Thank you. I'm a big Moody Blues fan, and their use of the Mellotron was what made their signature sound what it was. It sounded like every chord was bent to their will. Timothy Leary!

It was briefly mentioned here but should be emphasized that the point of the mellotron, aside from its unique wobbly, spooky, ethereal sound, was that bands could get an orchestral sound on stage without incurring the expense of touring with an actual orchestra. It just couldn't be done. (Deep Purple did a one-off show with an orchestra in 1969 but it was really rare.) The Moody Blues were truly unique in that keyboardist Mike Pinder worked at mellotron maker Streetly Electronics prior to forming the band. He could repair the instrument himself. In fact, it happened that Moodies shows could be delayed while Pinder had his head in the cabinet untangling tape loops. This explains why it is so prominently used in their sound. One other note: the mechanical nature of the mellotron meant it was sensitive to voltage fluctuations at the concert venue. Pinder learned to use the pitch bend wheel to counter these voltage surges. He was truly the Mellotron Master and deserves more recognition.

Great video, well researched and entertaining. You should do a sound re-mix though because the volume levels jump all over the place, so I was constantly riding the volume control. Also, when you voice-over some of the music clips it is hard to hear you because the music is too loud. Also suggest using a Shure SM7B. I'm going to subscibe and see how this all works out for you. Best of luck!

The Mellotron never fell. It was society which fell.

I'm friends with Mike Pinder and I still think he's the absolute master of the Mellotron. I've heard and respected the 'tron used by many artists but I've never heard anyone get the subtle, etherial sounds out of the mellotron that Mike was able to coax from it in the Moody Blues. That said, I was surprised that Mike had no problem going fully digital once the technology was there.

Man your vocal level is way way to low in relation to the excerpts your using.

My mind was totally blown away when I discovered the Mellotron during the pandemic! I couldn’t believe that the Flute sound in “Strawberry Fields Forever” was a Mellotron, not a Flute! As far as other songs go, I had always thought it was an orchestra playing with the songs that had an orchestral sound. Once I discovered what this instrument was I started to search for bands that used it and discovered King Crimson. I’ve heard “21st Century Schizoid Man” before and I liked it, but not enough to explore them. Once I heard this instrument and their use, I was hooked. “Epitaph”, “Court of the Crimson King” & “In the Wake of Poseidon” became instant favorites. I really love the sound of this instrument. It’s a shame it faded away for the horrible ’80s keyboard I despise.

I've heard the mellotron described as sounding like "a celestial choir with a mild throat infection" and I wish I could remember who said that.

I owned a Mellotron and absolutely loved spending hours noodling around on it. There was somewhat of an ethereal spirit similar to a Player Piano (which uses paper rolls) programmed to replicate performances of artists who may have produced these before we were born but we still hear their soulfulness. Regrettably the pitch was so erratic that I was unable to use it for stage with my other instruments. The person that purchased the unit from me took it to the manufacturer to have it completely refurbished.

Pinder's Mellotron was essential to Moody Blues' sound.

the Moodies introduced the mellotron to the Beatles

Mellorons were also responsivle for much of Tangerine Dream's early sound. Case in point: Phaedra

An interesting video but why was your audio so quiet compared to the music and the blank screen bits?

Fantastic. Mellotron was used by a majority of Brit bands: Pink Floyd, Camel, The Who, Led Zep, ELO, Yes, Moody Blues, Genesis, ELP, Beatles, etc. Era-defining sounds.

Michael Pinder. Ahh, the Moodies. He once explained how he worked for the company that made them or something intricately connected to it. And on their last album with Mike....he sings, "There's one thing I can do....play my mellotron for you...." Tons of trubs on tour with these recordings-tape loops whatever. But man, when it worked on those Moody albums....MAGIC.

The Mellotron was my first musical instrument! I bought it in 1976 and still have it and used it as often as possible with my current band NEUTRAL EARTH. Thanks!

UK DJ Mark Ratcliffe referred to the Mellotron as ‘an orchestra in a drinks cabinet’. That’s genius, because that’s essentially what it is. 😂😂

early prog would not have been the same without the mellotron. R. Fripp

Another bands significant use of the mellotron was Barclay James Harvest, particularly on their album Time Honoured Ghosts.

How can this documentary gloss over In The Court of the crimson King, the album that became the forefather of the progressive movement? No album before or after captures the depth or intensity of mellotron use as this does. Ian Macdonald should be in the HOF just for his creative playing of this instrument and his musical arrangements on this pivotal album alone!

