The link: www.gforcesoftware.com/products/alex-ball-artist-expansion/

@eugenecanady5452

2 жыл бұрын

looks like a decent sale on the collection. i'm in.

@T.H.W.O.T.H

2 жыл бұрын

Nice work if you can get it! :)

Today I realized a Mellotron was a giant version of Kontakt with lo-fi effects built in to every key. Mind blown.

Finally something new. I love my M-Tron but typically it's for that King Crimson string sound. But this is the first time I've heard of anyone recording unique sounds. Amazing job Alex, now I'll go get my wallet! (...to the sound of me running upstairs to "WAY OUT WEST") 😂

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Haha! Picturing you with your spurs on running up the stairs. 🤠

It truly is so crazy to hear modern recordings being tron'd. It really goes to show how the processing makes "that" sound happen. Congrats on this partnership, Alex!

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

On a personal note, it's handy to have samples of my own instruments that have been processed like this. Not easy to do with digital effects and EQ.

@gasolineandwine

2 жыл бұрын

@@AlexBallMusic I'm sure that having the abilty to A-B them could be useful to reverse engineer a process to do so!

I trust you were wearing a white lab coat when doing the recording. This is the too often forgotten but absolutely essential component of any sixties record.

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Lab coat, thick rimmed spectacles, clipboard.

@Death_By_Media

2 жыл бұрын

@@AlexBallMusic coffee cup and one leaky pen poking through the pocket protector

@simonhodgetts6530

2 жыл бұрын

And a pipe. You must have a pipe.

@compfox

2 жыл бұрын

@@Death_By_Media And a pen behind your ear.

@brianhotaling5849

2 жыл бұрын

What about those buff colored lab coat that tradesmen wore?

I am completely blown away with a sounds from melotron, an instrument I have not even heard of. What an awesome invention which has a charm to this day.

All the content Alex Ball creates is pure platinum

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you!

@yotest3697

2 жыл бұрын

@@AlexBallMusic thank you for creating videos not only informative but also entertaining. You have excellent tracks, I love to listen those short songs you include in your videos

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

@@yotest3697 Much appreciated!

@cortical1

2 жыл бұрын

@@yotest3697 This.☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻

@MmeDesgranges

2 жыл бұрын

A little known secret is that some of the material is authored by other contributors ... for example Geert Van Schlänger

The fuzzy and warm distortions of the recorded acoustic samples give me life.

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Beautiful aren't they! Sound totally and utterly different to the originals.

I love every thing about the melllotron. My new favourite instrument.

Mike Pinder of the Moody Blues actually worked at the Mellotron factory for a year before joing the band. He knew the inner workings and knew how to fix the problems when they popped up. The Moodies put out 7 platinum albums with their famous etheric sounding tunes.

Bloody hell. Mate, you’ve blown my mind. This is flippin’ excellent and if you were already in high regard now you’re in orbit!! Nice work. What a channel 👍🏻

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Cheers Alistair!

That funk track really shines with the raw melotron vibe. It make the analogue synth sound even more analogue.

so cool!!!!

@hejsel7360

2 жыл бұрын

Please buy a Mellotron Doctor Mix!!!

@darrenhirst9900

2 жыл бұрын

Stop posting comments and make videos.

@hejsel7360

2 жыл бұрын

@@darrenhirst9900 why?

@darrenhirst9900

2 жыл бұрын

@@hejsel7360 Its a joke for Doctor Mix.

It’s almost uncanny the relationship between this Mellotron and say the very collected Casio SK-1, or a sampler that doesn’t ‘time-stretch’ like an Akai S-20. The ‘multi-Timbre-alaty’ of these samples and their constant pitch and speed per key, along with the exponential relationships of those motors, as up one octave gives you likely double the tape speed, so up one octave pitch-wise plays in half the time. It has an effect on the samples similar to how a slide rule treats numbers and that’s really fun.

You, Alex, are the sonic hero in my books!

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks!

We absolutely LOVE Mellotron! We use a vintage M400 (with 4 different tape frames) on our recordings. Along with 3 digital Mellotrons (with 5 different sound cards) many Mellotron apps. You can never have too much Mellotron.

Am I the only one who absolutely loves the bits of wow and flutter presented?

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Got to love some wobbly wibble!

Alex this is top tier information as always but I must say this is some of your best music to date. Really good compositions and I hope they're on streaming services!

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks Jack!

An immense amount of work must have gone into this video, but the sound you produce makes it so worth it. Great work Alex.

