Mellotron M400

Tony Banks had a Mellotron M400, which was an early machine that played tape loops containing sound samples. The M4000 replaced the Mellotron Mk. II around the time of Selling England By The Pound.

Tapes used by Tony for the Mellotron were strings, brass and choir ones. By the time of the ..And Then There Were Three, the bass one was only needed for the "Supper's Ready" encore.

He occasionally fed the Mellotron through a Leslie speaker to give the "Leslie (swirling) effect". Apart from that he also used a Parametric Equalizer on the Mellotron, plus an Echoplex. And these helped add another dimension to the sound. By the time of Wind & Wuthering the Echoplex was substituted with the Roland RE-201 Space Echo.

The Mellotron used on the ...And Then There Were Three tour was a European one, featuring modifications made by Sound Sales, the new owners of the Mellotronics company. The other Mellotron, used on the Wind And Wuthering tour (and probably previous tours as well), was an American one that was literally falling to pieces; Banks lost interest in it even after he had it modified.

For the Duke album, the Mellotron was replaced by the newer Roland VP-330 Vocoder Plus.

Quotes on the Mellotron M400
"'There are certain things I really don't like about the Mellotron - the cello tape is very uneven in terms of tone quality, some notes are raspy and some are mellow so the possibility of playing runs is out. Another thing that drives me mad is the tuning problem. Sometimes if you play two-handed chords you can have real trouble. At times the different tones can be really out of tune with one another. The brass and voices for example can be as much as half a semi-tone out. I do like to use the choral effect, I think that's one of the most effective things on the Mellotron.' (Beat Instrumental, April 1976)"