How to use Mellotron samples in your music
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- Опубліковано 25 лип 2024
- A practical look at how to use Mellotron sounds in your productions using the libraries made by myself and Hainbach and GForce Software's new M-TRON Select player.
I write the bones of a song and then create the arrangement with Tron sounds.
If you want the background of how these sounds were Tronned, then check out my original video: • Making a Mellotron Lib...
0:00 Intro
0:54 Working on Verse 1
2:34 Working on Chorus 1
4:39 Working on Verse 2
5:20 Working on Chorus 2
6:19 Final Result
9:30 Summary of Points
Hainbach pack:
www.gforcesoftware.com/produc...
My pack:
www.gforcesoftware.com/produc...
The link would help: www.gforcesoftware.com/products/alex-ball-artist-expansion/
Download the song: alexball.bandcamp.com/track/sunny-afternoon
Masterfully crafted music. Just lovely Alex.
🤜🤛
Get a room, you two. No seriously. Get a room and make more music together. 😍
What a great composition! With the vocals and backing vocals I thought this was an unreleased ELO song. Loving it
I thought the same thing and started to question my brain. ELO.. weren’t they older? and a lot more people?
Great song!
Nissen Shmilsson
My thoughts as well - very ELO 🙂
As if it was missing from or recorded for Out of the Blue with a touch of Kokomo by the Beach Boys.
I was thinking the very same thing, I don't know whether its the chords or the instrument choice or what, but defo a heavy ELO / Beatles influence on this one, I keep replaying it, I love it! Worthy or a release on its own I would say!
Usched by Schtink Floyd, the Peetles, David Blowie and Rim Crimschon.
Geert, how I misch you, I misch you schooooooo much!!! Can you ashk Alex if he vill let you make schome more videosch????
I have had 'Strawberry Fields Forever' going around my head for several days now. This was strangely reminiscent of that (probably those Mellotron flutes)!
One note on those flutes and there it is!
Friendly reminder to anyone discovering this channel to go watch Alex's full length documentaries
Cheers. Hopefully the Roland one will roll over 1 million views this year. Creeping its way towards the line.
Should be at 10 millions already ! >_
The ARP one is also a bit spesh. I'm going to have to listen to it again soon, this time through headphones.
Pro: Getting inspired to try out all the tricks!
Con: Getting depressed after realising that Alex's throw-away gear demo tunes surpass anything we could ever do.
Thank you. I'm sure you guys could all wipe the floor with this, you're too humble.
As a Mellotron fan it's wonderful to see something like this!
We absolutely LOVE and use Mellotron as often as possible in our recordings, that can be heard on our UA-cam channel. We have a vintage M400 with 4 tape frames, 2 Mellotron Micro's, an M4000D with 5 sound cards and have also used several Mellotron apps for iPad and iPhone. Our philosophy is... You can never have too much Mellotron!
This guy has a deep bench of skills. Brilliant job!
great singing and harmonies. reminds me so much on great records from the 60s
Cheers!
Holy crap, that was really a great song. Nice chord progressions and harmonies. It did remind me of Kokomo from the Beach Boys or ELO. Awesome man!
Cheers!
Very cool! And Ray Harryhausen's "Little Red Riding Hood" animation from 1949 was a pleasant "vintage" addition.
I would pay real paper money for this song. It's like the best Beach Boys song from 1971 that the High Llamas or Explorers Club never did. Genius.
Excellent video as always but duuuuude, this song give me chills because how beautiful it sounds, hope you release it.
Thanks Alec, I'll stick it on the old Bandcamp soon.
Wow, this sounds awesome, a really seroiusly produced song.
Thanks!
Definite Lightning Seeds vibes here. This was great. Please don't ever stop.
Wonderful!!!!! Love you for THIS!!!!! I was looking at Kool and the Gang on Soul Train, you can see they are using the Arp 2600 and the Mellotron on the song Summer Madness.
Very interesting video Alex, fascinating to see how you approach music. And of course, your gear collection is fantastic!
Thanks!
Oh man. That is one heck of a good song! And the arrangement walk-through was inspiring, and apposite.
Uplifting and so very pretty. Gorgeous vocal harmonies as ever, Alex. Thank you for inspiring us lesser musicians!
