ChamberTron – A Chamberlin Expansion Pack for M-Tron Pro

THIS MANUAL IS COPYRIGHT GFORCE SOFTWARE LTD 2011.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. NO PART MAY BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT PERMISSION.
ALL TRADEMARKS ARE ACKNOWLEDGED.

ChamberTron for M-Tron Pro 1

 Harry Chamberlin – a bone-fide genius.
If you thought that tape-playing instruments started and ended
with the Mellotron, think again, because the entire concept
was actually devised by a Wisconsin based inventor, Harry
Chamberlin, as long ago as the late 1940s.
The word ‘genius’ is banded around in the musical instrument
industry like confetti at a mass wedding but, without a shadow
of a doubt, Harry Chamberlin was a bona-fide genius. His
early inventions benefited a number of industries and included
the car windshield washer (which he sadly didn’t patent)
and an insulating machine that allowed one man to insulate
a building. In World War II, Harry even helped design the
electrical system of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress 2.
However, it was after the war, in 1949 when Harry recorded
himself playing an organ that he hit upon the idea of a tape
playback instrument. The initial question was, “if I can put a
finger on a note and get an organ sound, why can’t I get a real
guitar or a violin sound?”
The tape recorder was the catalyst for his eureka moment
and being a man of action he set to work in his basement,
armed with a vision. He quickly found that a crude prototype
did indeed work.
Recording a series of single notes or a collection band
phrases and placing them onto tapes triggered via a piano-
style keyboard, Harry developed a system whereby, each time
the player depressed a key, a pressure pad pinched the tape
onto a rotating shaft which caused it to be pulled across a tape
head. The pre-recorded sound then played for a duration of 8
seconds after which the player released the note whereupon
the tape was then rewound by a second motor before being
ready to be played again.
The Chamberlin was thus born and over the next few years
Harry’s work extended to keyboards designed around this
vision, as well as drum machines that incorporated tape loops
patterns. These drum machines were called Rhythmates and
regularly featured drum playing from his son, Richard
In 1956 Harry took an instrument with six pre-recorded sets of
tapes to exhibit at the NAMM show and it was an immediate
hit. In a later interview he is quoted as saying “We got so many
orders we didn’t know what to do!”
Orders and sales did indeed ensue but as with any new
enterprise, business wasn’t without its problems.
Firstly, early machines were built without internal chassis and
this made them particularly prone to go out of adjustment,
especially if there were moved or transported.
Secondly, the US Musician’s Union considered the instrument
so good it decreed that it could only be used in cocktail lounges
if the player received the wages of three musicians. In fact, it’s
rumoured that during this period while Chamberlin keyboards
were utilised on an abundance of albums you’ll rarely find it
credited for fear of union reprisals against the player and the
ChamberTron for M-Tron Pro
studio. Nonetheless, this didn’t stop it being openly
used by artists as diverse as Bobby Darrin, The
Beach Boys, The Lettermen, Marvin Gaye and Bobby
Goldsboro.
But an even bigger problem occurred in 1962 when
Harry’s super salesman Bill Fransen vanished for
several months. Fransen being off the radar for large
amounts of time wasn’t particularly uncommon, largely
due to Harry’s dislike of big distribution agreements.
Fransen travelled the length and breadth of the US
procuring sales via individual demos. However,
unbeknown to anyone else, on this occasion Fransen
had actually gone further afield armed with two of
Harry’s Chamberlin 600 keyboards.
After his ship docked in England, Fransen placed
an advert looking for a company to manufacture
matched-playback heads and when Birmingham
based company Bradmatic (latterly Streetly
Electronics) replied, Fransen met with the owners,
Frank, Norman and Leslie Bradley, then passed the
Chamberlin 600 off as his own creation. Somehow
he’d even managed to re-badge it as a ‘Franson’
instrument.
The Bradley brothers recognised where they could
make improvements while being very impressed
with the instrument and a deal was struck. Exploiting
the Chamberlin 600 design, the Bradley’s built the
Mellotron MkI and after further refinements were
made, the now legendary Mellotron MkII was released
in 1963.
Of course, neither Harry Chamberlin nor the Bradley
brothers realised what Fransen had done, but when
Harry was contacted in 1965 by a potential US
Mellotron distributor, who had taken the time to look
into the patents involved, it didn’t take long to piece
things together.
Subsequently, Chamberlin and Streetly came to an
agreement whereby, in addition to a substantial cash
settlement in Harry’s favour, Chamberlins would be
sold in the USA and Canada and Mellotrons would be
sold in the UK and Europe. Additionally, as part of the
deal the haunting ‘3 Violins’ sound that started out as
a Chamberlin sound would be shared by Streetly and
become part of the Mellotron library.
In terms of overall Chamberlin sound, Harry’s
recordings are widely acknowledged to have a more
natural and uncompressed quality about them. They
are definitely more vibrato heavy than Mellotron
sounds and with the Chamberlin M series keyboards,
the tape-heads had a greater bandwidth than rival
Mellotron tape-heads. Many musicians familiar with
both instruments refer to the Chamberlin sound as
“more Hifi”.
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 In short, the Chamberlin sounds are undeniably different
and wonderful, and it’s fair to say that we at GForce
have had an enduring love affair with the Chamberlin
sound for many years now, joining a plethora of great
artists who’ve utilised the sound, ranging from Stevie
