Mike Walters has built the Melloman, a 25 key mellotron, which gets its sounds from 13 Walkmans (Walkmen?), using one stereo channel for each key, plus stereo beats from the 14th Walkman. It is a thing of wonder and beauty. Mike has created many other things of wonder, most of which have been bought by Mark Mothersbaugh from Devo. (Thanks to Boing Boing, Analog Industries, Mikey, Krome, Ron, Lyle, Ben, and anyone else who sent me this)
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Here's a great (if slightly over-exuberant for my tastes) weekend project video from Make magazine, which shows you how to turn a bunch of $2 walkmen into a Mellotron (roughly). It was obviously inspired by Mike Walters, and his 14 walkman, 25 note Melloman. (Thanks, James)
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1) Here is an ancient Transit van, once used as an outside broadcast studio and still full of wiring, yours for £800. As Sean writes: "Imagine the fun you could have by filling it with some cool gear and then heading off into the sunset and spending the rest of your life driving around recording stuff in random places..."
2) Tara has a nice video of her playing with a Pro-One and two Moogerfoogers. Hunt around, and you'll find some NSFW theremin/Vox Jaguar/nudity action, but don't let that distract you from the fact that the utterly legendary Mike Walters is in her band. He's the guy who built himself a sort of Mellotron from 14 walkmans. (Thanks Alex)
3) Lost Science has spent a year building a button/light controller for a Reaktor patch he uses for playing live.
4) Discovering Electronic Music is a great documentary about synths from 1983: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. (Thanks to everyone who sent this in)
5) What Thomas Dolby plays on stage here. Got to love the midi retrofitted test equipment, built for him by this dude.
6) Did you know that Blue's Snowball USB microphones claim to be made in Latvia, but seem to really be actually made in China? (Thanks, Paul)
7) Fantastic interview with Chad Hugo from the Neptunes (c.2003), talking about their production techniques and gear in detail. Here (Thanks, Ron).
8) Great, although moderately irritating, studio tour hosted by Volker Dassler of 'Porsches on the Autobahn'. Lots of Buchla. Here. (Thanks, Jordan)
9) Ebay item #9714434236 is a very funny old Sony Discman D-88, with one extremely prominent design feature. (Thanks, Der)
10) Cruddy-looking but surprisingly functional flash-powered mixer/sequencer, sponsored by Fanta, of all people. Here (Thanks, FMass)
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Had enough minature synths? No, I thought not. Here is a Japanese website showing tiny (the Hammond is 6 inches tall) handmade plastic models of the keyboard setup that Rick Wakeman used to record 'The Six Wives of Henry VIII'. It took the guy who built it 90 days to craft the tiny Mellotron, Minimoog, Hammond, Steinway Grand, RMI Electric Piano, custom mixer, right down to Rick's watch and the tube amp in the back of the Hammond. (Thanks to the legendary Mike Walters)
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Mike Walters has built the Melloman, a 25 key mellotron, which gets its sounds from 13 Walkmans (Walkmen?), using one stereo channel for each key, plus stereo beats from the 14th Walkman. It is a thing of wonder and beauty. Mike has created many other things of wonder, most of which have been bought by Mark Mothersbaugh from Devo. (Thanks to Boing Boing, Analog Industries, Mikey, Krome, Ron, Lyle, Ben, and anyone else who sent me this)
Posted by Tom Whitwell. Story permalink. 14 comments Post a Comment 
1) Here is an ancient Transit van, once used as an outside broadcast studio and still full of wiring, yours for £800. As Sean writes: "Imagine the fun you could have by filling it with some cool gear and then heading off into the sunset and spending the rest of your life driving around recording stuff in random places..."
Had enough minature synths? No, I thought not. Here is a Japanese website showing tiny (the Hammond is 6 inches tall) handmade plastic models of the keyboard setup that Rick Wakeman used to record 'The Six Wives of Henry VIII'. It took the guy who built it 90 days to craft the tiny Mellotron, Minimoog, Hammond, Steinway Grand, RMI Electric Piano, custom mixer, right down to Rick's watch and the tube amp in the back of the Hammond. (Thanks to the legendary Mike Walters)
Posted by Tom Whitwell. Story permalink. 2 comments Post a Comment