mellotron vs Birotron

Publius wrote: Did you know Rick Wakeman invented the Birotron along with famous ballpoint pen manufacturer, Lazslo Biro?

What exactly is it and it's sound. I've never even heard that it existed.

erik neuteboom wrote: A few years ago I visited Canada for 3 weeks and I was stunned by the great beer tradition from the micro breweries; Keith's India Pale Ale, Upper Canada Dark Ale, Maple Brown Rebelion Lager, Frank's Nut Brown Ale, Sleeman Honey Brown, Blanche De Chambly, Hart Old Finnegan's Ale and Quebec Maudite and Barkal (heavy guys!), what a beer heaven  !! I wrote an article for the Dutch Beer magazine PINT, they were very glad with it because it was unknown territory for most of them. At this moment Canadian beer is more and more on the shelves! By the way, thanks Moogtron, it was indeed not me but my computer who made the mistake ....

A mellotron and beer thread - oh happy day !

rockandrail wrote: There is no real symphonic progressive music without a mellotron

Well... actually there is no mellotron on any ELP record and all ELP albums are pretty prog (all right, Greg Lake played some mellotron onstage for a short time during the 1972 tour but they never used that instrument on record).

In any case, the Birotron sucks! IMO it sounds slightly better than those toy keyboards that usually are given to children as Christmas gifts. Tormato could have been a much stronger record had Rick Wakeman avoided the Birotron.

My vote goes for the mellotron.

 

Merci pour votre bière!

Comme ont dit au Québec,ça fait chaud au coeur en estie! Yes, the trappist beer like Duvel are very good.In Quebec, we have a couple of little brewery that are worth to drink too. My favorite beer,Boddington's, came from England (Manchester) .The commercial beer here like Labatt and Molson are not really my cup of tea. I also like the Heineken beer from your beautiful country, the Netherlands.That brand is widely available here in Québec.

Thanks Erik for your info on David Bowie German tv broadcast, I will check that. Concerts with Chamberlin(or mellotron) are too rare!

 

 

Type error: Qu'est ce que tu veux boire? Bierre trappiste!!

Kineto-Zetetics wrote:  However, for solo intruments (e.g. Cello) give me the Chamberlin every time.

Yes, I agree with you. The Chamberlin had a better sound than the mellotron but it's a very fragile machine.Mr. Harry Chamberlin made his machines by hand and they are not as standard as the mellotron(even if the mellotron are very different from one to another). One famous owner is David Bowie who brought it during an US tour near 1974-1975. He use it on a lot on his recordings like Lodger and Scary Monsters. On the song "Ashes to ashes" you can hear 3 violins sound that are the same as the mellotron but it's a Chamberlin because the mellotron take the Chamberlin sound for the 3 violons.If you want a killer Chamberlin album try Neil Merryweather-Space Rangers (1974). It's more hard-rock than prog but it's very good (I think it's only available in vinyl).But it's very good for the Chamberlin.Another user, more recent and more pop, is Fionna Apple on her debut Tidal. The Chamberlin is featured on almost every tracks.

 

And thanks to Mr.Erik for your warm appreciation and encouragement for my new musical project. It's always a pleasure chatting and sharing informations with you.

Edited by pierreolivier

Has to be the Mellotron for me. It is one of the sounds that defines prog.

Always having been a 'Tron fanatic, but not having the room, funds or patience to buy and service the real thing, I went for the G-Force M-Tron VST plug in, and mighty fine it is too. Only about £30 and comes with about 15 of the classic tape banks including the "holy trinity" of strings, choir and flutes.

pierreolivier wrote: I vote for the mellotron for sure, as a owner of this wonderful instrument. The Birotron is a very underground machine only used by Wakeman(who finance the instrument) and Earthstar. The sound of the Birotron is very thin compare to the lush sound of the mellotron. Just listen to the strings in "Don't kill the whale". The tapes in the Birotron are the same as those 70's 8 tracks cassette and they are very thin, and have 8 tracks on a little strip of tape. The tape in the mellotron are a lot larger (1/4 of inch.) and are only 3 tracks in the majority of the mellotrons models (the only exception is the M300 where the tapes are thinner, this model is used by Barclay James Harvest).All the others models used 1/4 inch. tapes. The Birotron ,IMO have more in common with the Orchestron,an instrument that uses transparent plastic discs instead of tape( the orchestron is used by Steve Hackett and Kraftwerk). You can play as long as you want but the sound is pretty thin indeed compared to the mellotron sound.

Interesting, I knew Wakeman had financed the Birotron and it had been used on Tormato. I agree the sound is very thin, not lush like the mellotron. I read that Wakeman (amongst others) had problems using the mellortron on stage because I assume the tapes don't stand up to being in a machine that's lugged around by roadies, and all that heat, humidity etc. That was one of his reasons for switching to the birotron.

I'd vote for the wonderful sound of the Mellotron.

Many famous bands have used the Mellotron in their music, so I'll go with it.

el böthy wrote: Could you give me an example of Birotron please??? I didnt know that there was a keyboard with that name!

same here...never heard of it