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David Zicarelli

expo-banner-feature.png

It was ten years ago this month that we announced our first conference for Max users, which we confusingly named to honor a World’s Fair in Spokane, Washington that took place 35 years earlier. We promised the first Expo ’74 in April 2009 would be “a safe space to show your patch” and we endeavored to make it a reflection of our corporate bias in favor of the unpretentious and quirky. Once attendees arrived at the first Expo, we divided them into groups (naturally based on Max object names) that we proceeded to lead on field trips around San Francisco. That was just the beginning of a three-day patching party that featured a catered science fair and ended with Miller Puckette jamming on electric guitar.

Even in 2009, the world did not need another academic conference about digital media (and ten years later, it really doesn’t need another one). Instead, we took inspiration from events where anyone could feel welcome to show up, talk shop, share tips, and swap stories. From time to time, the Max community has been described as "model train club.” With Expo we consider that a feature not a bug.

Ten years later, Expo ’74 returns for a third iteration that will take place April 26-28, 2019

. This time, we’re excited to be partnering with my favorite art museum in the universe, MASS MoCA. We’re hard at work putting together an inspiring program of presentations, workshops, and installations. Naturally, we’ll host another science fair. And a field trip? We can’t say for sure yet, but it’s definitely a possibility.

Despite the fact that it’s not exactly an Uber ride away from a major international airport, MASS MoCA promises to be an amazing venue for this event. One highlight among many for me would have to be recently opened 

 of large-scale immersive works by Laurie Anderson and James Turrell. Next to the Laurie Anderson installations, the museum created a room full of playable instruments constructed by Gunnar Schonbeck. Gunnar was a teacher of mine and his community-based approach to music-making was hugely influential. Perhaps you’ll be influenced to imagine how these instruments might exist in the Max domain. Beyond the curated exhibitions, we’re also excited about the opportunities afforded by the museum's variety of cool public spaces.

We've prepared a guide to help you plan for your Expo experience including 

We’re not quite ready to unveil everything we’re planning, but I am happy to announce that for this forthcoming Expo we’ve engaged our former colleague Luke DuBois to serve as Artistic Director. With his unrivaled knowledge of work done with Max, Luke seemed to us to be a particularly appropriate choice for this role given that the software is 30 years old this year. Luke is working on putting together a diverse lineup of presenters that will reflect both the historical significance and future directions of Max.

Ultimately, we go to the effort to put on Expo ’74 to connect to the extraordinary work being done by the Max community and engage in an unmediated conversation about where the software should go next. In that spirit, all of your friends at Cycling ’74 are looking forward to seeing you in North Adams next April.

expo-airports-map-01.png

Even in 2009, the world did not need another academic conference about digital media (and ten years later, it really doesn’t need another one). Instead, we took inspiration from events where anyone could feel welcome to show up, talk shop, share tips, and swap stories. From time to time, the Max community has been described as "model train club.” With Expo we consider that a feature not a bug.

Ten years later, Expo ’74 returns for a third iteration that will take place April 26-28, 2019. This time, we’re excited to be partnering with my favorite art museum in the universe, MASS MoCA. We’re hard at work putting together an inspiring program of presentations, workshops, and installations. Naturally, we’ll host another science fair. And a field trip? We can’t say for sure yet, but it’s definitely a possibility.

Despite the fact that it’s not exactly an Uber ride away from a major international airport, MASS MoCA promises to be an amazing venue for this event. One highlight among many for me would have to be recently opened Building 6 with its collection of large-scale immersive works by Laurie Anderson and James Turrell. Next to the Laurie Anderson installations, the museum created a room full of playable instruments constructed by Gunnar Schonbeck. Gunnar was a teacher of mine and his community-based approach to music-making was hugely influential. Perhaps you’ll be influenced to imagine how these instruments might exist in the Max domain. Beyond the curated exhibitions, we’re also excited about the opportunities afforded by the museum's variety of cool public spaces.

We've prepared a guide to help you plan for your Expo experience including hotel options and transportation advice.

We’re not quite ready to unveil everything we’re planning, but I am happy to announce that for this forthcoming Expo we’ve engaged our former colleague Luke DuBois to serve as Artistic Director. With his unrivaled knowledge of work done with Max, Luke seemed to us to be a particularly appropriate choice for this role given that the software is 30 years old this year. Luke is working on putting together a diverse lineup of presenters that will reflect both the historical significance and future directions of Max.

Ultimately, we go to the effort to put on Expo ’74 to connect to the extraordinary work being done by the Max community and engage in an unmediated conversation about where the software should go next. In that spirit, all of your friends at Cycling ’74 are looking forward to seeing you in North Adams next April.

