The A-Z of analogue

Our definitive directory of every analogue synth in the history of the whole world ever. Included are keyboards, expanders and sound modules, readers are invited to expand upon or correct any part of the A-Z. Parts 1-17 may be ordered from the Music Maker hotline: (Contact Details)

Part 18 - compiled by Peter Forrest

Mellotron (continued)

• Mk V

Double manual Mellotron, virtually a double Mellotron 400. 1975- 1976
Original price: £1995 with your choice of two tape frames.
Target price: £2500 - £4000
Users include: Edgar Froese, Genesis, Eddie Jobson / Roxy Music - footsteps and car starting at start of 'Love is the Drug', plus string part from 'Really Good Time' (each key plays five-second burst, one after the other) and tapes of Moog sounds for a polyphonic Moog that predated the Polymoog (and sounded more Moog-like?), Rick Wakeman.

• Similar keyboard layout to Mark II, but controls were re-positioned in front of the keyboards, a stereo headphone socket was provided, and there were two volume pedals sticking out from underneath. Left and right outputs were provided, and you could pan each keyboard's output between them.
• The controls were really just like two sets of Mellotron 400 controls. The whole machine is like a double 400, with the addition of reverb:
• The new casing gave the machine a bold, thrusting look for the mid-70s, with the bottom panel sloping back away from you to give an impression that the keyboard is stretching out towards the player.
• Not a great commercial success. Very few (probably about 12) were made before the demise of Mellotronics.
• All were finished in black Tolex. Edgar Froese's famous white one had been given a lick of paint.
• Quite possibly the most desirable of all Mellotrons, for its rarity, and for the way it combines the huge power of the Mk II with the flexibility and good sounds of the 400 - including, e.g. choir sounds in a double-manual machine for the first time.

• Novatron 400SM

Re-badged version of the Mellotron 400SM. 1978 - 1986
Original price: £1374 (1979) / £934 (1981)
Target price: £1200 - £2500
Users include: Geoff Downes, ELO, Steve Hackett, Adrian Lee / Wang Chung, Nick Magnus / Steve Hackett (including tapes of own voice), Amie Mann, Paul McCartney (including tapes of 'Mull of Kintyre' bagpipes), Patrick Moraz / Moody Blues, Paul Weller.

• Practically identical to the Mellotron 400SM - 35 notes, volume, tone and pitch controls, and track selector. Tone control is passive, simply taking some of the treble off (about -10dB at 10kHz.)
• More often white, but a black-finished version was also available, and towards the end of the run became the norm.
• Noise-gate was available as an option, c.1980, in response to the fact that its competitors, the samplers, were starting to sound much, much better than the original Fairlights and Emulators.
• You could choose your tape-set. One typical set was brass, strings and flute.
• As with most Mellotrons, output signal was pretty hot, and could cause distortion if you didn't attenuate it. (Maybe Streetly should have put a switchable attenuator in the output circuit. What they did instead was sell a Mellotron Attenuator box as an optional extra.)

• Novatron Mk V

Double-manual (35-note) like Mark V Mellotron. 1977 - c. 1984
Original price: £2200 with two frames of your choice.
Target price: £2000 - £4000
Users include: Paul McCartney.

• Only ever made in a black finish.
• When they were forced to adopt the Novatron name, the Bradleys took out advertisements telling clients that they would continue making exactly the same model range - the 400SM and the Mark V. So presumably, Novatron Mark V's were virtually identical to Mellotron Mark V's.

• T550

Flight-cased version of Novatron 400SM. 1981 - c.1983
Original price: £999
Target price:£2000 - £3000.

• Practically identical to 400SM; simply a heavy but roadworthy Novatron, designed to appeal to that dwindling number of bands for whom only the original real thing would do.
• Hinged keyboard lid. removable front panel with space for two tape frames and the swell pedal in transit. Hinged rear door ('for service accessibility').
• Probably only three made - a sad indication of Mellotron's decline in the market.

Mellotron Sound Sales Inc.

The American firm who had handled Mellotron's servicing and spares business in the States, and who, by a bureaucratic blunder, ended up buying the inventory and the right to use the Mellotron name when Mellotronics went into receivership.

• 4-Track

Four-track Mellotron on quarter-inch tape. Early 80s.
Original price: $4000
Target price: £2000 - £4000
Users include: Strange Advance

• Mixed opinions on the relative success of this as a Mellotron.
• Rationalising to this size of tape and number of tracks does seem a good idea - if the thinner width of tape didn't make too many demands on the accuracy of the transport system and gentleness of tape-handling.
• Original factory tapes were poorly produced, though. (David Kean has produced new tapes that show the instrument in a much better light.)
• Externally similar to a Mellotron 400, and used basically the same tape rack design.
• Available in black, blue or white.The casing was sheet aluminium, making it look a bit like a washing machine.
• Six outputs: left, right, and each of the four pre-amps. This, coupled with the ability to punch in any of the four tracks, made it a flexible live and recording instrument - if the quality of the original tapes had been high enough.
• Tone and volume controls.
• Not at all common - likely that only 5 were ever made! Possibly never seen in the UK.

• Minibass

Users include: Gary Numan

• Minisonic

Simple kit-built 37-note (C-C) monophonic synthesiser. Mark I. 1974-75; Mark II 1975-80.
Original price: (excluding casing, pots and keyboard!) Mk I: £55. Mk II: £68 (1976) - £92 (1980).
Target price: £20 - £60

• Battery or mains operated.
• Two VCOs, VCF, two VCAs.
• Mark II basically an improved version, with some faults ironed out.
• VCO cross-modulation / ring modulation and sync, portamento, indicators for both envelopes, headphone amp, noise generator, mixer.
• Push-button patching (twenty-odd buttons).
• Could convert Mark I to Mark II.
• 27 knobs.
• Ready-made synths were also available.
• From project published in Practical Electronics, November 1974 - March 1975.