Wonder, James Taylor, David Bowie, Mitchell Froom,
Gino Vanelli, Edgar Winter, The Moody Blues, Elton
John, Jon Brion, XTC, Patrick Warren, Tom Waits,
Kanye West and Jon Brion.
If we’re completely honest, our love affair with the
Chamberlin instruments has become a borderline
obsession and we’re fairly convinced that we now have
Europe’s largest Chamberlin collection consisting
of some very rare keyboards in addition to several
Chamberlin Rhythmate tape based drum machines.
This expansion pack focuses on the sounds from
the keyboards, in particular our extremely rare four-
manual Chamberlin M4 and one-off M1 Remote with
custom MIDI Interface.
The M4 is one of only four made. It cost over $10,000
when new and was originally owned by the band Three
Dog Night. Weighing in at nearly 300Kgs it consists
of 32 tape-banks and, frankly, it’s amazing to us that
Three Dog Night actually toured with it! Other M4
owners include Mike Pinder, Mitchell Froom & The
Lettermen, and given its rarity it’ll come as no surprise
that we’ve invested heavily, firstly on restoring it and
then maintaining it. This is a truly beautiful sounding
and unique instrument and we know you’ll be blown
away with the M4 sounds that help make up this
collection.
Similarly, our M1 Remote is one of only six made
and is rumoured to be one of only four still working.
Ours also has the unique honour of being controlled
by a custom built MIDI interface and was restored by
Richard Chamberlin (Harry’s son) for actor Vincent
Gallo before finding its way into our hands. While it
contains the standard eight sounds, it’s the quality of
these sounds that speaks volumes.
Finally, some sounds that have been taken from
a Chamberlin 600 as well as a ‘Variety’ effects tape
made for our Rhythmate 25. According to Richard
Chamberlin, the only other Rhythmate 25 he’s aware of
is owned by Chamberlin player par-excellence, Patrick
Warren. However, it seems that our effects tape for this
drum machine may be the only one in existence.
The recordings in this Expansion Pack come from
instruments that we own and love and it’s important
to make this distinction between this and other
Chamberlin samples available, which in some cases
have been derived from a single source. None of these
sounds have been licensed from another company
being derived from our own highly prized instruments.
ChamberTron for M-Tron Pro
That makes this Expansion Pack a unique treasure
trove of beautiful rarities that we’ve made available
because, in much the same way as we did with the
M-Tron, we’re fascinated to see how a new generation
of music-makers use these equally evocative and
nostalgic sounds.
Naturally though, some restoration work has taken
place. Over the years some tapes have become
worn and on a few sounds de-magnetization has
occurred – such are the joys of magnetic tape-based
instruments.
However, where a note has been sufficiently damaged
to become a problem, an adjacent note has been
pitched and supplemented. Additionally, we have
been very careful in any noise reduction process not
to squeeze the life and character out of the sounds.
Thankfully though, given the original immaculate
recording process (Harry was smart enough to use
Neuman U47s on the recording sessions) and the
correct maintenance of the instruments, we had such
a good starting point there was no need to be savage.
Hints and Tips
When emulating the character of an M1, you should
bear in mind that it was possible to play two sounds
simultaneously. With the M-Tron Pro you can
reproduce this by using sounds in both Layer A and
Layer B.
The Chamberlin was not velocity sensitive and for
close emulation we would recommend that you do
not use any of the velocity settings.
Interestingly, it was possible to attain a degree of
aftertouch on some Chamberlin keyboards, and this
was usually due to the pressure pad exerting undue
pressure on the tape and tape-head. The result was
that the recording could change in brightness a little
as you pressed harder on the key while the tape was
being drawn across the head. If this is important to you
then you can set up the filter and aftertouch controls
on the M-Tron Pro in order to gain a reasonably close
approximation of this.
If you watch someone like Patrick Warren play a
Chamberlin M1 you’ll notice he has the insides
exposed to allow him access to the flywheel. By
touching this, he’ll introduce pitch bend as the tape
slows. Thankfully there’s an easier way of doing this
on the M-Tron Pro by way of setting the pitch bend
range and just using the pitch bend wheel on your
controller keyboard. You can also set different ranges
for each layer too for more dramatic effects.
In terms of sound sets there are occasionally multiple
versions of the same sound. Wherever you see this
you’ll know that each set has come from a different
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 Chamberlin instrument or set of tapes. For example
Vibes 1 were taken from the Chamberlin M4 and
these are the most perfect. Vibes 2 were taken from
a Chamberlin 600 and are less perfect. Finally, Vibes
3 were taken from the M1 Remote and are largely raw
recordings.
The only sound-set that is not a bona-fide Chamberlin
sound set is the second effects bank. This bank is
something that we recorded ourselves and contains
squeaks, squeals, snatches and tape rewind noises, in
addition to a few musical ideas created and recorded
by ourselves. Someone, somewhere will undoubtedly
make good use of these and we can’t wait to hear how.
Please keep us informed.
As a footnote, although reliable, corroborated
information is hard to come by, it’s estimated that
approximately 700 Chamberlins were made between
1951 and 1981. However, there’s no denying that
the Chamberlin M1 was the most reliable and the M4
(and Harry’s personal version of this, The Riviera) the
most coveted.
Sadly, Harry died in 1986 but his legacy will remain
part of musical history forever.

