Gainstage
New member
This one surprised me, I had not been a huge fan of EH stuff in some time but they seem to be coming out with really interesting new ideas.
Anyway, I used be a guitar synth player last year and it was extremely complex and set up intensive w the hex pickup and all that. I spent the time on programming and headphone creation for the GR-55, an amazing unit to be sure. I ran two independent rigs melding the GR-55 synth sounds with my std guitar tones where they might fit and add to the over all ambiance and fullness.
A few months back I got into one of my gear changing modes wanting to get more simple and sold off my GR-55. I missed a lot of the tones I had worked out but I cannot handle the complex learning curve and programming work it took. Along comes this Mellotron mimic and I was skeptical as usual. EH really knows how to hype a pedal but it seems like that line had been the greater disappointment to me, after the newness factor wears off, they end up getting traded out or sold pretty often.
Tried to surmise through some of the demos what this puppy sounded like and trying to project if I could make use of it. What ultimately sold me on it was that video of the chap playing a version of Pagey's Rain Song, was quite beautiful and exactly what I was after.
I dropped the dime as one can always send things back if they do not ring the cow bell as planned. I was not expecting the moon from my prior experiences.
I read through the manual figuring out the controls and output options. Thank the gods for the dry out as you are not going to want to try and chain this puppy. Does well on a clean guitar or acoustic but you are not going to want to run this into your gains and OD or modulation for that matter. Can't see where delay would help maybe a little reverb, but this thing creates its own envelope of vibrato and sustain that is at times rather uncanny. Attack as you might guess slows the effects swell time on the notes, Sustain as well prolongs the units sustain hold envelope on tones and notes and artful use of both can customize any of the tones to suit whatever ideas you have. I am not doing the whole recording thing right now but I can see this a extremely useful tool to add overdubs and cool things to your recordings.
So, I plumbed this into split rigs, dry to my reg board chain/guitar system and all wet mix with to an A/B/Y so that I could cut the straight guitar when the effect was off. I used my prior GR-55 fullrange rig I still had using a pair of EV ZLP15s. My std guitar I like to keep independent as not to interfere with the synth or string tones which from my prior experience did not do that well into a guitar amp or guitar speakers. The EV rig is so full and rich it sounds like having your own backup musicians.
Delightful tones emerged from the Mel9 which to my opinion are better than the old Mellotron tape unit which had to be the most moody, inconsistent, maintenance intense, breakdown unit of all time. Those amazing tunes that use the Mellotron must have done so many takes to capture the right and perfect keystroke sequence. God I would love to know the number of takes on Strawberry Fields.
I loved the first 4 tones of the Orchestra, Strings, Cello, the Strawberry Fields Flute and the choir setting. All of the set tones have their use but I dig the string thing so much.
Have to say I really like this puppy. I found the tracking to extremely good and polyphonic with each tone having its range and best spots on the fretboard. Do not expect perfect tracking as claimed from low A bass and octaves. Being a former synth player I had to learn one has to play with the envelope and range of the instrument in question.
The outputs on the Mel9 are buffered not bypass, to be honest I am not totally sure of the quality of the buffer circuit which I tend to be a little fanatic over. All buffer circuits are not created equal to be sure. I use a passive Radial A/B/Y and they recommend a high end buffer in front of it to make sure it functions at its best, which for me is my trusty PB1, having that set on my usual low clean boost option switch also allows a little boost on the Mel9 if needed once you get the gain structure going on the guitar.
Those expecting pristine and exact mimic of instruments probably need to get a full blown synth as this is a "Mellotron" tone mimic machine and it never sounded realistic but its own unique weird vibrato and wavering from the tape wow and flutter was very atmospheric and cool. This pedal does it and without the maintenance breakdown, heads wearing out, tape damage issues. If you are looking for some cool atmospheric strings, orchestra, cello or choir and what not to complement and add to the fullness and uniqueness of your playing, this gets a thumbs up on my pedal likes. Be prepared to split the signal if you want the best it can do. Really happy with it, will no doubt be one of my keeper pedals.
