Ableton Releases Microtron, Sampled Mellotron Pack by Puremagnetik

Ableton and Puremagnetik have released a new sound pack for Live 9. Microtron captures the saturated orchestral sounds of the famous Mellotron – the tape-replay instrument used by the Beatles, Genesis and other bands. They tell us "these surreal reproductions of brass, string and wind instruments will add a distinctive color to your sound palette."

The original Mellotron M400 was a forerunner of the modern day sampler. It worked by "playing back magnetic tape recordings of various orchestral instruments. It’s a process that brought with it some beautiful quirks and a distinctively unreal-yet-organic character."

The Microtron pack consists of 162 Live Clips, 12 Presets, and requires 622.85 MB. It's priced at £25 GBP, but you can download a free trial version.

Here's more info from Ableton and Puremagnetik about Microtron

"All of the Mellotron’s original imperfections and performance nuances are recreated in Live through nine individual multi-sampled instruments. Brass, string, voice and wind instruments are included, plus three full ‘tape’ instruments that let you blend between instrument recordings in the same way as the M400 version. The result is a playable and extremely useable set of sounds that can often fit into your tracks better than realistic orchestral samples.

"The instruments are presented in playable Macro-mapped Instrument Racks, and there are more than 150 MIDI clips with professionally performed phrases to get you started."

Here’s more on the individual instruments captured:

• MK II Flute
• String Section
• Brass
• Cello
• Clarinet
• Glenn Miller
• Octave Recorders
• French Horn
• 8 Voice Choir