Amazing work!! Sounds beautiful! Well done Alex and G-Force!

Fascinating episode. I never saw those "rhythms" coming having imagined the Mellotron as essentially 30+ "samples" of the same single sound, pitched. But sure, makes sense to record more complex stuff on each tape as well. Neat.

I'm glad to see your expansion included in M-Tron Pro Complete! Congrats, Alex! I'm very happy for you!

Alex, your videos are such a credit to the world of music exploration on KZread. Thanks for all the amazing work you do in bringing these brilliant presentations to the rest of us.

This is so pretty to listen to. Spectacular work on this, Alex.

"Do not use with this lid open" - you madlads!

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

I like to live dangerously.

@ChrisSmout

2 жыл бұрын

​@@AlexBallMusic Alex "Danger" Ball has a nice ring to it. Congratulations on 100K subscribers, well deserved!

@SpikesStudio3

2 жыл бұрын

Chris Smout lol "DangerBall"

I liked the sounds in isolation with no processing best, they sound like intros to 70s records as is! I'd love to someday play a Mellotron, actually the whole Emerson/Wakeman set up at once would be mandatory, Moog, B3 and Mellotron

@har234908234

2 жыл бұрын

Mellotron not really an Emerson thing... but I agree with the sentiment. Rachel Flowers did Emo's modular/B3 and I was a little envious!

@davetbassbos

2 жыл бұрын

@@har234908234 I could have sworn Jerusalem had trumpets and strings, but I'm listening to it now and sounds like just Moog and organ I think? Credit to him I guess!

The M-Tron is still the only VST "soft synth" I've ever owned! Bought it in 2008.

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Must have!

Very creative, Alex! Thanks for using your talents to keep these iconic instruments in the public consciousness while innovating new styles with them. Top shelf work...

Lucky You!! What a fun and amazing project!! Great work as always!!

Superb script that feels exactly like an organic stream of answers to the “what if I…” questions that always happen when meeting a new instrument. I had just begun daydreaming about split keyboard parts when the rhythm/accompaniment part came up. I’d love to see a hurdy gurdy’s low drones and melody tones make their way to the Mellotron!

@glenesis

2 жыл бұрын

Great idea!

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

The mind boggles at the possible things that could be tron'd. I enjoyed the DX7 as it's such a bizarre culture clash.

@glenesis

2 жыл бұрын

@@AlexBallMusic I agree! It made me happy to see the DX7 made it in 😂🤘 The mind boggles, indeed! We both need SkeleTrons. That's my dream sampler rig!

Congrats Alex, this is excellent! Enjoyed watching that and nice to see spreading your wings :)

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks Ian. Nice to do different things and this was a no brainer. What an opportunity!

Congratulations Alex - a wonderful experience, I imagine. The results are stunning 😊...

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks Michael.

This was an instant buy, before watching the video. 😅 Incredible work, Alex. Stunning work on all of these tapes.

Congratulations on this. It was interesting to hear this week on Sonic Talk Dave Spiers say how much he really loves you and we can see why. More importantly congratulations on 100k subscribers. Brilliant and totally deserved. Keep on keeping on!!

Just ordered your expansion pack. Love this!

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Awesome! Thanks so much.

Stonking! This is so very cool! I always wondered about the logistics of making tapes for the Mellotron. I can't wait to mess about with this on the M-Tron

Wonderful Hill Street Bluesy piano at 7:24! Thanks as always, Alex!

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

That was what I was hoping for!

Congrats on 100k subs. Was about time. Thank you for all that outstanding, briliantly schlenging content.

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Cheers! An overnight success after just five solid years of uploading. 😉

7:22 love that little piano riff. makes me want to listen to 70s ballads.

This is in my opinion the best MTron expansion. Keep these coming

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks very much!

YES!! My favorite vintage synth KZreadr not only owns a mellotron, but is making a library with it?!

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

The mellotron isn't at my studio, but it was a must to film some stuff with it.

Absolutely sublime Alex! 🙌👂🤠😎🧐😃

This is so cool - and nuts! Thanks for sharing this!

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Cheers!

Superb Alex, dude your work is immortal! also, cheers to 100k subs!

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks John-Henry, much appreciated.

I loved this video! Thanks for sharing it. I've seen one of these before but had no idea what was going on under the hood.

Given the mechanical quirkyness of the Mellotron I am always surprised how good it works.

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

It's a mad thing, yeah.

Your new sound library sounds beauts!! Somehow very un-mellotron-y but very much in its tradition.