Interesting history of the instrument, thank you for making it. The constant total black outs threw me off somewhat.

Shout out to Brian Jones' use of the mellotron. 😊

Strange that Pinder would erroneously say Mellotrons use a tape loop. They don't. Each key has only about 8 seconds of sound, which you can hear as hes' talking. Once the tape reaches the end of that time, it stops. Tape loops, OTOH, are exactly that. The tape never stops because it's spliced together and just keeps going round and round. The Orchestron, which Kraftwerk used on their albums Radio-Activity, Trans Europe Express, and The Man Machine, uses a loop (albeit not on tape, but rather on an optical disc). The 7 or 8-second limit to each note on a Mellotron caused players to learn a technique when playing longer chords where the fingers of different notes would be released and pressed in a cyclic fashion so that all the notes never stopped at the same time. It's one of the quirks of the Mellotron that gave it its character.

To my mind, the Moody Blues' 3rd Album (ignoring Go Now) "On the Threshold of a Dream" side two "Have you Heard (1&2)" and "The Voyage" are among the greatest examples of the use of the Mellotron.

Assault and Battery: Hawkwind, The Rain Song: Led Zeppelin, Care of Cell 44:The Zombies, 2000 Light Years from Home : The Stones, all brilliant songs made better by the Mellotron, fantastic instrument\ gadget.

It is absolutely true that some of those classics just don't sound the same when a modern synth is used instead.

Rick Wakeman's exemplary touch with the mellotron on David Bowie's Space Oddity blew me away.

Great video essay but as you go forward please adjust the volume levels! If you turn your voice to normal levels then the music blows the speakers out, Or if music is normal your voice is very low.

It was mostly used in the UK where it was conceived. It was rarely heard in american rock/pop music. It trully contribuited to make english bands of the 60’s and 70’s much more interesting than those from the US. Only my opinion.

Great story! I had no idea many of my favorite songs included the sound from a Meletron. Thanks.

I saw Graham Nash in concert two weeks ago (March 24, Gold Coast Australia) and was so stoked to see a Leslie cabinet behind the keyboards that it took me a minute to notice the Mellotron, high and proud. All the CSNY stuff, just as it had been arranged to sound.

I turn the volume up so I can hear you, and then the music blasts in my ears.

I like the clips in this. When I think of the mellotron, I think of King Crimson.

The Dickies were a punk band using the mellotron in 1978. In the late eighties and nineties it was Mitchell Froom and Tom Waits who brought back the Chamberlain first. Michael Penn and Patrick Warren had hits with the Chamberlin, as well as John Brion on the Mellotron on the East Coast.

The man who always got the best out of the mellotron was Tony Banks.

Something i've always wondered about the Mellotron: Did artists ever "hack" the instrument by installing their own snippets of tape? Examples? You've done a really nice job with this video. Interesting and well-researched topic. Keep it up; I'll be watching your channel's development.

CAUTION! The volume is all over the place, you can easily blow out speakers. Keep a hand on the volume control, otherwise would have been a great video. P.s.- MUSICIANS! Electro-harmonix makes a bunch of footpedals that electronically produce these sounds today!!! "MEL-9" for instance, and they work awesome with any electric guitar.

Thanks for recognizing this amazing instrument. But there are many of us who believe it hasn't fallen. It's sound is too iconic.

the black screen cuts are very jarring.

the narration is far too quiet durimg musical passages!!

According to the Internet, the Beach Boys never used a Mellotron in any of their recordings. Instead, they used a domestic variant called the "Chamberlin" on a few of their songs.

Justin Hayward’s voice, Mike Pinder’s Mellotron and Ray Thomas’s flute got me hooked to the music of the Moody Blues. I listen to their music everyday since 1967.

Excellent bit. The production quality of this video transported me right back to the Mellotron age! Seems like it was made in the 1970s on the gear I used back in college. Nice touch!! ;-)

Bowie used a mellotron and it turned up in the recordings of many who know of the coolness factor. The key is knowing what to do with it from a production standpoint. It wants to be used in good taste

I did not know this. Thank you for the history. I remember reading liner notes from the Rick Ruben produced album Blood Sugar Sex Magic by RHCP and reading that Brendan O'Brien played the Mellotron on the song Breaking the Girl. It is a beautiful sound, like a flute arrangement, and I think one of the album's best cuts.

