IK Multimedia SampleTron

SampleTron gives you the sound of the Mellotron and many of its more obscure cousins, not to mention some serious potential for sonic malarkey, courtesey of IK's SampleTank player...

It's been a while since its initial announcement, but after a lengthy gestation period IK Multimedia's SampleTron is finally with us. Following relatively hot on the heels of SampleMoog, SampleTron is the second of IK's 'SampleXxxx' plug-in ROMplers dedicated to specific families of classic and vintage keyboard instruments. While SampleMoog was an anthology of Moog synthesizers, SampleTron is, unsurprisingly, an anthology of Mellotrons — or, more accurately, a potted history of tape replay keyboards from the Chamberlins of the 1950s through to the 1975 Mellotron Mk V and the Novatron of the late 1970s. However, the history lesson doesn't end there — SampleTron also covers other legendary and curious replay instruments from those halcyon pre-sampler days; the Mattel Optigan, Chilton Talentmaker and Vako Orchestron, all of which employed optical disks as their playback medium, and the 360 Systems Digital Keyboard, one of the earliest digital ROMpler keyboards — also known as the 'Digital Tron'.

Like SampleMoog, SampleTron's core library is hosted by a customised SampleTank player, this one being adorned with suitably vintage Tron-esque graphical controls. The layout and facilities are essentially the same as SampleMoog's; the SampleMoog review in the May issue of SOS describes these features in detail, so rather than reiterate them at length here, this review will mainly pick up on any operational and feature differences between SampleMoog and SampleTron.

For the uninitiated, here is a brief recap of what's on offer: 16 multitimbral Parts with integral Part Mixer, twinned with a library Browser with search facility. Each Part provides a full complement of synthesis parameters: low-pass, high-pass and band-pass filters in six, 12 and 24dB per octave flavours, two LFOs, two AHDSR envelopes, key range controls, velocity sensitivity controls, Macro controls appropriate to the currently loaded instrument, polyphonic and monophonic key modes, and a choice of SampleTank's Resample or Stretch synthesis engines — more on which later. Up to four effects ('wired' in series) are available to each Part, three of which are freely selectable from a total list of 32 types. SampleTron is also configurable to provide up to 16 stereo virtual outputs.

Interestingly, an early promotional PDF flyer for SampleTron from last year shows some subtle variations from the production version. One such variance shows the presence of a Global effects option, a feature subsequently abandoned for some reason, which is a shame, as this would be very useful for the processing of composite sounds spread across two or more Parts.

The Purist's Nemesis?

While the mere idea of sampled Mellotrons is like a red rag to a bull for some purists, those of a less dogmatic disposition will be pleased to find that SampleTron provides the means to enable sounds to behave in ways authentic to the original instruments. Mellotron sounds typically last up to eight seconds (the tapes are finite in length, not looped) and this is their default behaviour in SampleTron. However, this behaviour can be overridden (for sounds of a continuous nature such as strings and choirs) by adjusting Envelope 1's Hold time parameter, which is conveniently calibrated in seconds. Because these continuous sounds are looped within SampleTron, they can be made to play ad infinitum if you wish. One-shot sounds like vibes, piano or guitar are not looped and will of course decay and finish, regardless of how long the decay time is set. Looped rhythms from the Chamberlin Rhythmate, Mellotron Powerhouse, Chilton Talentmaker and Optigan all loop continuously, although curiously the Optigan and Orchestron instrument sounds default to an eight-second limit; since these were generated from optical discs, they would have played indefinitely. No problem — just crank up the Envelope 1 Hold time and they loop as they should.

