After chatting up Mark Focarile of Mile Marker Zero about his Native Instruments B4 II software we moved from organ sounds to another classic keyboard rendered into software. G-Force M-Tron Pro is what you need when you need a Mellotron but ain't got the moneytron or means of tranportotron.

"I have never been lucky enough to play a real Mellotron, but from listening to a lot of old Genesis albums, I think it sounds amazing. Not many bands tour with real Mellotrons, but I'm starting to hear them more and more in modern recordings. Having a plug-in like M-Tron pro allows more and more people to use these sounds live," says Focarile. "I love the sound of the Mellotron; has a real warm, but creepy sound. The imperfection of the grainy tape gave it a lot of character. I've found that sometimes using regular string sounds doesn't always work as well in a band setting. Mile Marker Zero has pretty organic sound, so I enjoy dialing into the classic keyboard tones to augment our performance."

M-Tron Pro is noted for its large number of presets. Focarile is a big fan of these.

"I love the amount of presets in the program. On the album I used everything from a basic flute patch to a full-blown gothic orchestra / choir mix. I think it's great for someone like me who never got to play a real Mellotron to have the ability to explore all the different tape bank options," he says. "The only thing I wish is that the presets were numbered so that I could call them up from the keyboard rather than having to choose them from computer. I know that most players will use a third party host like the Muse Receptor or Mainstage, but since I don't have the luxury of that right now, it would be great to change sounds via a MIDI controller."

As with Native Instruments B4 II he says that the learning curve is virtually non-existent. You plug in and are ready to go.

"It also came with a great tutorial DVD for beginners to learn how to mix and match their patches as well as create their own," he says. "When you open up the control panel, everything is laid out very cleanly, and it's very easy to use."

If you are more interested in making custom sounds than using presets Focarile says M-Tron Pro will also do your bidding.

"Custom sounds are very easy to make. They have color coded everything nicely so that you don't get confused when you're creating a two part split or layer. It's very simple to create your own user bank of sounds, and use effects to add more color to your sound," says Focarile. "Even though you can't change patches on the fly, they do give you the ability to assign Midi CC over many other features including filter, pitch, and tape speed, which allows players the opportunity to manipulate the sound straight from their controller while they're playing. This makes creating sounds even less cumbersome."

G-Force M-Tron Pro's Plugin Interface

Focarile runs M-Tron Pro through Logic Pro which he slaves to run all his soft synths. He uses it for most of his string choir and flute sounds.

"It gives the band a very organic sound, and blends with the band better. Sometimes the samples are so good, that it's almost too much and I have to back off a little bit." he says.

He says the best feature of the software is simply that the sounds are incredible.

"My band mates and studio engineers I worked with were blown away with the enormous range of sound the program creates. Like you said before, the soft synth technology has gotten so good that it's getting harder and harder to tell the difference between a sample and the actual instrument," says Focarile. "I've heard nothing but horror stories about touring with a real Mellotron so this program allows players to take use these sounds live without all the hassles."

As to problems with M-Tron Pro Focarile has had a few.

"I wish that when you were making splits that you could change the octaves of the two patches. I was trying to make a split where I had flutes in the upper range, but I wanted to drop them an octave, so I tried running the tape at half speed, but that made it really out of tune," he says. "It's in a section of the song where the orchestration was only flutes and vocals, so it didn't sound good. Other than that, I am in love with this program and plan on using all the time in the new material we write."