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Author Topic: Can i Extrapolate the Mellotron sound over 88 keys?  (Read 2497 times)

ChudStudley

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Can i Extrapolate the Mellotron sound over 88 keys?
« on: March 21, 2022, 06:26:26 am »
I love this virtual instrument so much and i have been playing around alot, but i haven't been able to determine if there 's away to extrapolate the sounds over 88 keys. Is there any way included with the software to utilize the full range 88 key range of my Midi controller? or am i restricted to using a block of 35 keys for each sound?

MajorFubar

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Re: Can i Extrapolate the Mellotron sound over 88 keys?
« Reply #1 on: March 21, 2022, 10:04:33 am »
Welcome.

I'm unsure if you understand how a real Mellotron worked. So excuse me if I'm telling you what you already know, When you pressed a key on a real Mellotron, it played a seven second recording from one of 35 tapes. The recording was of the real instruments (or voices) playing (singing) that note.

From the manual (which you may or may not have read):

"Digital samplers usually repitch the audio by reading the original samples at different speeds (resampling). This causes a speed-up or speed-down of the internal rhythm and transposition of the partials of the sounds, which sometimes may sound very unpleasant. Since user samples can also be used with the Mellotron V, you will be glad to hear that the instrument may reproduce them as if each note was played by its own tape. Internal rhythms, like vibrato, or even rhythmic phrases are preserved throughout the keyboard. All notes will play in sync. This is due to a special "stretch" mode, which is On by default."

So the problem with extrapolating notes beyond the original tapes' range is they would probably sound very odd beyond just a few notes higher or lower than the nearest root sample, especially piano and choir. However if you were to resample the voice you want to use, and play it in 'stretch' mode, you might get away with it, without it sounding too weird. But I can't guarantee you can get away with it for the full 88 notes.
2022 Apple Studio Max 32/32/2TB Monterey • V Collection 9 • Analog Lab 4 + 5 • KeyLab 88 • KeyStep

 

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