This is what all the fuss is about — well, some of the fuss anyway. A Mellotron (below left), Optigan (front) and Vako Orchestron.Most instrument sounds extend (usefully) beyond the range of the lowest sample, and a few extend beyond the highest sample; however, should you wish to restrict the key range to that of the original sound, the Key Range parameter is at hand to make it so. Naturally, most sounds have no key velocity response by default, but it can be added if required to affect any combination of amplitude, pitch, filter cutoff, resonance, LFO 1 depth or Envelope 2 amount. Frustratingly, I couldn't get the latter parameter to respond in SampleMoog, and still had no joy with it here! If you want to emulate the classic 'half-speed Tron' sound, try transposing 'Classic Tron Violins' down an octave — this sounds excellent when combined with the same sound at normal speed, up the octave and on an adjacent Part. SampleTron is designed very much as a creative tool, so if you are not overly fixated on authenticity, there's bags of potential for tweaking, transforming and combining the core sounds to produce unique and personal textures.

Bend Me, Shape Me

Also featured in SampleMoog, the host player's synth engine with its choice of replay algorithms really comes into its own in the context of SampleTron. Here we find the most significant operational difference to SampleMoog: SampleTron offers a fourth replay method called PSTS (Pitch Shift/Time Stretch) in addition to Resample, Note Stretch and Phrase Stretch. Resample is the replay method employed by traditional samplers, and is suitable for all 'conventional' playback tasks. The Note Stretch algorithm is optimised for independent control of pitch, tempo and formant of instrument sounds, while Phrase Stretch is optimised for similar manipulation of phrase-based sounds. SampleTron's library contains a wealth of phrase-based material (see the 'Library' section of this article for more details) that is ideal fodder for the Stretch engines. Using these, it's possible to vary the tempo of rhythm loops without changing pitch, alter the pitch of instrument phrases without changing tempo, and even change the formant frequency of any sound for off-the-wall, alien effects.

The PSTS algorithm is a variant of the Stretch ones, offering a variable Grain control, but no control over Harmonics (formant frequency). IK say that this is the best engine to use with looped material, fine-tuning the Grain control to find the best-sounding results. However, I found there to be no hard and fast rule in this matter — seemingly similar types of loops and phrases responded quite differently depending upon the chosen Stretch method, so as ever: experiment, experiment, experiment!

The SampleTron Library

SampleTron's primary appeal is sure to be its esoteric collection of rare and unusual instruments, which comprises:

• Mellotron M400, Mk V and Mk II
• Mellotron Powerhouse (rhythm machine)
• Novatron
• Optigan (analogue optical disks)
• Chilton Talentmaker (revamped Optigan copy made by the Italian company Galanti)
• Vako Orchestron (analogue optical disks, based on Optigan technology)
• Chamberlin Music Master 600 and 400
• Chamberlin Model 200
• Chamberlin M1and M4
• Chamberlin Rhythmate (drum machine using tape loops)
• 360 Systems Digital Keyboard
• Roland VP330
• Stylophone

Once again, IK Multimedia have teamed up for this library with Sonic Reality's Dave Kerzner, the man responsible for amassing the material in SampleTron's 2.4GB library, itself collected over a 10-year period. The 'classic' Mellotron sounds we all know and love are now fairly ubiquitous, and can be found lurking within numerous virtual instruments, CD-ROM collections and even free on the Internet. They're here too, occasionally with an unusual twist, and bearing in mind the vastly different personalities of such instruments, are quite likely to sound different to any Tron sounds you already have at your disposal. However, this collection boasts other instrumental curiosities from the past with which some may not be familiar. In particular, the Chamberlin Rhythmate and Mellotron Powerhouse are amongst the earliest drum machines, yet must have sounded remarkable in their day, using tape loops of real drum and percussion performances. These authentic sounds and performances from another era are bound to be attractive to those with a taste for the genuinely retro.

