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Features
Dark
Matter
Paul Ward talks to Steve for Sound On Sound magazine about the making of the Darktown album The
Terpsichore of Twickenham Hackett's
Gear |
| The MK II Mellotron "One problem facing all musicians at one time or another is the matter of artistic control and the ability to realize a sound without having the facility to play the instrument responsible for that sound. Multi-track recording gave a single musician the ability to manipulate time by overdubbing a performance to create a multi instrument piece of music but, he still was faced with learning and playing those instruments himself." "In 1946, a clever man named Harry
Chamberlin saw a
solution to this problem. One day, while playing his home organ, Harry
got out a portable tape recorder to record his playing for some
friends. After having made the recording, the BIG IDEA struck him. He
thought, "if I can make a recording of myself playing, why not
build a machine that plays recordings of these (and any other) sounds?".
Harry had seen the first sampler ...". "The Mark II has two 35 note keyboards. The tape under each key has three tracks on 3/8 inch wide tape. Six different stations on the tape with three tracks each means that each key can play 18 different sounds. The left hand keyboard is further broken down into two sections. The left side is loaded with rhythms and the right side contains accompaniment and fills. The right hand keyboard has 18 different lead instrument sounds." Taken from the Mellotron website. |
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For all things Mellotron, check out the The Mellotron website or the UK Mellotron Restoration Boys - "The nutters who managed to squeeze a MKII into Steve's underground bunker!!!".
From A Conversation with Steve Hackett
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The
Optigan Steve was very fond of the Optigan and in fact recorded a track around it entitled "Sentimental Instution". The machine saw active service around the world on many Hackett tours between 1977 and 1981 before retiring undefeated. He still has the machine he bought originally in the Seventies and he's even recently been threatening to use it on an album again! |
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