OffsetGuitars.com

I’ve been looking at these lately since they’re priced at $950. I’m a total keyboard beginner but I know I would be obsessed enough with a mellotron that I would learn and play it a lot. Strawberry Fields Forever is my favorite song and I love a lot of mellotron sounds. Anyway I’ve looked at the mini off and on, but given my skill level, I don’t want to drop $2,000 on one. Does anyone have any opinions on the micro? Is a two octave keyboard a good place to start for a beginner, and most importantly could I learn to play Strawberry Fields Forever on it?

If you are just wanting to experiment and try something our before really diving in you might consider software first:

https://www.gforcesoftware.com/products/m-tron-pro

An inexpensive keyboard with MIDI connectivity and a MIDI in and out cable and you are ready to go. I'll bet that you would be under $300 even if you had to buy the keyboard.

As a keyboard player, I would say you can't do a lot with only two octaves. If I was recording tracks and wanted to add some stringy flavor then sure, two octaves would be fine but if I wanted to explore the potential of keyboards in general, then two octaves is pretty limiting.

It does depend a lot on what you are looking to do. If you want to add mellotron tracks to your projects, then this would be fine. If you really want to explore what keyboards and keyboard playing are about, then jthomas's suggestion is probably a wiser choice.

I just took a look at the mini and it has a 3 octave keyboard, at least the one I saw. Three octaves is still pretty limiting but that is enough to play the Strawberry Fields part (if the Youtube tutorial on the part is correct).

Thanks for the responses. In general I would be using it to color to things and maybe making stuff up. I appreciate the information.

Get a Waldorf Blofeld Keyboard. It can do very good Mellotrons and so much more and is priced at ~400 used.

Thanks for the tip. I’ll check it out.

jthomas wrote: ↑

Sat May 19, 2018 11:08 am

If you are just wanting to experiment and try something our before really diving in you might consider software first:

https://www.gforcesoftware.com/products/m-tron-pro

An inexpensive keyboard with MIDI connectivity and a MIDI in and out cable and you are ready to go. I'll bet that you would be under $300 even if you had to buy the keyboard.

This. You can get 61-key controllers for like $100-150. The good thing is that you can get a soft synth version of all the instruments your heart desires which 99% of the time sound the same than pretty much all hardware solutions.

The downside of course is that there is an immediacy to just turning on the thing and playing it which is difficult to replicate when a computer is involved.

I actually took my own advice and bought the M-tron rack extension from the Propellerhead Shop.

So much fun. I can easily see myself lost for hours playing with this (and yes, it does Strawberry Fields )

bluenote23 wrote: ↑

Sat May 19, 2018 11:26 am

I just took a look at the mini and it has a 3 octave keyboard, at least the one I saw. Three octaves is still pretty limiting but that is enough to play the Strawberry Fields part (if the Youtube tutorial on the part is correct).

With three octaves you're still getting a couple more keys, than Macca had to play Strawberry Fields on.

fortytwo wrote: ↑

Tue May 22, 2018 10:24 am

bluenote23 wrote: ↑

Sat May 19, 2018 11:26 am

I just took a look at the mini and it has a 3 octave keyboard, at least the one I saw. Three octaves is still pretty limiting but that is enough to play the Strawberry Fields part (if the Youtube tutorial on the part is correct).

With three octaves you're still getting a couple more keys, than Macca had to play Strawberry Fields on.

There is actually a mini and a micro. The mini is three octaves and $2000 and the micro is two octaves and $1000. Just FYI.

pocaloc wrote: ↑

Tue May 22, 2018 7:56 pm

fortytwo wrote: ↑

Tue May 22, 2018 10:24 am

bluenote23 wrote: ↑

Sat May 19, 2018 11:26 am

I just took a look at the mini and it has a 3 octave keyboard, at least the one I saw. Three octaves is still pretty limiting but that is enough to play the Strawberry Fields part (if the Youtube tutorial on the part is correct).

With three octaves you're still getting a couple more keys, than Macca had to play Strawberry Fields on.

There is actually a mini and a micro. The mini is three octaves and $2000 and the micro is two octaves and $1000. Just FYI.

I know. I'm doing a tour at the moment, with 2 mini's and a rack version, and we've talked about getting a micro as a spare.

For years I've used either M-Tron on the laptop or an E-Mu Vintage Keys unit. Last week I was finally able to use the Mellotron app on my iPad played from my Microbrute and it worked like a charm.

I own the micro, and probably the very first commercially available M4000D (serial number 10).
I'm also totally uncapable of playing keys, but the Mellotron is very forgiving in that regard

bluenote23 wrote: ↑

Sat May 19, 2018 11:26 am

I just took a look at the mini and it has a 3 octave keyboard, at least the one I saw. Three octaves is still pretty limiting but that is enough to play the Strawberry Fields part (if the Youtube tutorial on the part is correct).

nope, not limiting, a real Mellotron has only 37-keys, not a single key more. means: when you hit the octave switch on the micro to left, or right, there will be always missing notes on the lower side when octave down, and missing notes on the higher side when octave up.

I got my micro, that I can play the recorded parts and intros live, without hauling the big ass Mello to the stage, as I'm primarly a bass player.

Cool little Mellotron rkharper! Not to derail, but what's the bass? REALLY sweet looking

Shadoweclipse13 wrote: ↑

Wed May 30, 2018 1:00 am

Cool little Mellotron rkharper! Not to derail, but what's the bass? REALLY sweet looking

Serek Basses in Chicago
https://www.serekbasses.com