Toontrack EZkeys Mellotoon

Virtual instrument emulation of the classic tape-based sample playback keyboard

By Phil O'Keefe

The classic Mellotron M400 is generally considered to have been one of the first sample playback keyboards on the market, but unlike today's ROM-based digital sample playback keyboards it utilized magnetic tape as the sample storage medium and each key required its own tape head and transport, making it an extremely heavy, expensive, and mechanically complex keyboard. In spite of this, it was immediately embraced by a variety of successful recording artists, making Mellotron sounds widely heard by the public at large in the process. Today the sounds of the Mellotron remain quite popular with musicians, although technology has moved on considerably since the 1960s and it's now possible to recreate those vintage sounds in relatively inexpensive software. Toontrack has done exactly that with their latest EZkeys library - EZkeys Mellotoon.

What You Need To Know

• Toontrack's EZkeys Mellotoon is a virtual recreation of the Mellotron M400, which was an early form of sample playback keyboard that used a tape-based playback mechanism for each key. All of the lo-fi goodness you'd expect comes along with that approach, including wow and flutter, subtle tape distortion and compression, as well as a degree of noise and hiss. All of these things are significant contributors to the classic vintage Mellotron sound.

• EZkeys Mellotoon has excellent compatibility and runs as a stand-alone application, or as a plug-in. 32 and 64 bit VST, AU, AAX, and RTAS plug-in formats are supported on both Mac (OS X 10.6 or higher) and PC (Windows 7 or later) computers with 2GB of RAM or more, and a handy chart listing all the compatible DAW programs and plugin hosts that they've tested it with is listed on the Toontrack Mellotoon product web page.

• Installation was quick and easy and went off without a hitch. Both on and offline authorization are supported. EZkeys uses a serial number and computer authorization copy protection approach, and it's possible to have it authorized on two computers simultaneously. This worked out well when testing it since it allowed me to try it on both my MacBook Pro (quad core 2.2GHz i7) and PC (quad core 3.5GHz i7) computers. It worked equally well on both systems, with no crashes or significant bugs to report.

• Mellotoon is just one of the Toontrack EZkeys sound libraries. The EZkeys stand-alone app and plug-ins support multiple sound libraries, and any EZkeys libraries that you have installed can be loaded via the Library menu at the top of the program window. A menu right next to it allows you to recall presets from that library. In addition to the Mellotoon library, they also offer EZkeys Classic Electrics (Rhodes and Wurlitzer electric pianos), Grand Piano, Retro Electrics (Hohner Clavinet D6 and Pianet N), Upright Piano and EZkeys Electric Grand.

• Fifteen different classic sounds are provided with Mellotoon, all of which were sampled from a M400 Mellotron using a combination of direct and amplified signals. Even if you've never laid eyes on a real Mellotron in your life, the sounds will probably be instantly familiar to you, having been used on classic recordings by groups such as Genesis, Yes, the Moody Blues, Led Zeppelin, King Crimson, and of course, the Beatles.

• Here's a list of the included sounds: Recorder, Vibes, Piano, Solo Flute, Viola, Cello, 3 Violins, 3 Violins LowSpeed, 16 Violins, String Section, MK II Brass, MK II Brass LowSpeed, Mixed Brass, Boys Choir, and 8 Voices.

• In addition, five "Mixed Instruments" (combinations of vintage Mellotron sounds) and four Toontrack "Pads" presets are also included, giving you 24 presets in total. Users can also save and recall their own presets.

• The Main View graphics include a visual representation of a virtual keyboard instrument that looks quite a bit like the vintage keyboard. An onscreen 35 note keyboard (G to F, although the playable range via MIDI is wider) can be played with the mouse and responds audibly and graphically to incoming MIDI data. A display directly above the keyboard tells you the name of the note(s) or chord being played, which is a great learning feature.

• "Flip up" panels on top of the keyboard provide access to velocity sensitivity and curve settings, as well as tuning; with octave, semitone and cent parameters. 