Anyway, I used be a guitar synth player last year and it was extremely complex and set up intensive w the hex pickup and all that. I spent the time on programming and headphone creation for the GR-55, an amazing unit to be sure. I ran two independent rigs melding the GR-55 synth sounds with my std guitar tones where they might fit and add to the over all ambiance and fullness.
A few months back I got into one of my gear changing modes wanting to get more simple and sold off my GR-55. I missed a lot of the tones I had worked out but I cannot handle the complex learning curve and programming work it took. Along comes this Mellotron mimic and I was skeptical as usual. EH really knows how to hype a pedal but it seems like that line had been the greater disappointment to me, after the newness factor wears off, they end up getting traded out or sold pretty often.
Tried to surmise through some of the demos what this puppy sounded like and trying to project if I could make use of it. What ultimately sold me on it was that video of the chap playing a version of Pagey's Rain Song, was quite beautiful and exactly what I was after.
I dropped the dime as one can always send things back if they do not ring the cow bell as planned. I was not expecting the moon from my prior experiences.
I read through the manual figuring out the controls and output options. Thank the gods for the dry out as you are not going to want to try and chain this puppy. Does well on a clean guitar or acoustic but you are not going to want to run this into your gains and OD or modulation for that matter. Can't see where delay would help maybe a little reverb, but this thing creates its own envelope of vibrato and sustain that is at times rather uncanny. Attack as you might guess slows the effects swell time on the notes, Sustain as well prolongs the units sustain hold envelope on tones and notes and artful use of both can customize any of the tones to suit whatever ideas you have. I am not doing the whole recording thing right now but I can see this a extremely useful tool to add overdubs and cool things to your recordings.
So, I plumbed this into split rigs, dry to my reg board chain/guitar system and all wet mix with to an A/B/Y so that I could cut the straight guitar when the effect was off. I used my prior GR-55 fullrange rig I still had using a pair of EV ZLP15s. My std guitar I like to keep independent as not to interfere with the synth or string tones which from my prior experience did not do that well into a guitar amp or guitar speakers. The EV rig is so full and rich it sounds like having your own backup musicians.
Delightful tones emerged from the Mel9 which to my opinion are better than the old Mellotron tape unit which had to be the most moody, inconsistent, maintenance intense, breakdown unit of all time. Those amazing tunes that use the Mellotron must have done so many takes to capture the right and perfect keystroke sequence. God I would love to know the number of takes on Strawberry Fields.
I loved the first 4 tones of the Orchestra, Strings, Cello, the Strawberry Fields Flute and the choir setting. All of the set tones have their use but I dig the string thing so much.
Have to say I really like this puppy. I found the tracking to extremely good and polyphonic with each tone having its range and best spots on the fretboard. Do not expect perfect tracking as claimed from low A bass and octaves. Being a former synth player I had to learn one has to play with the envelope and range of the instrument in question.
The outputs on the Mel9 are buffered not bypass, to be honest I am not totally sure of the quality of the buffer circuit which I tend to be a little fanatic over. All buffer circuits are not created equal to be sure. I use a passive Radial A/B/Y and they recommend a high end buffer in front of it to make sure it functions at its best, which for me is my trusty PB1, having that set on my usual low clean boost option switch also allows a little boost on the Mel9 if needed once you get the gain structure going on the guitar.
Those expecting pristine and exact mimic of instruments probably need to get a full blown synth as this is a "Mellotron" tone mimic machine and it never sounded realistic but its own unique weird vibrato and wavering from the tape wow and flutter was very atmospheric and cool. This pedal does it and without the maintenance breakdown, heads wearing out, tape damage issues. If you are looking for some cool atmospheric strings, orchestra, cello or choir and what not to complement and add to the fullness and uniqueness of your playing, this gets a thumbs up on my pedal likes. Be prepared to split the signal if you want the best it can do. Really happy with it, will no doubt be one of my keeper pedals.
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