Sound library MANIKIN ELECTRONIC Vintage Collection 2

Once again, the Tron expert Klaus Hoffmann-Hoock selected the sounds from his huge library which consists of over one hundred tape frames. He carefully transferred them note by note with their original duration (no loops) directly from 43 different and well looked-after Trons.

Till Kopper kindly provided the rare Eminent 310 Unique Strings while the Hohner Clavinet D6 was made available by Jurgen Aus dem Moore. Thanks guys.

12 Violins

This mighty sound, occasionally called ‘16 Violins’ as well, is still an enigma. Nobody seems to remember who actually recorded these scarce strings. The hottest trace leads to the former concert pianist and „Resident Musical Director" of the early Barclay James Harvest, Robert John Godfrey, an ambivalent character of the seventies who became famous with his classic rock band THE ENID.

Hammond C3 (Slow Leslie) 02

Take a fat C3 organ, put a deep foot-pedal bass under each note, whisk the whole lot with a crunchy slow spinning tube-driven Leslie until it becomes a strong and hot Progrock organ dish, but without any transport problems or slipped discs.

Male Oh-Choir Custom 03

Since the early seventies, Mellotronics Ltd.® offered their customers the option to convert privately recorded sounds into the Tron’s own 3/8-inch triple track format and thread them in a tape frame. In this way the custom-made sonorously sounding ‘Male Oh-Choir’ could be used in a German studio.

Mkll Vibes (with vibrato) 04

Originally called ‘Vibraphone’, this jazzy Mkll sound did not only fascinate the “Jealous Guy“ John Lennon. The Moody Blues’ Mike Pinder charmed even slide guitar sounds out of the ‘Vibes’ by skilfully turning down the pitch knob before he actually depressed a key in order to then quickly pitch the motor speed up again to the tone pitch he wanted!

Moog Brass 05

The people at Mellotronics found out quite early that musicians were fascinated by the first fat Moog sounds. Though a synthesizer was wickedly expensive then, people kept raving about its seemingly unlimited possibilities. Long before the first Oberheims or Polymoogs appeared, the Tron’s powerful three oscillators driven (Mini) Moog Brass recording could be played polyphonically!

Orchestra 06

No one but Les Bradley, ‘Mr Mellotron’ himself, knows which secret ingredients were jumbled up in the most powerful orchestral brew-up the Tron ever produced. A combination of various strings, brass, choirs, Moog, woodwind and surely some others make for this jackhammer noise.

M 400 Mandolin

Interestingly enough, there were two mandolin recordings in the Tron’s library. Besides the famous ‘Violins’ the older, slightly duller Mkll mandolin version apparently (in spite of all denials) also derived from Harry Chamberlin’s library and might have been withdrawn due to some legal actions. For sure a mandolin is not a keyboard player’s dream instrument. But apart from striking up ‘O sole mio’ in the Capri sunset, the crystal-clear ‘M 400 Mandolin’ can produce stunning effects in combination with other instmments (Clavinet D6!).
07

Viola 08

Being a bit bigger and sounding deeper than a violin, the ‘Viola’ (with cello notes on the first five keys) found its way rather late into the Tron’s library. As a solo instmment with a bright and silvery sound, it can perfectly support other strings as well.

M 300 Trombone 09

The ill-fated M 300 Tron was built only sixty times. Hence this incredibly clean and precisely played trombone is extremely rare. Played polyphonically it provides a fat brass backing for your music but it can also be quite amazing when used as a solo instrument. The Dutch EARTH & FIRE proved it in their Progrock songs.

Clavinet D6 10

It does not need Stevie Wonder’s ‘Superstition’or Tina Turner’s ‘Nutbush City Limits’ to love the wiry sound of a Hohner D6. Essentially an electronically amplified clavichord with guitar-like strings, it still often appears in rock, funk, disco and reggae music. No, we did not forget the characteristic release sound at the note’s end when a yarn makes the string immediately stop vibrating.

Eminent 310 Unique Strings 8* 11

In 1976 another climax in electronic pop music’s history was reached with Jean-Michel Jarre’s ‘Oxygene’ album. His silky synthetic strings stemmed from a 1972 first built Dutch Eminent 310 Unique organ. Through delay and vibrato modulated sawtooth waves, it produces such an incredible violin sound that the Dutch makers decided in 1974 to build a separate string machine, the Solina String Ensemble, but which never quite reached the warm and soft as velvet sounds of its predecessor.

Eminent 310 Unique Strings 4’ 12

Ever since the release of his 1978 ‘Equinoxe’ album, Jarre’s floating Eminent 310 strings in combination with a ‘Small Stone Phaser’ had become his trademark. Now in the Memotron you can combine both ranges of this top sound and smoothly blend them. We also warmly recommend the Eminent 310 strings as perfect enrichment for ‘real’ Tron strings.