Nord User Forum

Good to know that about the sample library! I guess the Electro 6 will be the most future proof investment. Does anyone have any thoughts about how important it is to be able to use the filter on mellotron and similar sounds? Do they sound good without any processing or layering?

They actually sound pretty bad, but in a god way.
It's an "expected bad" type of sound that was bad already back then, but it fills a purpose in music.

There's a whole thread on the Mellotron/Chamberlin samples: nord-stage-forum-f3/usage-of-factory-chamberlin-and-mellotron-samples-t16853.html

rullgardin wrote:Good to know that about the sample library! I guess the Electro 6 will be the most future proof investment. Does anyone have any thoughts about how important it is to be able to use the filter on mellotron and similar sounds? Do they sound good without any processing or layering?

They’re great Mellotron sounds.

If you’re looking for realistic strings or flutes, they’re not ideal in the same way that the Hammond engine is not an ideal pipe organ, which the original Hammond was built to imitate.

analogika wrote: they’re not ideal in the same way that the Hammond engine is not an ideal pipe organ, which the original Hammond was built to imitate.

Exactly, or how the bagpipes almost but not quite emulate the sound of a hewn Scotsman dying an agonising death on the battlefield.

CountFosco wrote:Exactly, or how the bagpipes almost but not quite emulate the sound of a hewn Scotsman dying an agonising death on the battlefield.

Right, they don't quite emulate it - they're far worse...

Rusty Mike wrote:The Stage will also give you the most flexibility with the Mellotron/Chamberlin sounds, as the samples are called up in the synth section. The Electro has relatively limited sample control - only a rudimentary envelope and no filter. On the Stage, you have a multimode filter, better envelopes and deep modulation capabilities.

rullgardin wrote:Does anyone have any thoughts about how important it is to be able to use the filter on mellotron and similar sounds? Do they sound good without any processing or layering?

If you want the mellotron sounds to sound like mellotron, there is no need for the filter/envelope/modulation synth capabilities Mike mentioned. Mellotrons didn't have any of those things, and using them only makes them sound less authentic. (Which isn't to say there can't be value to that as well.) Mellotrons did have some layering capability, though (by selecting the area in between two adjacent sounds), so that's where the Stage's layering function could be beneficial.

analogika wrote:If you’re looking for realistic strings or flutes, they’re not ideal in the same way that the Hammond engine is not an ideal pipe organ, which the original Hammond was built to imitate.

...and as the Rhodes was originally designed to imitate a piano.