• Since the original Mellotron used an analog tape-based playback mechanism and magnetic tape for each note, all the side effects of analog tape are present in the sound. The same is true with Toontrack's EZkeys Mellotoon. Noise, hiss, wow and flutter - all of that is included, and the sound is quite reminiscent of the vintage instrument in no small part because of that.

• All the idiosyncrasies of the original are here too, which means you shouldn't expect seamless transitions between keys / samples either - after all, each note on a Mellotron is produced by a separate tape and transport, and the tape "samples" were recorded individually and in isolation; any noises and differences in tone from note to note on the original Mellotron tapes should be apparent in a modern virtual instrument recreation, and they did a good job with Mellotoon's samples. For example, with the Cello preset, there is a noticeable timbral shift between the lowest B and C, as well as highest A and A#, in addition to a couple of less obvious sounding ones. A modern keyboard would get "dinged" in a review for this sort of thing, but since this is part of the character and behavior of the keyboard being recreated, it's not only acceptable here, but desirable.

• Songwriters and arrangers will appreciate that EZkeys also includes an extensive library of professionally played piano MIDI files that can be loaded or dragged and dropped into the program's built-in MIDI recorder / player. Additional MIDI files of any origin can be loaded either with the Browser, menus, or by dragging and dropping, with track extraction and humanizing functions available when importing. Toontrack also offers additional MIDI files in a variety of styles and genres that can be purchased separately.

• A circle of fifths based Chord Selector allows you to quickly enter chord progressions with full control over inversions and extensions, which can be very useful for songwriters.

• Effects are from Overloud, and vary with the sound you select. Most sounds offer the ability to control (plate) reverb time and amount, as well as tape delay time and amount. Some sounds offer presence and brilliance controls instead of the delay controls. The effects sound decent enough, although I would have liked to have had a more extensive selection of delay and reverb types available.

• The Menu button in the upper right corner provides access to a well-written manual, various program options such as controls for knob behavior, import of MIDI and export of MIDI and WAV files, online support and updates, and a text based Music Theory tutorial. MIDI file examples that support the theory tutorial are also included.

Limitations

• There are no user adjustable controls for things such as the amount of tape hiss or the amount of wow and flutter. Their inclusion would have been a nice addition and would have provided some added flexibility, but is not a serious omission since those crucial Mellotron sonic elements are present in the actual samples.

• The front panel controls to the left of the onscreen virtual keyboard are purely decorative and are only there for the visual similarity to a vintage Mellotron, and serve no actual function beyond that. 

Conclusions

If you want the sound of a classic Mellotron in virtual instrument form, Toontrack's EZkeys Mellotoon will ably give that to you. With its rock-solid reliability, excellent sonic accuracy and authenticity, and wide plug-in format and OS compatibility, it's bound to become a popular product; and if that's all it provided at this price, it would be a good deal, but the inclusion of the added features such as the extensive MIDI file library, MIDI recording and overdubbing capabilities, powerful chord selector and music theory tutorial makes it even more valuable and increases its usefulness as a learning tool for new players as well as an aid for songwriters, arrangers and composers. True, the selection of effects could be a bit wider, but the original Mellotron didn't include any at all. While this library doesn't offer the seamless sounding multi-samples of a modern keyboard, it wasn't intended to - instead it gives you the sound of an expensive and complex vintage hardware unit, with all the quirks and peculiarities that come along with it, but without the maintenance and upkeep hassles. Plus, you can load other EZKeys sound and MIDI libraries, so you can expand the variety of sounds and MIDI patterns. All in all, there's a lot to like about EZkeys, and Mellotoon is a great addition to the line.

Resources

Toontrack EZkeys Mellotoon ($179.99 MSRP, $149.99 "street" - owners of other EZkeys products can purchase MelloToon at a discounted price)

Toontrack EZkeys Mellotoon product web page

Walkthrough video