Ellatron comes in two main versions, a “Pro” version for the iPhone/iPod Touch and an “HD” version for the iPad. The Ellatron is a Mellotron inspired app that comes with a a dozen or more sounds, dual keyboards, and some cool other features.
What’s a Mellotron?
From Wikipedia:
The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical, polyphonic keyboard originally developed and built in Birmingham, England in the early 1960s. It superseded the Chamberlin, which was the world’s first sample-playback keyboard.
The Mellotron produces some very iconic and unique sounds, and has been used in some great 60s and 70s progressive rock. I think it has a rather warm and rich sound that is pretty cool. The Ellatron seeks to emulate some of the original Mellotron sounds.
Ellatron Features
The Ellatron allows you to play two different sounds at a time, one on an upper and one on a lower keyboard, or replace the upper keyboard with chord mode.
The sounds are all neat, ranging from strings and orchestral sounds, choir, organ, synths, bass, and more. Each keyboard can be assigned to an octive, and can start on the “F” key or the “C” key.
By switching to chord mode, you can assign different chords to these little virtual pads. These chords can be saved, along with the whole “set” of selected sounds and octave settings.
Chords can be held, and the lower keyboard simultanesouly played. This makes for some great songwriting ideas to flow, as you can play with different chords and chord progressions as you experiment with different melodies on the lower keyboard.
One great little feature is called “wow and flutter” which, when enabled, will phase you in and out of tune in very minor degrees, allowing for a very cool vintage analog sound if you want. You can also affect the pitch, tone, and volume with virtual knobs located at the top of the screen.
The polyphony is pretty decent, and you are able to play up to 5 notes at the same time.
Gripes
I have a couple of gripes with the Ellatron. First is that there are two separate versions, one for the iPhone and one for the iPad. Both versions are essentially the same and yet they make you pay separately for each. There is really no reason for this not to be a universal app.
My second gripe is that there is no way to record or audio copy. Having a little metronome and recording feature with export would have been nice. As it is, the Ellatron can really only be used in live settings.
Should you buy?
I say yes, but only buy it once. If you have both an iPad and an iPhone, the iPad version is obviously a bit easier to use just because it is bigger. I think the sounds are great, and it is a wonderful little songwriting tool to play around with chord progressions and melodies. When it comes to music creation on the iPhone and iPad, it is one of my favorite apps.
Ellatron for the iPhone.
Ellatron HD for the iPad.
Note: If you have an iPad, you may want to consider the Mellotronics M3000, which has more authentic sounds than the Ellatron, but it also costs quite a bit more at $12.