When I discovered DecentSampler I knew right away that I had to experiment and build something with it!
Unfortunately I didn’t have the time to sample something new, so I decided to do something useful anyway: convert to the Decent Sampler format a free little gem that I’ve been using for years: the Mellotron samples from Leisureland.us.

So I searched online on forums and blogs for the author of those samples, Taijigui, and got his permission to make them available for free in the Decent Sampler format.

And so DecenTron was born!
It features lot of sounds (presets) from a classic Mellotron with the added bonus of ADSR controls, velocity sensitivity and a whole range of effects. You can dial in some “tape noise” too.

The sounds were sampled by Taijigui, published at http://www.leisureland.us/mellotron.htm and used here with his permission. I only packaged them in Decen Sampler format and added controls and effects.

He writes on his website: “These WAV samples were taken from 2 different Mellotrons: an M400S and an M4000. The tapes were in mint condition when sampled. The samples were recorded with the tone control fully clockwise. Each sample is approximately 7 to 8 seconds in length and has not been looped”.

I packaged them in Decent Sampler format:
The controls should be pretty self-explicative.

“Out of the box” DecenTron plays the samples as they were recorded, i.e. as they are reproduced by the Mellotron itself: not looped and without any velocity sensitivity.

To respect the realism the samples are not looped: the original Mellotron has “samples” that last about 7 seconds per note. The same is here in DecentTron.

If you want that DecenTron respond to velocity so that the heavier you hit the key, the louder it plays, click on the “Vel. sens” button.

You can tweak the Attack, Decay, Release and Sustain, apply a LowPass filter and use the various effects to sculpt the raw sound.

The Modulation wheel controls the amount of Vibrato (modulation of pitch) and/or Tremolo (modulation of volume): set the Rate of each modulator you want to apply and the Depth amount will be controlled by the Modulation wheel (obviously you can also set-and-forget it with the panel cursor)
I added a sort of “tape hiss” too: you can dial in it with the “Tape noise” control.

### Sounds included
Each Decent Sampler preset corresponds to a different Mellotron sound:

– Cello
– Italian Accordion
– MKII Violins
– String Session
– Tenor & Alto Sax
– Tenor Sax
– Trombone & Trumpet
– Trombone
– Trumpet
– Vibes
– Woodwind2
– 8 Choir
– Bassoon
– Church Organ
– CombinedChoir
– GC3Brass
– M300A
– M300B
– Mixed Brass B
– MkII Combined Brass
– MkIIBrass
– MkIIFlute
– Orchestra
– StringSession

Credits
– Decent Sampler presets: Stefano [garubi] Garuti
– Mellotron samples: Taijigui http://www.leisureland.us/mellotron.htm
– Tape noise sample: Stecman https://freesound.org/people/stecman/sounds/375984/ edited by Stefano [garubi] Garuti
– Mellotron picture: Public domain edited by Stefano [garubi] Garuti
– Background wall picture: Foto di Alex Lvrs via Unsplash https://unsplash.com/it/foto/Md6_qA-BMis

Contributors

garubi

UI Design, preset programming