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What’s everyone using for Mellotron sounds?
The mellotron is perhaps my favorite instrument ever and I love the slew of choices we have on iOS. Just curious what everyone is using?
I have the Mellotron, Chamberlin, and Mellowsound apps, and am considering Manetron as well. However I keep getting drawn to Sampletron and wonder how worth it is, having most other Mellotron apps out there. Would I be better off with what I have now and maybe spending a few bucks on the Module and Beathawk IAPs? What exactly does Sampletron offer over the others sound quality wise? User sampling is a big draw for me and the effects seem great.
Comments
I honestly can't comment on the others, as I don't have them, but read the reviews of Sampletron online. For example
https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/ik-multimedia-sampletron
My main gripe is lack of velocity control. I guess that's a genuine reproduction of the hardware, though I literally am just guessing here, but it annoys me that there is no velocity control. Overall though, I love the sounds and the fact that it includes other weird stuff like ioptigan
Believe it or not, GarageBand (on desktop) has an excellent one built in. You should check it out. On the iOS version, there are far fewer options built in.
I'm completely happy with the Beathawk IAP. But I'm no expert.
I have the iOptigan app on iPad and love it to death. Didn’t realize it came with that as well! Lack of velocity control is kind of a bummer. Does it have editable envelopes?
Unfortunately I’m without a desktop at the moment and likely will be for a few more months, but I’ll keep that in mind whenever I finally get another MacBook. Does the iOS version have mellotron sounds at all? I didn’t even realize it did.
How many sounds does it come with? And can you edit it at all? Blending/layering sounds, adjusting EGs, etc?
It has Mellowtron Flute. In a cursory search, that's the only one I found. No strings or choirs that I'm aware of. But on desktop, far more options.
There are a few things from the desktop version I wish would make it to the iOS version (and Vice versa). Here’s hoping for that pro version someday lol
Likewise. Frankly, I'd like to see Apple make some offers to buy out some of the top instrument designers and incorporate their apps into the iOS GarageBand ecosystem more tightly. They did it before with the Alchemy Synth and that turned out pretty well.
Agreed. What would you like to see them acquire?
...> @HotStrange said:
Yonac and their owners, number 1. So many great keyboards and Steel Guitar keeps getting better. And I'd like to see them hire Matthias Demoucron away from Sony so they could use his knowledge to develop more instrument modeling interfaces and instruments on both iOS and macOS. Apple could afford to buy out Audio Modeling also, which would vault them to the forefront of all of this and then they could fold into GarageBand and Logic Pro the very best modeled natural sounding instruments in the world right now. Apple could really, really use the best saxophones, strings and other instruments available to make their software the ultimate tool for musicians.
And beyond instruments, they should hire as consultants or buy out some of the developers who've managed to create more efficient mixing and production tools. I suspect in the near future, Apple will start to offer to musicians either free or paid machine learning tools to assist with mixing and engineering. There is absolutely no reason mixing and engineering should be so woefully inefficient with the advances in A.I. and machine learning available today.
Might even make sense for Apple to hire or get a nice consulting gig out of everyone's favorite developer here, ChowDSP.
The Sampletron iOS app will the be the closest thing to the newer Mellotron 4000D as it includes Mellotron, Chamberlin, iOptigan, etc…
I just played a gig with a keyboard player that brought a 4000d and he let me mess with it a bit. It was literally the same thing as the Sampletron app down to the same sampled drum rhythms (I was surprised these were included). I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I used a $40 app to do the same thing. He was super excited about it as it was a new purchase for him. And, to be fair, the Mellotron looked much more impressive on stage.
The option to have non-looping samples would be huge from @ikmultimedia. The original Mellotron had a limit of 7-8 seconds and then the sound cuts off abruptly. Sometimes I want that. 😁
@HotStrange, do you happen to have AudioLayer? Prior to purchasing Sampletron I was using AudioLayer for my Mellotron samples. I could probably curate some of those patches and send them your way if you’re looking for vintage, dry, and “normal” Mellotron sounds.
