The M-Tron Pro comes with over one hundred and forty tape banks. We also decided to take some of our favourite sounds and re-master these at the world famous Abbey Road Studios, London using their vintage EMI TG 12410 analogue mixing desk, the Prism Maselec MEA2 equalization unit and the unique EMI compressor. Mastering engineer, Steve Rooke, has been with Abbey Road for over 27 years and has a wealth of experience working on tracks by John Lennon, Paul McCartney and even the seminal album Now That’s What I Call Music One.
These re-mastered sounds have their own section and were specifically engineered to add warmth without sacrificing any of the overall character of the original sound. In essence they are a little cleaner than the original versions too and some cases a few notes have been re-pitched in order to replace some slightly more wobbly adjacent ones.
The combined total of both original, re-mastered and looped sounds is over two hundred tape banks from which the huge patch quotient was created. The two rules that we tried to adhere to during all sound development were as follows:
The sounds of the M-Tron Pro come from a huge variety of sources and although in many cases these tapes required a degree of cleaning-up due to their age and storage conditions, we have deliberately left in many imperfections rather than iron out too much of the instrument’s soul.
As such you will find that, when played in isolation, the occasional note may sound a bit wobbly plus there may be clicks, hum and even the odd bit of tape drop-out. This is entirely deliberate and when played within the context of a track, this is exactly what adds to the unique soul, vibe and character of the instrument.
A primary consideration when developing the M-Tron Pro was that sounds that were originally looped would remain looped and everything that wasn’t originally looped would remain unlooped. For example, the Birotron and Optigan had looped sounds and this should be preserved in the M-Tron Pro. Similarly, the VP330 played a continuous note and those sounds should do the same on the M-Tron Pro.
The Chamberlin and the Mellotron did not have looped sounds however and we feel it’s important to preserve this enforced limitation.
Thankfully, the vast majority of original M-Tron users agree with us, recognizing that part of the Melly’s beauty is the limitation that forces the musician to adapt their style which, in turn, allows the music to breath. A clear example of this can be heard on Radiohead’s ‘Exit Music’ - just listen to the clipped choir parts.
However, there is a small minority who think that this limitation is wrong and, while we wholeheartedly disagree, we have looped all of the Re-Mastered Sounds just for them.
The Re-Mastered section contains some of our favourite Melly sounds each of which were re-mastered at the world famous Abbey Road studios. A full list of these sounds can be found in the appropriate section of the manual.