Similarly, the Optigan 'band-in-a-box' loops ooze retro appeal, and have found fans in artists including Crowded House, Fiona Apple, Rufus Wainright and Steve Hackett. The Mattel Optigan used floppy optical disks as the playback medium to contain its manifestly analogue recordings; these disks inevitably became scratched and dusty, all of which was plainly audible along with the recorded sounds. Chord buttons triggered complete band performances, while the keyboard played cheesy organ sounds, also stored as recordings on the disks. It's somewhat surprising that Mattel never exploited the obvious potential for more adventurous keyboard sounds; however, a company called Opsonar did see the potential, and after their initial development efforts the instrument was adopted by David VanKoevering, who manufactured a range of Vako Polyphonic Orchestrons using the same optical technology. These were very much intended as competition to the Mellotron, offering strings, choir and other orchestral sounds that could be played continuously without the Mellotron's eight-second limit. However, the poor sound quality and paucity of sonic material for the instruments (only eight Orchestron disks were ever produced) ensured that they were never able to usurp the Mellotron's throne.

Then there are the Mellotrons' predecessors, the Chamberlins. Many of the recordings originally made for the Chamberlins became central to the Mellotrons' sonic arsenal — and it's fascinating to hear how different they sound on the older Chamberlins. The sound quality is often distinctly past its sell-by date, with tape drop-outs, distortion and glitches. Wow and flutter occasionally makes things all but unrecognisable, yet somehow these recordings are charming in an ironic way, and perfectly in touch with the current lo-fi zeitgeist.

The 360 Systems Digital Keyboard was an 8-bit ROMpler that was capable of playing up to 32 sounds stored on pre-recorded ROM chips. At $3500 for the basic machine, it was vastly expensive — and despite being marketed as a 'Digital Tron' for the modern age, it curiously failed to evoke any of the Mellotron's Gothic appeal. Limited memory (and therefore short loops) resulted in sounds that were strangely static — although they must have seemed like a revelation at the time of its release. Nevertheless they're highly deserving of inclusion, particularly '360 El Gtr', which is pure period Mike Oldfield in the upper registers!

The last two items are particularly interesting choices for inclusion in this collection, since neither of them can be classified as replay instruments. Three variations of choir sounds from the Roland VP330 are represented, although only 'VP Choir' is closest to the actual sound of a VP330. The first two presets 'Genechoir' and 'Super VP Choir' appear to have been layered with Mellotron choir — nevertheless, they sound good, and are bound to come in useful. The 'Rolf Harris' Stylophone is very much a bonus inclusion, and rather unusual in that the samples are unlooped, quite short, and decay in volume, unlike the real thing. Adding some pitch vibrato and playing in mono (non-legato) mode certainly brings back some memories (yes, I had one too) but any attempts to play 'Space Oddity' are thwarted due to the truncated, decaying nature of the samples — shame.

Interestingly, that 2007 promotional flyer I have for SampleTron lists an additional tape replay instrument in the library: the Birotron, now commonly associated with the term 'ill-fated'. Based on an 8-track cartridge continuous replay system, the Birotron was dogged by unreliability and lack of sufficient funds for further development, and few were built. The reasons for its eventual non-inclusion can only be guessed at. Perhaps the model used for sampling croaked its last before the project was complete? Sadly, we may never know.

Conclusion

Some of the criticisms mentioned in the recent SampleMoog review seem less applicable to SampleTron; for instance, the yellow-on-black text of SampleTron's Part Mixer and Browser panes is much easier to read than the dark red-on-black text of SampleMoog. The lack of Global Part editing is also less of a drawback, since multi-Part composite sounds made in SampleTron are comparatively less likely to demand identical edits for each Part than they might do in SampleMoog. However, the lack of a Global, MIDI controllable volume control is still a major inconvenience, and hopefully IK might implement one in a future player update. The SampleTank player is nevertheless a capable host on which to base a sampled virtual instrument, and an ideal creative vehicle for the sounds offered by SampleTron's library. The library itself is packed with classic sounds to please retrophiles of all musical persuasions, as well as plenty of material that will certainly raise smiles, if not giggles of delight. SampleTron should be considered a worthy addition to any Mellotron aficionado's collection.