Affordable Mellotron (?)

i know virtually nothing about modern synths, midi, controllers, etc, but ...

I am interested in getting together a keyboard that will simulate a mellotron for portable live performances. I typically use all analog keyboards, so the closest to this that I can get without a computer would be great.

so I believe that I may need a sampler, controller and a CD-rom of samples, right? what products would be good and affordable?

thanks

Donny

Alesis Fusion deserves a look as it is an inexpensive hard-drive based keyboard sampler with a good overall soundset. Not perfect but may well well get the job done (perhaps even very well).

Good luck!

oops - I missed the no computer part. In that case:

I play keys in a prog band (well, it's just me and a bassist so far ). I'm using a Fantom X6 w/the ultimate keys (SRX-07) for Mellotron sounds. Most of the patches on the SRX-07 are lousy, but they can be tweaked into something useful.

This is also a good option (if you add the Classic Keys expansion ROM):

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/PC161/

a second-hand hardware sampler + controller + mellotron cd-rom is the way to go, my friend. A 49 key contoller will give you the correct key layout to use all 35 mellotron notes. There are several samplers out there. The Akai Z4 is what I use. I picked it up for $600 bucks when Musicians Friend was blowing them out. Akai S5/6000 series, E-MU ESI series, and Yamaha A series are some of the other alternatives and are usually found for decent prices on ebay.

A similar option, in a keyboard package, would be the Alesis Fusion, a used Roland Fantom XA, or Yamaha Motif Classic or ES. Be advised, though, that with the Fantom, you'll need some sort of conversion software, unless the Tron samples are raw wav files.

Super expensive options would be the Manikin Electronics Memotron or the new Nord Wave.

I use the CD-Rom from here for Mellotron samples.

They are in Akai format (I use an Akai Z4 too) and the sounds are dead on!!