Newmello II Review – One Of The Best Mellotrons?

As an avid fan and creator of 60s and 70s style music, I have to say that I really enjoy mellotrons. I have been a fan of Wavesfactory and their VSTS for quite some time now, so it seems fitting to do this review.

Quick summary: The Newmello II is an affordable powerhouse that is modeled after the vintage mellotron M400. If you’re into the nostalgic sound of the 60’s and 70’s, you will love this.

So let’s get into my quick thoughts right off the bat. Newmello II is one of my favorite mellotron VSTS that is currently available. It’s relatively inexpensive, it sounds authentic and at times chilling, and it’s easy on your PC or Macbook.

You can purchase Newmello II and read more reviews here.

Newmello II is modeled after the mellotron M400, which was made famous by bands like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, and Genesis. These are just a few of the bands.

Now, all you need is Kontakt 4 or Kontakt 5 in order to experience some amazing mellotron sounds. One thing to note is that if you choose to use the free version of Kontakt, you will be able to run Newmello II, but only for 15 minutes.

The Interface

The Newmello II interface is extremely user-friendly and intuitive. You won’t need to be a full-time music producer to understand how to navigate through the sounds or to even begin tweaking sounds.

Experimentation with VSTS is key, and this is made simple for musicians.

there are 25 presets to pick from on the interface and you will notice it’s as easy as clicking left or right for navigation.

Noise volume has 2 modes. One is continuous noise and the other only applies noise when Newmello is being played.

You will notice the attack and release knobs for the envelopes as well as a tone controller. The tone knob works just like an EQ would, allowing you to boost or cut your frequencies.

If you would like to play octaves, but only are comfortable playing individual notes, you can turn on the octave feature. This will allow you to put notes above or below your original note, without having to play them.

Tape A & B

Tape A is a Tascam 414 recorder and tape B is a lo-fi option.

What Styles Of Music Does The Newmello II Work With Best?

You could effectively use this for film scores, alternative music or pop music. With pop music being heavily reliant on production, this kind of benefits the Newmello in my opinion. Pop music has been going darker now for years and using unconventional instruments and VSTS.

What I Like

You are able to loop, velocity map, and use random round-robin repetitions. I’m a big fan of using the original sounds and trying to emulate music from the 60s and 70s, however, it is nice to mix it up and go outside of the lines.

The purge feature is nice. This allows you to basically make it so your computer only loads samples of the current patch. In turn, this will save RAM and CPU.

I really enjoy the sounds. They teleport me to a younger time in my life and even remind me of the old school video games that I grew up with, such as Zelda or Megaman.

Rack Effects

Newmello II comes with rack effects, which allow you to select up to DSP effects. I personally went through them and thought they were great for and added some additional character to the sounds.

The reverb, lo-fi, and convolution are the ones that I generally use.

Overall

I personally think the Newmello II plugin is one of the better mellotron VSTS currently available. I really like the sound overall as well as the price. Wavesfactory made an affordable, yet quality plugin for producers to dive deep into.

If you’re a producer looking for something to spice up your production and you dig the mellotron, I highly recommend giving this plugin a try.