Nice vocal harmonies
Cheers! Always partial a spot of harmonisation.
I liked this video twice! The composition and the whole production process is so fun to watch! Great melodies! Invokes so many emotions ❤
The torquoise DI you put in the left, just to complete the symmetry of the picture is making me very happy. Also enjoying your playingstyle. Cheers to you! :)
love your vocal with harmony's, reminds me of ELO , love it and thank you for your TIME :-)
It's what i thought.
Now that's jaunty. Thanks for this. I love these types of throwback chord progressions and vocal harmonies, yo
Wow, absolutely incredible. I always enjoy your vids but this one gave the goosebumps. Great work, Alex!
Thanks Justin!
I love seeing how you write these. Keep doing that!!!
Thanks!
Wow! What a fantastic tune! I always associated the mellotron with Popol Vuh or King Crimson. You've recontextualized the whole sound for me. In the beginning your song was giving me Beatles retro vibes (I'm thinking "Honey Pie" from The White Album). Then it started to get kind of Jeff Lynne on me. Then...it became pure Alex Ball. IMHO this is DEFINITELY a keeper for your next album. Well done old chap! Simply spiffing! What-what?
Cheers Wing! Yes, anything Tron is so evocative.
Thanks old bean.
Owning a large collection of vintage electronic instruments, I finish every day with a solid hour or two of UA-cam videos from the “likely suspects” on vintage synths, drum machines, etc. (guys all of which I respect and admire). Naturally, it was only a matter of time to discover your videos and your work, so I subscribed immediately. You never disappoint and I think your videos are actually getting better and better. You bring ingredients others can’t, and clearly your talents go beyond everyone else’s.
That was a great song and now I’ll have to get the GForce MTron Pro Complete or the actual M4000D!
Amazing composition, I love it!
Thank you for all the hard work you put into your videos. Beautiful song too! Love it.
Thanks for tuning in!
Beautiful song. Congrats, Alex.
Great overview, and wonderful song!
Man..! That phaser hit with some heavy ELO vibes.
Well you can’t say Alex skimped on effort here. The amount time this must have taken is awesome.
Excellent as always.....
Thank you, I did work hard on this so that's nice to hear.
Really nice listen Alex. A vintage wall of sound mix.
Thansk William!
Perfecto mondo lovely stuff Alex.
This is just wonderful. Beaming with a smile and singing along by about 6min in 😍
Cheers Ed! Good to know.
Definitely hearing some Brian Wilson influence here 👍
Holy Ball, this is a fantastic song!
You always amaze me... ✨️ 💖
The tune reminds me a lot of Stackridge - and the Mellotron just adds to that effect
Jellyfish only did two albums, but if they should ever want to gift the fandom a third album, they don't even have to get back together - just get Alex Ball to do the whole thing.
That sounds awesome.
Knockout! The first video of yours I’ve seen (after the hainbach challenge). I’m so delighted to have discovered you. Fabulous song and library too. I adore the mellotron . Cheers. Lee
Thanks for stopping by!
I love the double vocals Alex. Please do more songs with them.
What did we learn from this exercise? Alex has mad skillz.
It's so weird that I've always loved the sounds of the Mellotron yet I've never used it in a production before.
This definitely inspired to give it a chance and I might have to check out that plugin with your sound library in it now!
Does wonders for run-of-the-mill arrangements. I'm probably being extreme in this video to make the point, but splashes of Mellotron along with non-tronned stuff is wonderful.
Wow first time hearing vocals in a production on a UA-cam gear channel. Super cool, super super cool 🎉🤟
Finally, an excuse to rewatch your amazing Mellotron video from months ago.
Stunning!
Cheers!
This is definitely one of my favourite plug-in plugs.
Throw a Theremin in there and you've got yourself a kick-ass Beach Boys ballad!
Yes, always find a use for them. The new MkII in particular.
Took me right back... but not quite... but yeah. Loved it! Great demo of the M-TRON :D
You are amazing, Alex!
Thanks Oscar!
amazing start to finish :)
Good to know, thanks!
Thanks for an entertaining video. I got the free MTron and Hainbach's samples recently. They are very cool.
Thanks Mark, glad you're enjoying them.
Instant 70s movie, very cool, I will check that out, thanks!