All hail our Mellotron Overlords! The Mellotron is a staple of our sound. We use a vintage 1972 M400 with 4 different tape sets, as well as a digital M4000D (with all of the Sound Cards), 2 Mellotron Micros, and several Mellotron Apps for iPad and iPhone. You can never have too much Mellotron. We write and record our own interesting music for the fun of it and post the albums on our NEUTRAL EARTH KZfaq channel. Mellotron lovers unite! Long live the Mellotron!

Nice mention of the Spring album. They had 3 mellotron players! Also two of the greatest mellotron recordings in history were PFM "Per Un Amico" (1972) [kzfaq.info/get/bejne/nquWiruk0cWpnXU.html] and England "Garden Shed" (1977) [kzfaq.info/get/bejne/btaAn8mcq7Snm3U.html] There was also a renewed interest in the instrument in the 90s with groups like Anekdoten, Anglagard, Landberk, a.o. The mellotron was to an orchestra as the Fender Rhodes was to a piano. Both instruments transcended their initial uses to become distinctive sounds unto themselves.

There is nothing like a Mellotron Nothing. The sound it makes is magical.

And don't forget the master keyboardist of Barclay James Harvest, the late, great Woolly Wolstenholme.

Talking about the history of the Mellotron without talking to Rick Wakeman is like talking about the Moog synthesizer without talking to Rick Wakeman. Wakeman was the only session musician in London who could play the Mellotron in tune by modulating his finger pressure, and that’s the reason you hear him in Space Oddity among dozens of other well-known hits. That was before he joined Yes, and one of the reasons he joined Yes.

Black Sabbath=Changes-1972..Clear , Ethereal, Ballad! Mellotron TRES Heavy!

My favorite use of it is in Yes “The Revealing Science Of God.” It just sounds so huge!

The sudden cuts of the sound examples are very unpleasant and jarring. Voiceovers are sometimes buried by the soundtrack.

When Black Sabbath used one on their classic track "Changes", it sounded seriously eerie.

Many groups used Mellotrons in the 1980s, including Captain Beefheart (Doc at the Radar Station) and XTC (The Big Express).

The Mellotron M4000D can reproduce every sound from the M400, the Mark I, the Mark II, Mark VI and has sound presets to reproduce every instrument in an orchestra. With the introduction of sound cards 02-03-04-05-06.......the possibilities are endless. I just hope one day Marcus comes out with an 88 key Mellotron. That would be fantastic. Yes, I'd buy one.

The mellotron was usually found in certain studios in London, and bands recording in those studios would have the option of using it in the mid/ late 60's,when it was working..The Bee gees early albums, mainly their first 2,feature one, played by Maurice Gibb..

I inherited (volunteered to clean out a deceased man's hobby) old electromechanical music devices on of these was a "Chamberlain" (as I recal) which had a similar tape transport mechanism as the mellotron. Back when I was 18 this stuff was considered useless clutter by my folks and we soon parted ways. Sad, I guess

Good stuff, I like the sound of the mellotron. Glad to watch this KZfaq video. Thanks.

I went to the music store to buy a guitar and the salesman told me they now have a new digital version of the mellotron! I didn’t even go look at it because I would’ve added more money owed to my father’s credit card then I wanted to!😗

For me, it was the instrument of a lifetime and lifestyle!

Nice feature on the mellotron. I used one at a local keyboard store in Miami back in the seventies it was a beautiful little machine that cost $4,000.😂

It would be hard to think of Watcher of the Skies with any other sound.

I’m a massive prog fan since the beginning of prog rock , but I admit to never fully understanding the background, to the mellotron . so i thank you for the very helpful and history

They need to bring it back with bands, bring back our great music! YAY to The Moody Blues, Mike Pinder played it in 1968, love the Moodies!♥️🎵🎶🎵🎹🎸🎸🪈🥁

I use a Memotron these days. The tape banks have all been digitized and it sounds amazing!

Yeah, I don't think any band captured the pure essence of the Melotron like The Moody Blues. It became a very intricate part of their music. RIP Mike Pinder.

Any band who used this owes the Moodies and Pinder a huge favor. Pinder introduced the mellotron to the Beatles.

Why hasn’t anyone mention the Chamberlin? Harry Chamberlin of Upland California invented the original design and was stolen .copied by a former employee and manufactured by a British company that was unaware of its origin. For an accurate history, there is a documentary about the history of tape playback based keyboards. The film is called Mellodrama, I was one of the first to own a Chamberlin in the LA music circles in the mid 70’s. Jerry Lewis had one and it was originally designed as a home orchestra to replace the home organ. In fact, the Mellotron had aimed for the same market.

