February 26, 2015
by GForce Software
The Streetly SFX Console Expansion Pack For M-Tron Pro
In collaboration with our friends at Streetly Electronics, we are delighted to bring you the original Mellotron® MKII SFX library in all its glory.
Introduced in 1965, the Mellotron MKII SFX console allowed live dubbing of an enormous range of the most popular and essential sounds for film and TV, 1260 in all, directly from the keys of the mellotron keyboard.
Through clever grouping of the these recordings, you could go from key to key and generate a whole sequence. For instance, footsteps approaching, a car door opening, the engine starting and then driving off.
The MKII SFX console was also a milestone as it used transistor amplification for a much quieter audio path. The speed control system was improved to utilise a DC motor control which also reduced hum. Despite all these sonic improvements, the source recordings largely came from scratchy shellac discs with all the imperfections now clearly reproduced by the improved technology!
And Finally
Nevertheless, these ancient SFX are an important time capsule and certain recordings will sound strangely familiar.