GForce walk us down memory lane with Volume 3 of the Streetly Tapes for M-Tron
GForce M-Tron · Source: gforcesoftware.com
GForce Streetly Tapes Vol 3 · Source: gforcesoftware.com
The Mellotron is one of those extraordinary instruments that technology tries to leave behind but the musical pleasure centres of our brains can’t quite let go of. It seems like a crazy notion in our digitally instant world that you would create an instrument that plays a length of tape, physical tape, with all its warps, snags and fragility. But the sound it creates is something deeply sought after. Streetly Electronics were the original UK Mellotron manufacturers and this, the last volume in a trilogy of library for the M-Tron, brings more of that classic sound and painstaking attention to detail. Or, from another point of view, it’s the ultimate musical Rube Goldberg machine.
It would seem that putting these very analogue sounds into a digital virtual instrument would go against the very ethos and history of Streetly Electronics, maybe that’s why it’s taken so long for this project to appear. But I guess that there’s something healthy and forward looking about releasing these sorts of sounds into a wider community of users. John Bradley and Martin Smith of Streetly Electronics laid down several conditions on the sampling of their sounds. Firstly it had to be EMI tape and secondly the sampling was not to be from the master tapes. The sound of the Mellotron comprised more than just the recording. Amongst other factors it was in the copy degradation, the way that some tape was worse than others, giving those occasional harsh or faded notes which you wouldn’t get from using the master tapes. This meant that it in order to achieve that “sound” it had to be taken from a properly aligned tape head on a “Skellotron” (a stripped down Mellotron) and through an instrument preamp. Only after the final recordings were scrutinised and compared by John and Martin were the sounds cleared to be built into patches for the M-Tron. Sounds like a lot of work.
I’ve enjoyed playing Mellotron sounds from a number of different sources and the Gforce M-Tron is the one that nails it for me. However, in most cases the sounds you get are so recognisable, so classic that it’s almost impossible to use them in anything. The Streetly Tapes offer something less heard and less familiar which could be very interesting indeed.
Here’s a list of the sounds in volume 3:
Sounds: 15 Choir, Alto Sax, Bradley Orchestra 2, Celeste, Cello Viola Mix,
Clarinet, Classic Strings, Fairlite Swanee, Female Choir, Hammond Organ,
Hammond C3 Clean, Layered Choir, Mixed Brass B, MkII Brass, Moogy Whoosh,
Muted Brass, Piano, Pump Organ, Sad Strings, Trumpet, Vibes No Vibrato,
Violin, Watcher Mix, Wine Glass and Woodwind 2.
They’ve produced an interesting video of John and Martin talking about how the tapes came into being – a must see for the muso out there.
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Regular price is 49.95 GBP but until the 16th February it’s half price.
More information: http://www.gforcesoftware.com/products/thestreetlytapesvol3
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