These are the sounds that take me to all of my happy places! 😎

That demo music reminded me of Mark Mothersbaugh's Sims 2 OST! Extremely cool 🎶 Good job!

Talking about Mellotron I absolutely adore that choir sound. It has that really epic and huge quality to it that when used in a right context is really effective.

@juxty3102

2 жыл бұрын

I think the choir sound was used on OMD's Maid or Orleans.

That TRon’d Fast Funk fit the vibe just right. Congratulations on that collaboration mane!

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Cheers!

Always an interesting journey with lots of musical skill and theory...and history. ty

Congrats on 100k subscribers!!

great work as usual - I can't wait to get this M-Tron Pro pack, I have the rest of the set already :-)

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Great! Thank you.

Footastic! Foot has several GF products starting with the original ImpOSCar (ver1) VST back in 2005. Mistakenly thought GF stood for Great Foot. Nevertheless, always solid software. Glad you're part of the team. Your samples are a toe-riffic accessory and this video nailed the process.

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Phalanx very much, nice of you to talus.

Love the acoustics and strings. Being a fiddle player, they’re Lo-fi-tastic. Well done.

Amazing how that tron’d sound takes the vibe right back to the 70’s, or was it the 60’s 🤔. In any case, another fascinating video, Alex - thank you!

You're a genius, you are... dunno how you do it! Love you loads, Alex! Thanks so much for your amazing videos!

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks Andrew! PS - I think I poked your Pro~One the other week. Glad it's back to you now.

These sound so rad! As a long time M-Tron user, getting these just made me love it even more. This rules.

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Cheers!

You're a gem, sir! Nice choices you've made. What an amazing, unique opportunity! I need this expansion :) I grabbed the IK Sampletron last weekend because it lets you load user samples, and processes them through their virtual (fake) Tron hardware, and I've been having fun feeding that with my mountain of hardware synths, but I prefer your solution!! 🔥✋💛🏆🥂 Ace indeed!!

Brilliant as always!

8:42 Night Like This - I recognise this from a song used in the film Mirrormask! This is really interesting, Alex. M-Tron is on my list of things to get at some point. I love GeForce's products!

I can’t even lie, ball this is your best demonstration track of all time (besides the movie score era stuff)

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you!

Fantastic work as usual Alex. That funk tune was something I'm sure Geert would have been proud of.

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Geert was a ghost writer.

You really make a difference to the musical day

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Ah thanks!

You forgot Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson too! Trent Reznor actually owns the Mellotron that John Lennon once owned. It was gifted to him from Jimmy Iovine. Reznor used that same exact Mellotron while recording at the old Sharon Tate house (Le Pig Studios) in LA during the early 90s. Things really came full circle here when you think about it. Considering the Beatles (and that mellotron's) influence on Charles Manson, which led to the murders that occurred at that same very house. 🗡☠🤔 Btw this video was really awesome, I liked what you had done! I use G-force too for my Mellotron sounds!

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Yeah, I said "and goodness knows how many others" which covered all the many artists who have used it, but Trent's story is a weirdly specific (and spooky) one. Good point.

Wow Well Done!!!!! You can see the Mellotron and 2600 Arp being used by Ronald Bell on the song Summer Madness by Kool and the Gang on Soul Train. It’s an Awesome Song, they were just kids. I run M-Tron, I love the strings, it a Must to have an Mellotron, if you go to the preset sounds on the GF Oddity 2, page down, or go to, “Bite The Hand Duo”, this will give you the Arp sound for the song. Thank You Again Sitrukain……..

Wow, that MTRON might just nail the tape sound better than any plugin out there! Awesome demo as always btw, makes me want to break out the MTRON tonight. :)

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Right there for that wobbly old sound, yeah!

Congrats on 100,000 subs!

As a gear tech Ive always wanted to see inside a mellotron, closest I got was the one at the R&R Hall of fame..... Great channel, Thanks!

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Quite the mad contraption. Great to get that footage back from Streetly.

Brilliantly mental. Staggering amount of dedication. Despite what must have been super-humanly challenging, I think you may have hit upon the perfect retro modern hybrid solution to every gear cave nerd’s endlessly insatiable dreams. Too awesome for there not to be a volume 2?

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks! Yes, was too good an opportunity to miss. Volume 2 - maybe...

Yes!!! A VIDEO ABOUT MY FAVOURITE INSTRUMENT

With wringing hands of fawning groveldom, I humbly beg to correct a pronunciation. The tapes pass over a Capstan, but given that Strymon have called their digital modelling tape delay pedal 'El Capistan' it's easy to have a lip slip. ( backs out, bowing) Great informative video, as per.