Korg Module has a “Mellow Tape” pack that sounds pretty good to my ears. I’m no expert/snob but I certainly don’t regret the purchase!
You could use Velocity Filter from Blue Mangoo.
https://apps.apple.com/app/velocity-filter/id1473094671
Doug from TheSoundTestRoom has a nice demo.
Yes, that app is a great solution for synths with no velocity control
SoundFonts and SFZ.
Another advocate for Module Pro's "Mellow Tape" pack. Has a lot of good mellotron sounds in it, and after a quick play with a couple of the Mellow Tape patches in AUM using AUM's keyboard, it does seem to have velocity control.
By far the best I have heard is the G-Force MTron Pro - sounds come from carefully sampled tapes from the real thing, and they sound fantastic.
Not the cheapest, but definitely the best IMO.
Not iOS, but I use my MacBook to record it to iPad if I want to go that way.
If those SWAM instruments came to iOS on GarageBand I would die haha. Would absolutely love to see that happen.
agree with you all around. ChowDSP is definitely a favorite of mine.
Thanks for the vote of confidence with Sampletron. Not sure if it’s still on sale, but if it is by this weekend I may go ahead and take the plunge. If not I’ll have to wait for the next sale. $80 is just too steep, even if it’s cheap in the grand scheme of things.
I do have Audiolayer. I never thought to use it for that!
You know of any good ones? I have bs-16 but can’t remember if it came with any.
I think they have a 7 day trial yes? Might do that this weekend.
Saw the Hainbach video on it. Would love it if I had a desktop.
FWIW, King Crimson uses an iPad app called M3000 on tour. I couldn't find it in the App Store. Has its name changed?
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/mellotronics-streetlytron-pro/id1447100877
This is the new app by the same company that produced M3000. It's IAA and AudioBus compatible, but not AUv3.
Can’t remember where I picked them up but they were free..
I think here - but not sure
https://musical-artifacts.com/
Or literally just search free mellotron sf2, or sfz.
Each in Raw and Stereo flavors:
Cello
Choir
Church Organ
Electric Guitar
Flute
Guitar 12
Organ
Piano
Section Brass
Strings
Viola
Beathawk has Gain, Pan, Pitch, LP, HP, Reverb, Delay, and ADSR standard for all its sounds. For layering you could always load on multiple pads, or multiple AUv3 instances.
This isn't a recommendation - just what I know of the option.
Sampletron has the advantage of being extremely versatile, so I think it really is a step above most other Mellotron apps. It has a great set of samples, ADSR controls, optional tape ageing effects, and also a whole effects rack section as well. This means you can create authentic-sounding Mellotron parts, but also create more modern-sounding lo-fi synth-like sounds as well. In terms of the sound design possibilities it's way ahead of the others, especially since you can import your own samples.
StreetlyTron Pro is my favorite. The Streetly tapes are the real deal, the samples are beautiful.
I also have M-Tron Pro for my laptop with all the expansion packs including the nine Streetly sample packs. The M-Tron Streetly samples are identical to the samples in the StreetlyTron app, but only after they've been tuned to pitch (easily done in the M-Tron software).
M-Tron has all the Chamberlin, Optigan, and Orchestron samples as well, which is nice. There are two layers, each with ADSR for amp and low, high, or band pass resonant filters, half speed, reverse, start point adjust, volume, pan, tuning, lfo to pitch, velocity to amp and filter, global delay and ensemble, and an interesting brake (tape stop) feature.
StreetlyTron Pro has a great selection of Mellotron and Chamberlin samples, two layers, master tune, detune, half speed, the ability to loop any samples, eq, four different temperaments, velocity sensitivity, and a nice reverb.
I think the M-Tron + expansion packs cost me over $200 and that was during a big sale. The StreetlyTron Pro app cost me $14. I like it a lot.