Dave Kerzner (aka "Squids") of Sonic Reality has announced the release of some of his private collection of sampled Mellotrons, Chamberlins, Optigans and Orchestrons in SampleTank format. This rare product is called the Squids' Tron Collection and is the most comprehensive collection of "Trons" ever made. It is the ideal vintage keyboard expansion library for SampleTank users and for those new to SampleTank (the collection comes with SampleTank 2 LE, making it a powerful plug-in as well as a sound library.)The collection is available for a limited time only. Check out IK's interview below with Dave Kerzner and learn more about these fascinating instruments and this rare sound collection....


IK Multimedia's Exclusive Interview with Dave Kerzner (aka "Squids") about the Squids Tron Collection Vol. 1 from Sonic Reality

Dave Kerzner, CEO of Sonic Reality, the main sound partner of IK Multimedia, has collected many rare and unusual instruments over the years. Among them are lofi tape and optical disc based keyboards such as Mellotrons, Chamberlins, Optigans and Orchestrons which many affectionately refer to as "Trons." He has brought them to recording studio sessions and has sampled them for many well-known artists such as Neil Finn & Crowded House, Tom Waits, Smashing Pumpkins, T-Bone Burnette, Sam Phillips, Aimee Mann, Roger Manning of the band Jellyfish and many more. He is here to In the exclusive interview below, Dave talks about Sonic Reality's new SampleTank sound library of the most rare and collectible Trons from his personal private collection called Squids Tron Collection Vol. 1.


First of all what is the Squids Tron Collection?

DK:  Well, the "Squids" part of the title is because it is my nickname. Unlike some other company's products, I've never been comfortable with putting my actual name in the title… "Dave Kerzner's Personal Private Pocket Tron Collection" for example. But these samples of rare Mellotrons, Chamberlins, Optigans and Orchestrons are from my personal archives that I thought I would never release as a product to the public. We did a limited production release of it as "Squids' Tron Collection" and it was so well received that we've decided to bring it back and make it available to all SampleTank users or even anyone who is new to SampleTank as a plug-in by including a SampleTank 2 LE with the product.


So what exactly is a "Tron"?

DK: A "Tron" is a loose term used for certain vintage lofi keyboard units like Mellotrons that were, technically speaking, the first samplers or sampler players. Mellotrons and Chamberlins used analog tape running across a discrete tape head and playback mechanism for each key of the keyboard! They were monstrous contraptions that many bands using them had a love/hate relationship with. Love for the sound capability, but dread for touring with them and their fragility! These instruments have sounds that are a part of classic recordings from bands of the 60's and 70's like The Beatles, Yes, Genesis, King Crimson and many others. It has been used for a lot of psychedelic and progressive rock music but has also become recently popular in the last 15 years in alternative and pop music styles as well as hip hop because of its grainy lofi gritty quality.


Tell us about these other types of Trons, the "Optigan and Orchestron."

DK:  The Optigan and Orchestron both use optical discs that look and sound like a cross between a vinyl record with crackles and pops but also a grainy texture like an old film from the 30's or 40's. The Optigan was a little bit more groove and organ oriented and the Orchestron was geared more toward being the optical disc version of the Mellotron in terms of its sounds sporting choirs, strings and other lush instruments. The Orchestron was made by a company called "Vako." The Optigan, however, was made by the toy company Mattel! This could be one of the coolest "toys" they've ever made… at least in my opinion! Out of the two the Optigan is the most popular in terms of use today. You'd be surprised how many artists have used Optigan grooves or sounds in popular tunes heard on the radio. The soundtrack for the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind has Optigan in it courtesy of Jon Brion, whom I met years ago when he needed me to bring in a Mellotron and various Tron samples for Aimee Mann's album Whatever.


What artists have you worked with relating to these types of instruments?

DK: Well, when I was living in LA, my studio was almost like a museum of rare instruments that producers would come over and cherry pick for sessions. Someone like Jack Joseph Puig (producer/engineer for Goo Goo Dolls, Jellyfish, Black Crowes) or T-Bone Burnette (producer for Elvis Costello, Sam Phillips, Wallflowers, Counting Crows) would just come over and say, "Okay, I want that, that, that and that plus this weird thing and that thing hanging on the wall" and I'd bring them over to a studio like Sound City, Oceanway, Sunset Sound or George Massenburg's The Complex. One time I brought a Mellotron to a session for Chastity Bono, Cher's daughter, at The Complex. Brooke Sheilds happened to be hanging in front of the studio and offered to help me get the bulky Mellotron out of my truck. The whole day was rather surreal and it's pretty funny thinking back on it. What are the odds of Brooke Sheilds helping you move a Mellotron?