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

I totally mispronounced it by habit. Too much time on the old Strymon. I also spelt balalaika incorrectly. Or should that be balalalalalalaika?

@LFOVCF

2 жыл бұрын

@@AlexBallMusic I balalaika that reply

funking funky at the end

Really nice, had me checking whether my Mankini Memotron would be able to use them but it seems only compatible with the original M-Tron format, not the Pro. Hey ho, fab work sir!

Notoriously delicate and temperamental instruments, Mellotrons. But that's part of their charm.

@hamstring6792

2 жыл бұрын

Not at all. They're very reliable and require very little maintenance.

Wow! Fantastic alex. Love the way Brian Jones used this on We Love You

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Hey Martyn! Yeah, so many classic recordings feature old Mr Mellotron. The way they swell it in with the vocals on that track really adds to the psychedelic vibes.

@martynpick1979

2 жыл бұрын

​@@AlexBallMusic it would be wonderful to hit the sweet spot of Brians relaxed attitude at work in this promo...kzread.info/dash/bejne/eZ2Jxs2tZ6q0gNY.html

I've always like the idea of the one with the spinning magnetic (bakelite? with iron filings?) disks better. Thought it should come with blank "grind your own sounds" disks.

Hey here's a link to your samples played back on my phone recorded with... I'M KIDDING - Great stuff Alex!

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

😂

Oh my goodness, I was reading up on how to ‘Tron-ify sounds just this morning, and Alex came to the rescue!

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Small world!

Just brilliant 👌👌

Groovy, man!

Stunning

Now that was FUN!

Most excellent indeed Alex! I usually avoid virtual instruments (partly because my PCs are always struggling) but really must get M-Tron some time soon. Love the library music sonic stylings here! BTW, it's capstan, not capistan, that's the Strymon take, unless you were just "winding" us up...

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks Ned, hope you give it a whirl. "Capistan" was indeed a slip, well spotted. I'm so used to using the El Capistan that I went and said it. Whoops.

@RayyMusik

2 жыл бұрын

So Capistan isn‘t a former Soviet republic?

Wow! Amazing!

Nice Captures the tone and artifacts of the instrument like warble, wow flutter, hiss, etc. Trivial for digital playback to change tracks, speed, tone on the fly from the captures. Make a Library of captures of the same tapes played on different mellotron models

awesome idea!

Good stuff!

This is crazy good!

There is also something called the "Vox Humana" which was used on one of James Taylor's albums. It was a vocal chorus voicing machine.

I've wanted a melotron for so long.

0:09 I thought he started singing. 😂

@AJL200

2 жыл бұрын

me too

Lars Fredrik Frøislie is probably my favorite "modern" Mellotron player.

Awesome! Of course the tron'd versions still sound kinda pristine, which is good in this case. Over time the tapes misalign and drift in and out, you get funny attack noises caused by scrape flutter (that's how it's actually called LOL) and pitch issues, drop outs etc. and all this is part of the 'Tron magic. I can't quite put my finger on it why, but there is a sweet spot between lo fi and a total mess, where the 'Tron sounds absolutely mesmerizing. Great video as always and top notch work as always!

@hamstring6792

2 жыл бұрын

I've never had any of those problems with any of my Mellotrons.

@truefilm6991

2 жыл бұрын

@@hamstring6792 that means they were/are of good quality and you didn't beat them to death on the road. Tony Banks for example had a lot of problems with his M400s, namely during the 1978 tour, so I read.

@hamstring6792

2 жыл бұрын

@@truefilm6991 That's exactly right. There was a lot of Mellotron abuse back in those days. You can bet guitarists didn't treat their guitars like keyboardists and roadies treated Mellotrons.

@truefilm6991

2 жыл бұрын

@@hamstring6792 yeah unfortunately... Well I always treat my keyboards very carefully.

Ah the tron ... true magical vintage . It and the OB 8 voice are the pinnacle of vintage instruments .

Just brilliant! :-)

What's better than checking the latest cool thing Alex is doing? That Alex is getting PAID for doing the cool thing! Congrats on your expansion pack, Alex!

Is there any device you can’t make sound excellent Alex?! Excellent video!

The Pathe film featuring David Nixon demonstrating it is a hoot

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

The original thought was to do a spoof of that but I'd need a mkI Mellotron with the rhythms for the gags.