Damn my g ! Set it off with and you and I ! Great way to open a video

I learned a lot. Thanks . Now reengineer the voice over.

I have a Mellotron on my iPad that I midi to my Yamaha grand electric piano, it sounds good. It sounds like a Mellotron, but it passes, and I love the sound and the versatility of it, and would someday love to have a real one.

Video is interesting but dude, I can barely hear your voice over the music lol. And I had to keep quickly turning my volume up and down, up and down throughout the video. Just letting you know. Other than that, awesome video.

there was a soothing quality to it, similar to strings, but less pretentious- it suited rock'n'roll, or prog, and both elevated the effects of the music, but brought it down. my fave is Crimso's use of it on In the Court..., and Red.

The Mellotron never fell - it just got replaced by VST's, Samplers and emulations of its function. The Mellotron was genius, but flawed by its size and complexity in keeping it functioning well. Now you can get those sounds in a handy box :) Long may that sound pervade our music.

I LIKE MELOTRON N HAMMOND B3 W/LESILE !

5:00..Tony Banks used Mellotron augmented with RMI elec piano(Fly on a windshield).

that was fun. good to see mike pindar who doesn't always get credit.

Angel=1975-80, TRES Cool/Heavy use of the Mellotron for POMP Rock Epics!

If the audio tape sections for each key were easily replaced and a new one inserted with words or a phrase recorded on it it would be the first audio sampling keyboard.

New England S/T=1979! Mellotron Heaven!!!

Well, as pointed out, even by Tony Banks, they had to rebuilt the Mellatron after every performance. Who wants to keep an instrument which has to be repaired night after night? I remember a keyboard that used little discs, like mini CDs for its sound. Saw it in Keyboard magazine during the 1970's. Obviously, it didnt catch on, and advanced keyboards during the 1970's were outrageously expensive. I remember when the first Kurzweils came out, like who could afford them? Now, almost every keyboard player has one. So, unless any keyboard does not hold up while touring, it's going to go by the wayside.

Wish you’d mentioned The Rolling Stones’ employment of the Mellotron on their underrated psychedelic album “Their Satanic Majesties’ Request.” The late multi instrumentalist Brian Jones mastered it and the result was the eerie and haunting sound on “2000 Light Years From Home” and “She’s A Rainbow” on that album, as well as “Child of the Moon,” the B side of their 1968 single “Jumpin’ Jack Flash.” You also don’t mention its employment by Led Zeppelin’s bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones (the quietest and most underrated member of that band) on the song “Kashmir,” from their 1975 album”Physical Graffiti” (also augmented by actual strings). It gives the song an otherworldly atmosphere.

What’s the song at 5:40?

Brian Wilson used it in '65 to make Good Vibrations

"...held together with bicycle chains, and the Beatles used one." I seriously don't know how some of these ideas came about, but surely glad they did.

I dabbled with Abbey Road Studios’ Melloton at a “viewing day” in 1980 before it was part of a public auction for an upgrade of the studio equipment.

I don't think the Mellotron was replaced by synthesizers because synths sounded more realistic. I think the synths were "good enough" to use, but much more reliable and easier tour with. Later synths and samplers became much more realistic. The Mellotron reminds me of. Old newsreels, because of the lo-di quality and the wow and flutter.

How funny that the commentary is drowned out periodically throughout the video by pompous 70s progrock

Steven Wilson/Porcupine Tree have kept the mellotron alive in the 21st century.

Thanks for sharing. If memory serves, musicians also got frustrating with the mellotron, too, because the sounds they played would fade out after a few seconds, making it difficult to sustain notes. Seems like Rick Wakeman mentioned that when he talked about playing for Bowie on "Space Oddity." Shawn R., Mo-Mutt Music/Sacred & Secular

I've just listened to early Steve Miller Band masterpiece Children of the Future after long time. Masterful mellotron work by Jim Peterman on par with best Pinder's works.

I still use it!

The mellowtron doesn't have tape loops like the man said. They are tape strips that snap back on springs.

Good job, but you seriously need to remix this and bring your voice up in the mix!

Such an interesting instrument - please remix this so we can hear your voice over music clips.

Loved the video. Good representation of the Mellotrons key moments.

It's own unique sound, sort of like a Hammond B3.

Hugs from Brazil 🎉

It's still used today, although more digital units than real, tape-driven ones.