On 27 Aug, 00:29, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Ultimately the problems of doing accurate SYNTHESIS were overcome by the
art of sampling. Rather like the original ..bugger I forget the name -
you know with a million lops of tape running inside it. Think Moody Blues..

Mellotron. I tend to think of Peter Sellers shagging Princess Margaret
instead.

A Mellotron also used strips of tapes, not loops. These were rewound
under tension once released, but it did mean that you couldn't sustain
a note indefinitely, only for a few seconds.