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  • December 4, 2016 at 7:47 am #84687
    Quartus
    Member

    “The Actor” is a 1968 song by the progressive rock band, The Moody Blues. Written by band member Justin Hayward, it was first released on their 1968 album In Search of the Lost Chord. “The Actor” is one of Justin Hayward’s signature love ballads. The song’s lyrics tell the story of a young woman who falls in love with an actor. However, this love is unrequited, since she only sees the actor once when “The Curtain rises”. In this cover version Quartus plays all instruments and does all vocals. The mellotron sound, an instrument that was widely used by the Moody Blues, is reproduced using a MEL9 guitar pedal.

    March 31, 2020 at 3:48 am #125969
    IceTre
    Member

    I’m 4 years late to this party, but if you’re still around, I’d love to know how you set your Mel 9 for this.

    March 31, 2020 at 4:18 am #125970
    Quartus
    Member

    Yes, that was a long time ago. Listening to the song again it sounded as if I used the flute setting but I suspect I might have played and recorded the “mellotron” track separately from the guitar track – the Mel sound doesn’t always follow the guitar sound as far as I can hear.

    Big trick is to use a volume pedal with the Mel to “swell” and “fade” the mellotron sound during the song. The volume pedal is plugged into the Mel “Effect” output, before it runs into the mixer. The “dry” output (with the original guitar sound) goes straight to a separate channel on the mixer.

    Hope this helps
    Quartus

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