The Streetly Tapes - London

THE STREETLY TAPES - LONDON TAPES & THE FINAL ARCHIVE

Over the years, both ourselves and Streetly have been asked by original Tron owners why their tapes have a distinct, unmistakable character—one that doesn’t quite match the sound of the EMI tape based Streetly recordings? They also point out that certain classic albums carry this same elusive tone. 

The answer lies in a fascinating quirk of history.

Back in the early 1970s, when M400 production was in full swing at Streetly Electronics, the Mellotronics office in London decided to take matters into their own hands. Instead of sourcing tapes from Streetly, they opted to produce their own. But things didn’t go quite as planned…

Using an Ampex tape deck with a standard commercial head, they created tapes with a pronounced guard band—leading to a noticeable “quiet zone” during track blending. They also used shiny Ampex tape with a black backing. This tape didn’t grip the capstan well, and the black backing caused drag against the pressure pad. As a workaround, the machines had to be over-adjusted, resulting in a heavier keyboard action than intended.

But the biggest issue? The tapes were recorded with the wrong azimuth. Mellotrons require a very specific azimuth alignment—roughly 12 degrees anticlockwise from standard. The London team missed this critical detail and used a commercial setting instead. The result? Tapes that sounded duller, more nasal, and quite unlike what Streetly intended when played on a properly aligned headblock.

So yes, that slightly “off” tone you hear—it’s not a flaw. It’s history.

This final Streetly Tapes volume brings you fifteen of the truly iconic Tron tape banks, each with that London Tape azimuth. What’s more, we’ve included 20 super rare tape banks from the last of the remaining Streetly Archives, to provide M-Tron Pro IV users with a total of 35 tape banks from the original and best Melly Library in existence.

Tapes Included

The London Tapes:

• London 8 Choir 
• London Alto Sax 
• London Boys Choir
• London Cello
• London Church Organ & Bass 
• London Female Choir
• London Flute
• London GC3 Brass
• London M400 Violins
• London Male Choir
• London Medieval Woodwind
• London Mixed Brass B
• London MkI Clarinet
• London Oboe
• London String Section

The Final Archive Tapes

• Caged Piano
• Double Bass Low
• Double Bass Octave
• Elgar Muted Winds
• Holst Woodwinds
• McDonald Trio
• Mimi Choir
• New String Section
• Oboe B
• Phasey Violin
• Ravel Strings and Percussion
• Russian Choir
• Shimmer Violin
• Smooth Choir
• Stopped French Horn
• Tim’s Plucking Piano
• Village Organ Large
• Village Organ Medium
• Village Organ Small
• Violin Swoops

Also available as part of

The Streetly Tapes – London is also available with new purchases of the “M-Tron Pro – Complete” bundle which includes the M-Tron Pro IV and all the Expansion Packs. That is a superb 13.4GB+ sound library with 560+ tape banks and 3800+ presets.

Compatibility