Chamberlin links
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chamberlin
http://egrefin.free.fr/eng/mellotron/chamberlinE.
php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chamberlin
http://www.tomwaitslibrary.com/instruments/
keyboardinstruments.html

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Installing the ChamberTron Expansion Pack – Mac and PC
1. Locate your “M-Tron Pro Library” folder and move the downloaded ChamberTron.cpt2 file into it.
Mac screenshot shown
The Sounds.
As far as we can ascertain, Chamberlin sounds were recorded using Neumann U47s and various
members of the Laurence Welk Orchestra. It’s claimed that Laurence Welk himself was so taken with
the early Chamberlin sound that he offered to finance it so long as it was named the Welk Machine.
Harry, respectfully, declined. We can’t imagine why...
All tape banks are made up of 35 individual notes.
Accordion
Chromatic accordion notes (G-F) taken from the Chamberlin M4 upper-right keyboard.
Alto Sax 1
Chromatic Alto Saxophone notes (G-F) taken from the Chamberlin M4 bottom-right keyboard.
Alto Sax 2
Chromatic Alto Saxophone notes (G-F) taken from the Chamberlin M4 upper-right keyboard. A different
tape bank to Alto Sax 1.
Alto Sax 3
Chromatic Alto Saxophone notes (G-F) taken from the Chamberlin M1-Remote.
Banjo
Banjo notes (G-F) taken from the Chamberlin M4 upper-left keyboard. The Chamberlin Banjo is
characterised by an initial plucked note followed by a consistent tremolo plucking.
If you want to eliminate the initial plucked note and just use the tremolo part, this can be achieved by
changing the Attack Start knob on the M-Tron Pro to approximately 1 O’Clock.
ChamberTron for M-Tron Pro
Bass Clarinet
Chromatic Bass Clarinet notes (G-F) taken from the Chamberlin M4 upper-right keyboard.
Bassoon
Chromatic Bassoon notes (G-F) taken from the Chamberlin M4 upper-right keyboard.
Bells
Chromatic Bells (G-F) taken from the Chamberlin M4 lower-left keyboard. Although this is labelled
‘Bells’ on our M4 it’s entirely possible that the sound came from a Glockenspiel.
Cello
Chromatic Cello notes (G-F) taken from the Chamberlin M4 lower-right keyboard. You can hear the
two directional bowing on these notes clearly and, unlike the Melltoron Cello where the first five
notes were actually a bowed double bass, the Chamberlin Cello is entirely consistent.
Clavi
Chromatic Clavinet notes (G-F) taken from the Chamberlin M4 upper-left keyboard.
Do-Wah Trombones
Chromatic Do-Wah Trombone notes (G-F) taken from the Chamberlin M4 upper-left keyboard.
To eliminate the ‘Do’ and just have the ‘Wah’ part of the sound, move the Attack Start knob on the
M-Tron Pro to approximately 11 O’Clock.
Female Voice
Chromatic Solo Female notes (G-F) taken from the Chamberlin M4 upper-left keyboard. The original
key range for this tape bank was 25 Notes (C-C) so we have time-stretched the bottom and top five
notes to fit the 35 note range of the M-Tron Pro.
Flute 1
Chromatic Flute notes (G-F) taken from the Chamberlin M4 lower-right keyboard. While comparisons
the Melltoron flutes are inevitable the Chamberlin Flutes have more vibrato and have more ambience
in the recording. At the end of many of the flute recordings you can hear the ambience of the room,
which is as much a part of the Chamberlin magic as the note itself.
Flute 2
Chromatic Flute notes (G-F) taken from the Chamberlin M1-Remote. Although the same sound as
Flutes 1, over the years, the wear on the tapes have introduced a different tone and quality to the
sound. These recordings seem more raw as a result.
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 French Horn
Chromatic French Horn notes (G-F) taken from the Chamberlin M4 lower-left keyboard. Because the
original range of this keyboard is only 25 notes (C-C) we have time-stretched the bottom and top five
notes to fit the 35 note range of the M-Tron Pro.
Harp Arpeggios
There were three sounds that Harry refused to make available to the public and that resided only on
his personal Chamberlin Riviera (a home version of the M4). These were the Solo Harp, Harp Arpeggio
and Harp Rolls.
These arpeggios have been mapped chromatically with major arpeggios covering notes 1-17 (G-B inc)