Alex, I love this song. I would prefer to arrange it differently for instrumentation, but the song is a pure beauty.
Man people like you and Marc Rebillet just throwing together solid music with seemingly such ease
Marc hits record and starts without even knowing what he's going to compose. Insane talent.
Instant 70s feeling. Very nice!
Talent in bucket loads. That's all I got. ♥️🙏
Its a sunny afternoon here :D I was swaying and bobbing to the song. Loved it :D
Sunny here too. Thank you!
I just got a Memotron for my studio. New ways of creativity suddenly open up 👍
I love the ukulele + guitartron vibe it reminds me of the Jon Brion way of approaching arrangement but having it's own identity.
Yes, that was the closely related Talentmaker. I accidentally stumbled upon that when I got the Kontakt library of it and remade it on my channel. It was my first ever video funnily enough.
I was going for that vibe here for sure, nice spot!
@@AlexBallMusic It's a great sound, very emotional and direct.
Afternoons in Britain are sunnier than they used to be. Great song! The Crumar blends very well.
Thank you! Yes, that thin string synth that just adds sheen and shine to everything.
brilliant!
Brilliant song and production! I wish I could get your help with my music!
When King Crimson put one of their M400s into Streetly Electronics for an overhaul many moons ago, someone there did a copy of the tapes onto 1/4 inch reel to reel before the refurb so that they could demonstrate the amazing improvement in sound quality to it's owners.
A studio engineer friend of mine who was a keyboard player knew someone there and got this tape, or a copy of it, and lent it to me sometime in the '80's, though I couldn't do very much with it.
It's a copy of each note for the Three Violins and the Mixed Brass, and they are pretty ropey and grungy to be honest - but they just have so much VIBE it's unbelievable.
I have transferred them onto an EMU 5000Ultra and have been using them over the last few months.
Reminds me of "Oasis - Half The World Away" and various Beatles tracks...great work and sound
Agree! Yup and yup... with some of the vocal harmonies reminiscent of Jeff Lynne/ELO.
Borrow chord IV from the parallel minor and...
Reminds me of early Pink Floyd aka Sid Barret- really like this. Fantastic stuff.
I thank you for you ALEX BALL. Oh and gforce are the shit!!!
Great song!
Thank you!
I love how Lo Fi the Mellotron sounds.
Excellent Alex. Thank you.
Such a nice song, very British, love it.
:)
Incredible! Very Harry Nilsson-like!
Cheers!
That could have been on ‘smile’ and it would have been a feature track. Superb.
Cheers!
Aside from all the technical brilliance, at the heart of it all is a really lovely tune. Top work.
So good! Had some bananamour vibes at some point
I absolutely love the Mellotron, so I absolutely loved the tune ❤❤❤
Great song :) reminds me of ELO
Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Now, how about a vid on the legendary Marshall Time Modulator (as famously used by Martin Hannett and The Edge)?
The song gives me Genesis debut album vibes (From Genesis to Revelation).. Such a criminally underrated album..
This might be the most nostalgic new thing I've ever experienced. Just wonderful.
4:25 Damn ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️!!!!!
I love everything about this.
Cheers!
Once more, you lighten the day with a nice composition and wonderful production.
How much time did you take to do all that (not including the mellotron sampling stuff)?
Cheers
You’re such an accomplished musician! I love your stuff. :)
Thank you so much!
This is a great fuckin' song, man! Thank you
Cheers!
Got me turn on my KingKorg, got a few Mellotron samples in it!
KingKorg - forgot that thing existed!
I could've totally seen this being in one of the first few LittleBigPlanet games. Love that vibe.
Love that score. I worked with Daniel Pemberton on a job once, really nice guy.
@@AlexBallMusic That's so cool! Glad to hear he was a good guy.
Nice harmonies! Busting out that vocal talent.
Multitracking hides a multitude of sins. 😉
Amazing song Alex. Get rid of the trash can snare in the last chorus and you’ve got a hit ;-)
Educational AND a nice song.
Another truly inspiring video/song combo Alex, you are the man! But when are you going to let Geert Van Schlanger back out to play??? We misch him!
Legit writing.
Thank you!
I noticed that unlike most gear reviewers and the like you also possess great songwriting skills. Is there anywhere we can listen to a complete catalogue of your works?
Quite incredible
Cheers