Mellotron M300 demonstration

[@courvoisibean]

Hard to believe something so advanced sounding from 1968 such a wonderful sound

[@jamesd.wheeler6190]

I love the moody blues songs !!The reason I love the melotron!!

[@steveeichel803]

LOL! I see it still has some of the special effects tapes from the original MkII left-hand keyboard. (Can also be heard on "The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill" by the Beatles.) Mike Pinder of the Moody Blues removed those tapes and replaced them with duplicates of the tape banks in the right-hand keyboard, thus allowing a full orchestral sound as he could blend one sound (brass, for example) on one keyboard while playing strings on the other. The fact that the Mellotron tape heads could play back two of the three tracks on each tape (with each track being a separate instrument/s) meant that one could also blend two instruments (voice with strings, for example). Thus, Pinder could simultaneously play 4 different orchestra instruments. That of course was on the MkII and MkV, not the M300 or M400, as they only had the one keyboard with one bank of tapes.

[@TheHammondx66]

What was the Serial #? I had an M-300 from my band days in the early and mid '70's. Had is restored by Streetly Electronics in England. Mine was S/N #50. I sold it years later to a gentleman from San Diego. All Mellotrons were built in England, by the then named, Bradley Electronics. They unknowingly, duplicated and mechanically improved an instrument called a Chamberlin. The Chamberlin was invented, as the the entire keyboard tape playback system by California inventor Harry Chamberlin in the early 1950's. Harry recorded all of the original tapes and they were of a superior quality since the tapes used in the Mellotrons were several generations older and the Bradleys used a strange EQ in the tapes... Although that is part of what gives the Mellotron its distinctively "haunting sound". The Model 300 had tape that were newly recorded my Bradley and as you can hear are much better.

[@Miler97487]

I have seen a Mark II in the flesh back in the 1990s (this same person also owned a M400, which isn't as surprising), but I have never seen a M300 in person. I remembered back in 1997 when I bought my first Barclay James Harvest album, Once Again, I was wondering where was the Mellotron. After all Woolly Wolstenholme was a major tron player. There were also real strings from Robert John Godfrey as well, but the M300 strings sounded more "authentic" so it took me quite a while to figure which was the tron and which was Godfrey's orchestrations. In '97 I wasn't familiar with the M300 sound, but once I got more familiar with its sound, I was able to spot the tron on their albums, but it wasn't always easy. It helped once I discovered the M300 was used on all the Gentle Giant albums up to Octopus and many Dutch albums recorded at Phonogram Studios, such as Earth & Fire, Ekseption, and a little from Supersister (German band Frumpy also partially recorded their first two albums there, using the M300), not to mention the handful of Moody Blues songs using one like "Watching and Waiting" and "Never Comes the Day". At least BJH's 1974 Live album most definitely used tron on almost everything since they couldn't afford to hire an orchestra so Woolly Wolstenholme let loose.

[@RAPTRx-xm7zb]

I believe he continued to use a M300 alongside an M400 throughout the seventies. The M400 handled the choir sounds.

[@alaincelos476]

Wooly was the best user of thé 300.wasn t know ing k minnear used it I thought it was à 400 and I saw him with à chamberlin in Paris...in Simon duprée thé keyboard used was à mk2 and live toô?yours acelos

[@Miler97487]

It seems with Time Honoured Ghosts that I noticed Woolly using an M400 as well as the M300 because there was some M400 tron choirs on some of the albums, on top of the M300. The earliest singles from '68-'69 were Mark II and they switched to the M300 by the time they recorded their debut album.

[@Miler97487]

@@alaincelos476 In a Glass House did clearly show Kerry Minnear with an M400 on the back cover but not a single bit of tron on that one or the the following albums, but the first four Gentle Giant albums were definitely M300.

[@alaincelos476]

@@Miler97487 i ll gonna hear thé 68-69 singles...curiou to hear wolly with it! The guy from Simon duprée was prêtty good toô!

[@jokza2000]

Starting naturally with "She said" by BJH.

[@alaincelos476]

Hi James we are so many to love pinder s musics ...I did bought à mk2 after seing him!

[@tonydonato8523]

The M300 had such nice sounds. The tapes were much cleaner sounding than the MK II.

[@tuscanod2]

Wow even crisper than my keymans m400 which I assume was a newer build. Very well maintained! Congratulations!!

[@williamgreen4020]

More ethereal beautiful sounds. Sheer class.

