72 Producer’s Edge Magazine Fall Winter

Chamber Music

In 1952 Harry Chamberlin produced an

instrument that played back 8 second

long bits of tape when triggered by a

keyboard. The tape didn’t loop, but was

reset back to its starting point when the

key was raised. Bill Fransen, a company

employee and sales rep improved

the design with the help of Melody

Electronics and produced the Mellotron

Mark-I. Development and production

continued throughout the 60s’and

into the early 70s’. The most popular

version of the Mellotron is the highly

recognizable white M-400 [produced

up until 1986!] followed by the ultimate

incarnation the Mark-V. Eventually

the Mellotron sound was upstaged by

the new analogs from Moog and ARP.

Perhaps the most recognizable usage

was in The Beatles “Strawberry Fields

Forever” but you can find the Mellotron

featured in songs by Marvin Gaye, The

Bee Gees, The Rolling Stones, Pink

Floyd, David Bowie [“Space Oddity”]

and many, many others. The strings,

particularly the violins were utilized

for their characteristic haunting and

emotional undertone.

The Recognizer

Those familiar with the current Sample

series will be right at home with the

GUI. IK has opted for a rusty and

decayed look to match the lo-fi nature

of the samples. As always the Browser

eats up most of the screen-estate so

it’s pretty obvious you are going to

be using combis and fashioning your

own layered instruments. Below the

browser are the PART controls.

Range as in key range and velocity

controls - mostly useful for creating

splits and layers. Synth decides how

the engine will manipulate the samples.

Re-sampling works like a traditional

sampler and changes both the tempo

IK Multimedia SampleTron

WIN/Mac Standalone VST, RTAS, AU

269 USD

L

ast quarter we took a look at IK Multimedia SampleMoog which brought

us a fresh software ROMpler option for adding the Moog sound to your

production. Even the folks over at Moog music appreciated the results.

SampleTron presents another reviewer’s paradox. How do you go about

evaluating the authenticity and faithfulness of a product that is powered by

samples from…a sampler. Since the software SampleTron is based on

the hardware Mellotron, perhaps we should start there.

73 Producer’s Edge Magazine Fall Winter

and pitch and offers the most transparent results. (PS/TS) Pitch

Shift Time Stretch separates the controls for pitch and tempo and

allow independent adjustments to each. This is best used to match

the tempo of the internal loops. This allows for the manipulation

of an acoustic instruments timbre as well. You have Filters and

the ADSR which is located in the Envelope Controls. Velocity you

would tailor to your playing style.

The Multi-effects unit is comprised of 32 effects you will select for

3 of the 4 available slots. The first slot is hard wired for EQ and

Compression. All effect controls are MIDI-learnable. Effects of note

are the Lo-Fi, which trashes the sound completely. Phonograph

mixes in the pops, crackles and other vinyl artifacts. Crusher for

distortion and Slicer for turntable fader style drop outs.

Master Control Program

You will want to spend some time exploring the Part controls

and experimenting with the different engines. In just about

every case, the default settings were preferred, but I found

switching the synth engine type increased the tape artifacts and

the lo-fi character of the instruments. A nice touch is the effects

run independent of the instrument. Just selecting phonograph

as an effect brings on the hiss and crackle which I immediately

sampled to use with other tracks. Did I say too much there.

One feature of the original Trons was loops of music. They

played for 8 seconds and a performance was based on triggering

these loops in succession to create a seamless composition. It feels

like a cross between a key-mapped workflow from

a standard sampler and a sample-chop arranger.

On the surface these may seem like throwaway

presets or a nod to days and sounds long gone by,

but consider approaching these banks creatively

in a performance manner and you will unlock the

potential. Enough said.

My User wants me

It ships with over 600 presets from 17 Mellotrons,

Chamberlins and other tron family machines. So how

does it sound. Retro, vintage, crusty and funky. If

you have an understanding of the original machines

and the lo-fi coloring of the sound, then you will

appreciate the great lengths IK Multimedia has gone

to while preserving the nature while embracing the

future. It is quite an achievement to amass these

samples from such a diverse set of instruments

(many needing restoration) and present them in

an easily accessible manner to both the Mellotron

enthusiast and producer looking to add vinyl-styled

instruments to their studio. If you want clean and

polished tones that require very light processing

and/or layering, stick with SampleTank 2. If you are

a producer who uses samples and struggles to find

additional sounds to sit next to the vinyl snippets then

this is a key product.