Learn more about Expo '74 and buy your ticket now!

Cycling ‘74 invites you to join us at Expo ‘74 2019. It will take place April 26-28 at MASS MoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts, USA.

announcing-expo-'74

I would like to present at this expo, and I have developed tools with Max which will benefit many.

@GLENNZONE - The Science Fair is an excellent opportunity to reach attendees and C74 employees, and to have a significant impact through 1 to 1 contact. Feel free to contact us if you have questions or suggestions : expo@cycling74.com

@Roman - We are planning to record some parts of the events. After we announce more details, let us know if there is something in particular that interests you.

I absolutely LOVE Mass MoCA as well!! Thankfully, I live in the state and I hope I can make this date work.

Announcing Expo '74

Gregory Taylor

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Along with all inhabitants of The Current Age, Maxistas and their Max for Live cousins are lucky enough to live in a time when the world is full of traditional acoustic and electronic instruments and software versions of them, as well; for the composer and musician, that leads to some interesting new conundrums: should we go physical or virtual? That question has become increasingly broad, too - it’s not just a matter of pitting an upright Steinway or a dual-manual Harpsichord against, say, their Pianoteq 

. I’m sure that nearly all of you can name the synth of your choice and rattle off any number of plug-ins or applications that do a magnificent job of attempting to reproduce the physical instrument you name, right? And - most recently - the arrival of initiatives such as the open source 

I'd like to spend a little time talking about software and hardware resources for a much-beloved electronic instrument where it's actually 

 to find someone waxing nostalgic for the physical original: the Mellotron.

 is an early 1960s-era proto-sampler that used recordings on audio tape as its sound source. The method of production was electromechanical - when you pressed down a key, a piece of tape corresponding to that pitch (it was polyphonic) would be brought into contact with a tape head to play back the sampled sound - sort of a keyboard with a one-shot tape player under each key.

That's not a description of the sound of the instrument though - which is almost immediately recognizable in recordings by any number of artists from the 60s on (we can start with the Prog trinity of Yes, King Crimson, and Genesis, step sideways into pop from The Moody Blues, The Beatles and Oasis and on through to Blond Redhead and Arcade Fire. Its iconic sound is seldom mistaken for anything else (with the possible exception of its forerunner the 

, which you probably know from recordings like 

a magnificent Spotify Mellotron-o-centric playlist

I think that nearly everyone I know who ever owned a Mellotron has their own stories, mostly having to do with the physical system. In my case, it's how I first learned what 

 meant when applied to recording heads and tape, and where I first heard that crumply and darkly garbled string sound that made me crazy back then (my unit wasn't in the best of shape when I acquired it at a bargain price), and then broke my heart when I heard its near relative appear during William Basinski's 

 (funny how things change). In fact, I first thought that that clunk noise that happened when I hit the end of my tape and released the key was something out of whack, too - you can imagine my surprise when I encountered Mellotron samples that included the clunk....

, who I’ve long appreciated for his particular cocktail of acerbic wit and gear-fu, puts the matter rather succinctly:

 That about sums it up, with two caveats: First (and most importantly), Mellotrons are still being made by the folks at 

, who’ve manufactured the Mellotron since the beginning. Their current version - the M4000 - will set you back bigtime, but the only person of my acquaintance who's been near one just raved about the thing. His opinion was that all of the things that made us crazy as previous owners of the physical instrument have been seen to. - it is, by all accounts, the instrument that any and all of us who've actually owned one wish we'd had. Second, there are physical instruments that seek to retain the sonic quality of the originals but make use of newer technologies that are an option for those folks who want a keyboard instrument. We'll talk about those instruments later.

A Little Background (Rabbit Hole Trigger Warning)

Regardless of what kind of musical instrument you’re talking about - acoustic or electronic - musical instruments as physical objects are all instantiations of arguments about what the best way to translate small-motor coordination-related input into musical output might be.

Further, the world is full of musicians whose innovations are based in some deep understanding or intuition derived from the study of how it is that a particular instrument does its job.

To that end, if you’re interested in a little down-the-rabbit-hole time, you’ll find ample food for thought in a little reading up on the history of the Mellotron as a series of engineering solutions. I’d suggest starting with 

the Mellotron entry in the Engineering Wiki

 for starters, followed by some quality time with the folks at 

-language Mellotron histories on the Candor Chasma site (pro tip: take a moment to burrow into the 

's Mellotron entry, and a final stop at , 

So - if, like me, you're a lover of the instrument (with or without the experience of having owned one), what are your options for Mellotronics that you can fire up and hook up to Max?

Alternately, suppose you've run your budget and you just can't afford one of those magnificent new Streetly M4000s? What are your options?

