Gordon Reid© 2008
The earliest instrument to play back samples of existing sounds was probably the Singing Keyboard (1936), which replayed optical recordings of waveforms (much like early cinema soundtracks) when the player pressed its keys. This concept resurfaced many times between the mid-1930s and mid-1970s, but the next important development in ‘sampling’ technology was driven by the invention of magnetic recording tape, which made it possible for the recordings to be reversed, layered, filtered, re-recorded... and more. The first instrument to take full advantage of this was Hugh Le Caine’s Special Purpose Tape Recorder (1954), which used a keyboard to control the playback of multiple reels of tape. This was sensational stuff, and many avant-garde composers made use of the Recorder.
Meanwhile, a chap named Harry Chamberlin was also experimenting with a keyboard that could replay magnetic tapes, but in a more conventional manner, with a constant replay speed and a different pitch recorded on the tape under each key. It has now entered legend how a Californian window cleaner named Bill Fransen was intrigued by the sounds emanating from one of his customers’ garages and, peering through a (newly cleaned?) window saw the inventor playing an early Chamberlin® MusicMaster. It is also well documented that Fransen then introduced himself, and ended up working as Chamberlin’s salesman.
Unfortunately, the MusicMaster hummed badly and proved to be very temperamental. Fransen was keen to see it improved so, unbeknown to Chamberlin, he travelled to England to find the expertise he needed, and subsequently placed an order for 70 matched replay heads with a company named Bradmatic, based in Birmingham, UK. Curious as to why anyone should require so many matched heads, the Bradley family (hence the company name) met and later joined forces with Fransen. However, none of them had the cash needed to fund the redesign or to manufacture the proposed instrument, so they advertised for financial support. Bandleader and radio broadcaster Eric Robinson replied, and development began.
Fransen turned out to be a talented recording engineer, and the Eric Robinson Organisation owned the highly regarded IBC Studios which were used to record the sounds that would eventually be installed within the keyboard. Shortly thereafter, the ERO was renamed Mellotronics Ltd, and its first product, the Mellotron Mark 1 appeared in 1963. Costing £1,000, a huge sum at the time, it offered many improvements over Chamberlin’s instruments, but remained rather unreliable.
It was to be another year before the first truly useable Mellotron was to appear. When it did, the Mark 2 was a 350lb dual-manual monster comprising more than seventy 3/8” tape players, each capable of playing a strip of tape lasting just eight seconds. It also contained a reverb unit, amplifiers, and speakers. It was 70-note polyphonic and was able to reproduce all manner of sounds including orchestral strings, flutes, brass, guitars, organs and pianos. A second and even more expensive version, the Mark 2 FX Console, was designed for use as a sound effects machine in TV and film studios.
Mellotronics saw its instruments as modern-day organs, and sold them to clubs and theatres, while others became celebrity toys. Despite this, the pop and rock community took the Mellotron to its heart and, by 1967, everyone was experimenting with it. The Beatles had already recorded what was eventually to become the most famous Mellotron performance of all time, the introduction to ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’, but the band that deserves greatest credit for bringing the instrument to the world’s attention was The Moody Blues, whose hit ‘Nights in White Satin’ was perhaps the first to bridge the gap between ‘beat’ music and classical orchestration.
In 1968, a smaller and cheaper (£871) Mellotron appeared. Called the Model 300, this dispensed with one of the keyboards and the internal speakers, and adopted a new tape format with redesigned motors and electronics. Bands such as Barclay James Harvest and Gentle Giant were influential exponents of the new instrument but, unfortunately, it was again unreliable: its mechanism would become charged with static electricity, and its tapes were then prone to wrapping themselves around the large drums that formed part of the sound selection mechanism.
Mellotron M300
Two years later, the Mark 2 and Model 300 made way for an even cheaper instrument – the Model 400. Costing just £795, this was smaller and lighter than any previous model, and its release presaged an explosion in the number of players using Mellotrons. But it was in the genre of progressive rock that the new keyboard became best known, and the huge popularity of bands such as Genesis and Yes was due in no small part to the haunting sounds of its violins, choirs and flutes. It was the heyday of ‘prog’ and audiences loved Mellotrons, but many keyboard players disliked them intensely. Keith Emerson threw his into an orchestra pit, and Rick Wakeman was quoted as saying that there wasn’t a computer known that had enough memory to record everything that he disliked about them.
Mellotron M400
In 1974, a fan approached Wakeman and asked whether he would be interested in a keyboard that was lighter and more reliable than a Mellotron, had no eight-second limit, and used 8-track tapes to produce a very similar sound. The fan was Dave Biro, and his instrument was the prototype of the short-lived Birotron. Wakeman was intrigued, and plunged a significant amount of money into its development. Unfortunately, a significant technical oversight had doomed the design from the start so, despite building a handful of machines, Birotronics folded in 1979.
Birotron
A year earlier, Galanti had built a keyboard that, instead of using tapes to replay the sounds, used optical discs similar to those developed for Mattel’s Optigan (Optical Organ). Called the Chilton Talentmaker, this was withdrawn from sale when Mattel threatened to sue the manufacturer for patent infringement. Two years later, Mattel decided to develop its own, advanced disc player for professional use. This evolved into the Vako Orchestron, another instrument designed specifically to replace the Mellotron. Established by Dave van Koevering (formerly of Moog Music) Vako Synthesizers Inc. started building a range of models in 1975, but they were commercial flops and, despite being used briefly by Yes and Kraftwerk, quickly disappeared.
Optigan
The final Mellotron also appeared in 1975. This was the Mark V, which was essentially two Model 400s in a single case. But in 1976, the bubble burst. The advent of cheap string machines and polyphonic synthesisers made it simple for keyboard players to obtain lush, orchestral textures, and the birth of punk rock meant that most of them no longer wanted to. Worse was to follow. When, in 1977, Mellotronics’ US distributor collapsed while owing it a large sum of money, Mellotronics was unable to meet its financial obligations, and was liquidated.
Happily, Bradmatic – now known as Streetly Electronics – survived, and was able to continue manufacturing. However, they couldn’t call their instruments Mellotrons because the name had been sold along with the physical assets of Mellotronics Ltd. Another name was needed, and thus the Novatrons were born. There were four of these: the Model 400SM, the 400FX, the Mark V, and the T550, but only the T550 was a new product, the others being re-badged Mellotrons. (Manuals of the era stated that, “we are no longer able to use the name Mellotron” and asked owners to “substitute the new name Novatron in its place when reading this manual”.)