and minor arpeggios covering notes 18-35 (C-F inc).
The original tapes only covered 25 notes from C-C but as the M-Tron Pro covers a 35 note range
from G-F we have repeated some notes so that the entire range is covered. For example, notes 13-17
inclusive (G major-B major) have been copied to notes 1-5 inclusive. Similarly, notes 18-23 inclusive
(C minor – F minor) have been copied to notes 30-35 inclusive.
Harp Rolls– 30 Notes
The second of Harry’s personal sounds, these harp arpeggios are truly awe inspiring.
As with the Harp Arpeggios, the original tapes only covered 25 notes from C-C but as the M-Tron Pro
covers a 35 note range from G-F we have repeated some notes so that a 30 note range is covered. For
example, notes 13-17 inclusive (G major-B major) have been copied to notes 1-5 inclusive.
However, we have not copied any notes at the upper end of the keys because the top chromatic
mapping stops at the top C. This note is actually a B.
Harpsichord
Chromatic Harpsichord notes (G-F) taken from the Chamberlin M4 upper-right keyboard.
Male Voice
Chromatic Solo Male notes (G-F) taken from the Chamberlin M4 upper-right keyboard. Unlike the
Female Voice tapes, this encompasses the full 35 note range and no pitch-shifting was necessary.
Muted Trumpet
Chromatic Muted Trumpet notes (G-F) taken from the Chamberlin M4 upper-left keyboard. These
should be thought of as a more muted trumpet sound, as opposed to a trumpet with a mute.
Oboe
Chromatic Solo Male notes (G-F) taken from the Chamberlin M4 lower-left keyboard.
ChamberTron for M-Tron Pro
Open Trombone 1
Chromatic Trombone notes (G-F) taken from the Chamberlin M4 lower-right keyboard.
Open Trombone 2
Chromatic Trombone notes (G-F) taken from the Chamberlin M1-Remote. Although technically the
same original recording as Open Trombone 1, on each instrument the wear on the tapes will have
been different which leads to a different tone and sound quality.
Open Trumpet 1
Chromatic Trumpet notes (G-F) taken from the Chamberlin M4 lower-right keyboard.
Open Trumpet 2
Chromatic Trumpet notes (G-F) taken from the Chamberlin M1-Remote. Although technically the
same original recording as Open Trumpet 1, on each instrument the wear on the tapes will have
been different which leads to a different tone and sound quality.
Organ
Chromatic organ notes (G-F) taken from the Chamberlin M4 lower-right keyboard. With the character
of a fairground meets theatre organ, this is instant Americana.
Piano
Chromatic Pianoforte notes (G-F) taken from the Chamberlin M4 upper-right keyboard. This is one
of our favourite Chamberlin sounds. Just add reverb and minor chords for instant melancholy.
Slur Guitar
Chromatic organ notes (G-F) taken from the Chamberlin M4 lower-left keyboard. You want Hawaiian
Guitars? Look no further.
By removing all or part of the slur this also makes a great country guitar.
NB. The bottom five notes (G-C inc) have no initial note before the slurred note.
Slur Trombone
Chromatic Trombone Slurred notes (G-F) taken from the Chamberlin M4 lower-left keyboard. As
with the Slur Guitar sound the bottom five notes (G-C inc) have no initial note before the slurred
note.
If you want to eliminate the slur or simply change the degree of slur first heard, simply adjust the
Attack Start knob on the M-Tron Pro to approximately 11 O’Clock.
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 Sound Effects 1 Vibes 2
A fantastic source of vintage sound effects, ranging from farm animals to bird calls and train whistles to Chromatic Vibraphone notes (G-F) taken from the Chamberlin 600. Many of these notes have been
ship horns. All taken from the Chamberlin M4 and our incredibly rare Rhythmate 25 with extra ‘Variety’ faded across the duration of the note for a natural sounding decay.
tape.
We’ve added a slowed down ship’s horn on the final note and this was recorded from the Rhythmate 25
‘Variety’ tape while we slowed the motor to a standstill. Vibes 3
Don’t miss the top ‘A’ motor car sound effect where you can clearly hear Harry tell the person in the car Chromatic Vibraphone notes (G-F) taken from the Chamberlin M1-Remote These are the raw ‘warts
to “Beep your horn”. and all’ recordings.