Since I opened this article with a discussion of the Mellotron as a physical object, it seems fitting that we'd talk first about 

 versions of the Mellotron. You've got a couple of options.

Of course, the Traditional Values approach (apart from finding a used Mellotron that's not already been snapped up for studio use and trying to whip it into shape) would be 

 of your own from Streetly Electronics, loaded with the tape racks of your choice....

You'll be seeing references throughout this article to "the Streetly tapes." That's a reference to the fact that the sounds that went into the Mellotron 

 from Streetly, and - over time - they really went into the "sample collection" business as they made custom racks for their famous clients. Many of the products listed here list usage of Streetly's original tapes as a selling point, and that's why - they're the originals.)

If you still long for the physicality of the instrument, check your budget and start saving. While you're doing this, you might want to have a look at this extensive Mellotron M4000 review from the folks at 

, who had a chance to woodshed with one for an extended period of time. It's the kind of review that some of us faithfully read Sound on Sound for.

In the digital realm, you've got a few options for keyboards (and rack mount units) that preserve the original Mellotron tapes in a system that involves digital playback of stored samples. Over at mellotron.com, Markus Resch at mellotron.com has been manufacturing the Mellotron Mark VI since 1999 and the Mellotron Mark VII since 2005 (they are both still in production), and continue to support Mellotrons and Chamberlins with parts for the refurbisher (

tape frames, motor controls and other spare parts

What's more interesting to me has been Markus' move into hybrid Mellotron instruments that combine the original Samples with a streaming digital playback system. As you might imagine, his instruments are somewhat more portable, and you're not likely to knock the tapes out of alignments by dropping the 'tron on your foot. His Mellotrons are available in three different sizes and formate, from the deluxe wooden-keyed 

, and the Mellotron MICRO. Resch paid a visit to Westlake Audio and talked about all three of these instruments in considerable detail in 

 - I think it'll be a great help to figuring out which one might best suit your needs. Oh - and there's a 

 folks for their Eurorack modules or the 

 they created in collaboration with Klaus Schulze. They're Mellotron fans, too. Their digital version of the Mellotron - the Memotron - comes in two flavors - a keyboard and a keyboardless module. If you'd like a more complete rundown on the instrument with particular attention to its sample contents (they not only provided some of the material for the G-Force M-Tron Pro, but they also include the Streetly Tapes as part of their

 for the instrument, too) I'd direct you to 

. I had a chance to play one at a recent Superbooth, and it's a really nice physical instrument to engage with.

Finally, it's useful to stop for a moment and consider whether or not anyone's treated the sounds of the Mellotron as something that can be mapped onto an existing sample-playback keyboard. While there were some earlier instruments that went for cloning Mellotron timbres, things for current instruments are a little thin on the ground. If you're an owner of a Nord however, you're in luck. There's a wonderfully complete 

 in their archive for your downloading and playing pleasure.

Those physical instruments may well be interesting, but lots of us are all about the virtual - apps or plug-ins we can plot onto our laptops and haul off to the gig or drop into our favorite DAW.

As we begin this part of the journey, I'll quote my fellow Mellotronista pal Mike Metlay once again:

As we enter the virtual realm for Mellotron applications/plug-ins, the motherlode for me is, as Mike suggested, 

. It’s the follow-up to their original M-Tron instrument, with the addition of dual layers, half-speed capabilities and subtractive synthesis filters to extend the instrument. This extended set of controls is all properly MIDI-mapped (which should appeal to the Max user out there interested in generative Mellotron mayhem), as well. You can find Sound on Sound's recap of its features 

As a plug-in user, I ran through the list I'm about to give you, and fell I ought to be honest up front: my go-to instrument (with a sidetrip I'll describe briefly in a minute) is the M-Tron Pro full stop. The deciding factor for me was G-Force's support for additional sample banks. The add-on sample banks expand the instrument in terms of timbral choices (the Streetly Electronics tape archives are being released in increments, each one providing interesting new choices and a variety of what my colleague Darwin Grosse would certainly 

 describe as "crap presets." So My M-Tron Pro app includes not only a hefty set of traditional Mellotron libraries, but also a variety of the instruments near and distant cousins - the Chamberlin, the 

Get the Latest on Max and our Community

Announcing Expo '74

Software/Hardware Overview: Let Us Praise the Mellotron

If you are in Tokyo this weekend (October 20-21, 2018)

An Interview with Jessica Rodriguez

Max 8 is here

On The Road: KnobCon 2018

An Article about Articles?

Software Overview: Delta Sound Labs' Stream Plug-In

Artist Focus: Tina Aufiero

Between the Gesture and the Thought: Music for Disklaviers and Their Friends