Anyway, I sampled a bunch of Mellotrons and Optigans for the Smashing Pumpkins Adore album, for Crowded House's Together Alone album, Sam Phillips' Martinis and Bikinis as well as for their tours for previous albums. In fact, a lot of musicians use our samples of Trons for live shows because bringing an actual Mellotron or Chamberlin to the show is asking for trouble! Any keyboard that requires you to have a screw driver handy at all times is guaranteed stress! But, keyboardists like Roger Manning (Jellyfish, Beck, Imperial Drag) and Patrick Warren (Michael Penn, Fiona Apple) use Sonic Reality samples live and in the studio as well as Mark Hart (Crowded House, Supertramp) and even Tom Waits, who bought a computer specifically to run the Squids Tron Collection for his latest shows with a live orchestra. He wanted to add the gritty, haunting texture of the Chamberlin that he uses on his recordings to the live show even though he had a small orchestra. Ironically, the Chamberlin he uses is a Music Master 550 that I sold him in the late 80's. So the Squids Tron Collection already has samples of his actually Chamberlin anyway. I used to own a lot of keyboards that were either previously owned by well-known artists or were sold to them by me.


That's interesting. Tell us more about the Tron instruments that you've sampled that belonged to famous artists.

I had a lot of cool ones that are now preserved as samples in this Squids Tron Collection. There was the 4 manual telexed Chamberlin M-4 that once belonged to The Moody Blues. That had 24 sounds loaded into it and was 8 times more than the typical Mellotron. It practically had a complete orchestra in there. Then there was Joni Mitchell's dual manual Mellotron Mark 5, of which I was told there are only a handful. One belongs to Paul McCartney, which I saw in a Beatles documentary where he plays the Stawberry Fields riff on the Mellotron flute sound (which of course is in the Squids Tron Collection). Rick Wakeman also had one and there are maybe only 20-30 others in existence apparently. I had a wood painted Mellotron that was supposedly used on U2's Unforgettable Fire album. I sold that and a Farfisa organ to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. I already mentioned the Chamberlin Music Master 550 that I sold to Tom Waits. I also had a Chamberlin Music Master 400 with a really cool speed control mod that allowed you to slow it down to a hault, which I sold to Neil Finn of Crowded House as well as my Optigan. We stored it over at Mitchel Froom's Sound Factory studio for a while until they finally sent it down under. Hopefully it made it there in one piece! But, I had sampled the whole thing and most of those samples as well as the Optigan samples like "Da dai da dai da" in the song Chocolate Cake are all in the Squids Tron Collection. The Orchestron I had previously belonged to Brian Kehew who recently co-produced Fiona Apple's last record and was part of the band "Moog Cookbook" with Roger Manning. He's currently touring with The Who and I recently met up with him when they were in South Florida. He's excited about using the Squids Tron Collection in his SampleTank. There's probably more that I am not remembering. For as rare as these instruments were, it is surprising how many Trons I was able to find. Harry Chamberlin ran his company out of Upland California so a majority of them I imagine never left the state at least in one piece! I guess being in the right place at the right time played a big part. That and being interested in something technically "out-dated" at a time when only a handful of others were. It was like a secret! But now everyone wants to have those kinds of sounds because they have so much character and nostalgia.


What should new and avid SampleTank users expect from the Squids Tron Collection?

Well, for one thing, this collection is not for everyone. It is the opposite of our usual philosophy of capturing high quality sound with the best fidelity. In this case the appeal IS actually the noise, warble, crackles, pops, drift in tuning and hum!! Those imperfections are a part of what gives the Trons character and what makes them add a certain vintage, quirky lofi quality to so many styles of music that call upon them today. The Squids Tron Collection is perhaps the most comprehensive sample library of these instruments made to date. You get the sounds used on classic records such as the Strawberry Fields flute used by the Beatles, the Yes Rick Wakeman Tron Strings, the Tony Banks Watcher of the Skies Brass/Strings from Genesis, the Moody Blues Violins from "Nights in White Satin", the Chamberlin Cello and Sax from Crowded House's Woodface and other albums, the Chamberlin Flutes you hear on Fiona Apple's Criminal and so many more sought after sounds. But, in addition to that you get a lot of quirky rare sounds that previously only very few have had access to from the limited amount of original instruments it came from. It even has a unique Ampex tube analog tape machine transfer that I did with Patrick Warren at Michael Penn's studio. He bought the machine from Richard Chamberlin, Harry Chamberlin's son. Previously no one but myself and Patrick had those sounds. It doesn't get any more rare than that!


Will there be a Squids Tron Vol. 2?

Yes, we definitely have more coming. I have quite a few recordings of other rare Trons such as the Mellotron-Sound-Sales-distributed Powerhouse 8 track tape drum machine, Chamberlin Rhythmate, digital trons like the 360 Systems keyboard as well as rare Chamberlin tapes I bought from someone named Sandy who lived up in the woods. He used to work for Chamberlin and I picked up all kinds of tinker-toy-looking prototypes from him one time. But that's a whole other story! The definitive Tron collection to get though would be Squids Tron Volume 1. For those that are into the rare and unusual, this collection should be a lot of fun!

Click here for information about the Squids' Tron Collection and to purchase the collection today.