Sound Effects 2 Violins 1

Not strictly a Chamberlin tape bank but various tape noise rewind noises, tape snatches and other The world famous 3 Violin sound that adorned countless recordings during the 1970s, particularly
assorted effects that we encountered during the recording and editing process. Some of these were those recorded in the UK. This is the only sound to be shared with the Mellotron and this recording
simply too good to throw away so we thought we’d include them here. comes from the Chamberlin M4 upper-right keyboard.

Spanish Guitar Violins 2

Chromatic Spanish Guitar notes (G-F) taken from the Chamberlin M4 upper-left keyboard. A truly lovely A version of the above 3 Violins recording taken from the Chamberlin M1 remote.
sound when combined with some reverb or delay and with the M-Tron Pro Low Pass Filter slightly
closed.

Strings & Flutes 1 Acknowledgements:

Chromatic, layered String & Flute notes (G-F) taken from the Chamberlin M4 lower-left keyboard. This Ryder Duncan, Ian Legge, Ryan O’Neal (Sleeping At Last) for their awesome website demos. Izotope
sound typifies the vibrato heavy sound that was popular at the time the original recordings took place. Inc for the stunning RX2 software. Neil Perry of Raw State for lovingly resurrecting and maintaining
our original instruments and last but certainly not least, Bridget Chamberlin-Shoup.

Patch Design:
Strings & Flutes 2
Russ Butterfield, Jem Godfrey, Jarrod Gosling, David Hentschel, Dean Honer, Richard James,
Chromatic, layered String & Flute notes (G-F) taken from a Chamberlin 600. A slightly rougher version Chris Macleod, Richard Norris, Dave Spiers and Gaz Williams.
of the Flute and Strings 1 sound
Legal Notice
All product names used in this product are trademarks of their respective owners and are in no way
Tenor Sax 1 associated or affiliated with GForce Software Ltd. These trademarks of other manufacturers are
used solely to identify the products of those manufacturers whose tones and sounds were studied
Chromatic Tenor Saxophone notes (G-F) taken from the Chamberlin M4 bottom-right keyboard. and or recorded during development of this product.
The data contained within this product is licensed to you for use in your own musical compositions
both for commercial and personal projects. Redistribution of the data in any other form is strictly
Tenor Sax 2 forbidden.
Chromatic Alto Saxophone notes (G-F) taken from the Chamberlin M1-Remote. Put simply, we went to a great deal of expense and effort to provide M-Tron Pro users with something
very cool and unique and we do not want to see any of this work miraculously appear in other products
or provided in other formats. It also goes without saying that we do not want to see this work passed
Vibes 1 around on the internet and will pursue anyone who thinks it’s a good idea.

Chromatic Vibraphone notes (G-F) taken from the Chamberlin M4 top-right keyboard. The most perfect
set of Vibes in our collection

ChamberTron for M-Tron Pro 7