[@nickzehrmoon1131]

Nice rendition of Magdalene My Regal Zonophone!

[@arumbai]

Selling your mellotron must feel like your wife telling you she wants to divorce you.

[@ray.watts-35]

Only if she wants to keep the Mellotron :) :)

[@Miler97487]

I guess those tron choirs starting at 1:24 had to be custom tapes as that wasn't part of the M300 sound library.

[@gareebee]

2:37 "and you can fly.....high as a kite if you want to" :-)

[@alaincelos476]

Bravo Hessel this is exactly Woolly stuffs..a boring Friend of mine had a 300... I do thinck thé 300 is more difficult to play than a mk2.all thé people do thinck this was made for touring ...no no no it was built to replace thé old upright piano in every house...WE had thé chance Pinder did succeeded using it live .Mike and G. Bond.

[@patrikgabrielsson2135]

The mellotron was the first synthesizer.

[@geoffk777]

Actually, it was the first sampler. Analog synths (Moog and Buchla) went on sale around the same time as the Mellotron did. But nothing sounded like it until digital samplers came on the market.

[@massimomarchesin8708]

@@legolam4271 Scusami ma è il THEREMIN il primo sintetizzatore !!!!! Si tratta di una specie di scatola metallica con un antenna che avvicinando le mani si può modulare il suono ,uno dei primi ad usarlo furono i BEACH BOYS nel pezzo GOOD VIBRATIONS l'effetto del THEREMIN si può ascoltare nella parte finale del brano . Per quanto riguarda il Mellotron è invece il primo strumento musicale campionatore funzionante a nastri preregistrati azionati da una tastiera . Ed è a parer mio uno dei più affascinanti strumenti a tastiera ed in generale comunque , venne inventato da Harry Chamberlin che era un ingegnere elettronico statunitense nell' anno 1946 .

[@pinstripedclips]

Great pitch swoops!

[@gareebee]

3:50 Have You Heard?

[@kevinlewis1017]

Was waiting for "watching and waiting"

[@pinkyman5155]

Lovely Sound !

[@maxbackstrom]

What a beauty!

[@paolofabbella7954]

0:00 - 0:40 the song is relaxing! What's her name?

[@h.s1287]

X2

[@paolofabbella7954]

@@h.s1287 What?

[@mickeythompson9537]

She Said by Barclay James Harvest.

[@mateodlw7359]

this is fucking magic! :D

[@gareebee]

3:23 Procol Harum! :-)

[@misterakt]

Garry Byrne what song ?

[@charleswidmore5458]

Free Bird! FREE BIRD!

[@misterakt]

i was gonna downvote this, then i remembered Free Bird actually DOES have a mellotron on it haha

[@raymatthews4319]

@@misterakt Tuesday's Gone also has some nice Mellotron work.

[@JohnLRice]

Sounds great! (inside joke to pinstripedclips: Doesn't sound sterile enough! ;-)

[@EdoardoCatellani]

Track ID??

[@pinstripedclips]

Wow!!!

[@misterakt]

What’s the song at 2:10?

[@misterakt]

6 years later and I've identified the song as part of "In Held 'Twas In I" by Procol Harum (which didn't actually feature mellotron)

[@mateodlw7359]

0:52 - 1:20 song please?

[@Miler97487]

That's "Galadriel" by Barclay James Harvest from their 1971 album Once Again.

[@relayer250]

Anyone care to name all the tracks played? ;-)

[@misterakt]

1) Barclay James Harvest - She Said 2) BJH - Galadriel 3) no idea 4) Procol Harum - Magdalene My Regal Zonophone 5) PH - In Held Twas in I (Part One) track didn’t feature mellotron initially 6) Moody Blues - The Voyage 7) just noodling around with rhythms 8) Procol Harum - In Held Twas in I (final part) track didn’t feature mellotron initially 9) Moody Blues - The Voyage (again) 10) King Crimson - In the Wake of Poseidon (that track didn’t feature the cello/clarinets sound but instead the classic 3 violins sound with a little flute and brass mixed in through the song)

[@relayer250]

Alexander King Tickle surely 6) is the sweeps from The Best Way to Travel by the Moody Blues. 😉

[@misterakt]

Abcoblentz i always figured it was the pitch bends from the beginning of The Voyage because they used that same organ tape bank from the song in this video idk i’m more perturbed that i can’t figure out what 3 is lol

[@marcmountain4778]

oh what it is to be young