get card 05 thanks to your demo. Rock on.!....and thanks.

[@JohnLRice]

@@stargate1555 You are most welcome, I'm glad I helped you in some way! 🙂 Since you got a three card package deal you can probably sell cards 03 and 04 for good prices individually. Also I know Markus has sold custom combination cards in the past to some people. I don't have one and I don't think you can exactly choose what you want on them but you can ask for the types of sounds you like (and say what ones you don't want) from cards 03 - 06 and he'll put together a compilation card. I've heard this custom card costs more than the standard cards but I've never been told how much.

[@stargate1555]

@@JohnLRice In retrospect, I would recommend sound card 02 and sound card 05 as definite buys. Sound card 03 and 04 would be a definite pass as well as sound card 06. The original Mellotron M4000D presets and the stuff on 02 and 05 is all you need. The 02,03, and 06 are either repeats or unusable sounds for the most part. A lot of the sounds on 02 & 03 cards are not tonal to the keyboard and are just "fillers." I'm kind of pissed I bought them. There's a bunch of percussion sounds on 06 but a decent drum machine would be a better choice for the money. Just being honest. I still love my Mellotron and just giving a heads up on Mellotron owners interested in the sound cards. Sound card 02-thumbs up. Sound card 05-thumbs up. Sound cards 03-04-06....thumbs down.

[@JohnLRice]

@@stargate1555 I actually love card 03 a lot for the lead sounds and especially the Gino Vanelli string sounds. But yeah, across all cards there are a lot of repeated sounds, or sounds that are so close to each other it's hard to justify having them all, or in the case of card 04 it's just very specialized and only for people who want those optical sounds.

[@neutralearth1061]

Fascinating! Thanks for the demo! Although I (Craig) personally don't care much for looped Mellotron sounds, I think the looped sounds will add some versatility to my M4000D. I could run them through some effects pedals to get some new synthy sounds. And I also love any new Mellotron sounds I can get! And being an obsessive compulsive completionist, I have no choice but to order one.

[@JohnLRice]

Thanks for watching and commenting! 🙂 I'm also a obsessive compulsive completionist and that nagging in my head is what finally pushed me over the edge to get this card! 😅

[@1kingstan795]

Sounds like the rack version lacks in quality is this true

[@JohnLRice]

Not true at all! 🙂The M4000D Rack has the same internal circuitry as the full sized M4000D keyboard and the M4000D Mini. Why do you think the Rack doesn't sound as good?

[@1kingstan795]

@@JohnLRice i listened to almost all of the mellotron m4000 demos on youtube a lot of demos sound different in sound quality with rack coming in last the rack comes tomorrow using my native instruments s88 keyboard just hoping it has a great sound for creating samples and making beats if not i will check out the 4000d

[@JohnLRice]

@@1kingstan795 So you have a Mellotron M4000D Rack coming soon? Nice, I'm sure you will be pleased! 😎👍 Maybe I just didn't a good job at recording this demo or maybe you just don't care for the sounds on expansion card #5? (are there any other demos of card 5 on KZbin?) I've done separate demos for each of the expansion cards plus the internal sounds (and a couple with the Micro) and they are all in this playlist if you'd like to listen to them? I would really appreciate the hours watched because it would help my channel! ;-) kzbin.info/aero/PL0y5yg9b8JyI-Ry8BWXHm86u3enxjNNpX

[@1kingstan795]

@@JohnLRice Its coming tomorrow the sounds are amazing hope im not disappointed and hope they sound better than the arturia mellotron more analogey if that was a word

[@JohnLRice]

@@1kingstan795 I think they are awesome and I really love mine! Keep in mind that there are a lot of settings in the menu you can use to change the sound and don't be afraid to use external EQs and effets. Here's a video I made that goes over a lot of the settings and you might want to watch it before yours arrives. Enjoy your new Mellotron! 🥳👍kzbin.info/www/bejne/poO1dpmpppaWjKc