You think the Sampler is a new musical invention?

[YouTube - Link]

That is the original video demo for the first sampler from the 60's (it is so very British!).

Have you ever heard a fan of classic rock or earlier music bemoan that new music is just a bunch of old music sampled and looped back with different vocals, etc? That musicians these days don't play their own instruments or really sing their own songs? Well... sure there is some truth to that. And yet, that's not to say that musicians from earlier generations didn't sample music in their songs. Meet... the Mellotron.

Created in England in the 1960s- this was a keyboard in which each key is connected to a loop of tape featuring a pre-recorded sound. The pre-recorded sound could be anything: flutes, violins, voices, random noises coming from your basement. By hitting the key, you played the recording, thus recreating that sound on command. It was the first keyboard using sampled sounds, a kind of instrument you will find in every studio in the world these days. Who used the instrument? Well the Beatles for one. They used it heavily on "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band" and "Magical Mystery Tour." Not to mention The Zombies, Deep Purple, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, David Bowie, and The Kinks.

The instrument became unpopular during the Punk Era, but was used again in New Wave and, of course, Electronic Music in the 1980's.
And then was used by basically everyone in the 90's: U2, The Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead, Pearl Jam, R.E.M, Dinosaur Jr, Sheryl Crow, Tom Petty, and many many others.
These days an original Mellotron is rare to find, but there is a steep demand for them because they produce such a unique sound and feel.
- Via: emyoku, Via: Neatorama