Anyone have an Optigan?

[Funkybot]

I'm wondering if anyone here has an Optigan? I'm just curious if anyone has one they'd like to sample some of the discs from. I know there's a few free Optigan samples on the net but the only ones I've found have been the instruments, not the rthyms and I don't want to spend $300 (or whatever) for the Akai CD.

I'm considering buying one just to sample it, and asking some freeware developer to come up with a simple sample player for it (though it would have to constantly play the rhthym samples in the background like a real Optigan). Unfortunately, for some reason eBay never notified me after the last one in my area approached final bidding so I missed out on that one.

Anyway just asking/thinking out loud.

[Stupid American Pig]

I have been searching for an optigan for like 2 years now...

[OMU]

What is it?

[Markleford]

What is it?

http://www.optigan.com/

Here's a track I did with the samples of the "Virtual Optigan": Zomboni

Apparently the copyright holder on the Akai CD gets enough orders that he doesn't feel the need to lower the price.

- m

[Stupid American Pig]

http://www.optigan.com/

[Stupid American Pig]

Basically they use light to shine through waveforms on a record like disc, that creates varying voltages and therefore sound. Its kinda like an analog CD player. Another thing cool about the optigan- you can flip the discs over and it will play the samples in reverse, and scratches in the disc sound like a scratched record.

Think of it as a poor mans mellotron. unfortunately, they are not very reliable, and hard to find.

[waiting man]

constantly in search of optigans and orkestrons.

[emdot_ambient]

I've had the same problem with trying to find accurate Orchestron samples. The Orchestron was the attempt to take optical analog samplers into the pro market. You either shell out $300 for Akai samples (that include a lot of hokey stuff I don't want) or you're stuck with free samples that shoddy and probably incomplete.

I want these for the strings and vocal sounds only. Ever since I first heard Kraftwerk's Trans-Europe Express and Radioactivity albums, I've wanted those sounds.

I purchased ProSamples Vol 55 Retro Samplers just to get those sounds, but the vocal samples from the Orchestron really don't do it. I've managed to tweak the filter in Kontakt to get the violins sounding pretty much spot on to the strings that introduce the title track on Trans-Europe Express, but the vocals still are proving elusive.

ANYWAY . . . even if you find an original Optigan/Orchestron, the sounds you sample are very likely going to be less than perfect representations of the original as the optical discs they use get scratched and dirty, which ends up introducing noise into the sound very similar to the scratchy noises of an old vinyl recording.

[waiting man]

What is it?

http://www.optigan.com/

Here's a track I did with the samples of the "Virtual Optigan": Zomboni

Apparently the copyright holder on the Akai CD gets enough orders that he doesn't feel the need to lower the price.

- m

crap, 199 bucks!!

the only vako samples I know are @ hollowsun.com

[emdot_ambient]

Think of it as a poor mans mellotron.

Well, they have one advantage over mellotrons . . . the sounds don't stop after 7 or 8 seconds. They are continuous loops on the optical disc, so they have infinite sustain. That's what freaked everyone out about the vocal samples used by KW on Radioactivity. They just keep going and going, unlike mellotron sounds, which must be constantly re-keyed in order to get sustained sounds.

Patrik Moraz actually had a dual keyboard version of the Orchestron.

Seems like I read that some of them would allow you to load more than one disc at a time, overlapping them to get layered samples. Might be wrong there, though.

[xoxos]

so lessee.. optigan = optical data sold c. ~75 by a toy company, theremin was.. 1913? (i'm jus goin off figures i seen years ago, gimme break)

and all yall bassards are like totally like "oh technology, only us now, no one ever had technology on earth because there are no recent signs of mass production like asshles and idiots, and we all know they would have to act as foully as we do.."

....the history of western civilisation.... like everythnig else, ever, just stretches out endlessly in mediocrity, never to be as brilliant as we today with our oil and our dependency and our willingness to deepthroat a f**king shithead like bush

all because, it's the sweet spot, we're the most advanced.. they were all that sticks and stones bullshit, never any metal or plastic.

look, just stand in a line and i'll just run straight and slap you all at once.

[xoxos]

oc that will be te movie line where you go see the new twat brainthink movie

[emdot_ambient]

the only vako samples I know are @ hollowsun.com

Except as noted in my previous post...

ProSamples Vol 55 Retro Samplers

This is a sample set in Akai format that contains all the samples from the Cult Retro Sampler, which comes with a NI Kompakt sample player at nearly 3 times the price.

[waiting man]

so lessee.. optigan = optical data sold c. ~75 by a toy company, theremin was.. 1913? (i'm jus goin off figures i seen years ago, gimme break)

and all yall bassards are like totally like "oh technology, only us now, no one ever had technology on earth because there are no recent signs of mass production like asshles and idiots, and we all know they would have to act as foully as we do.."

....the history of western civilisation.... like everythnig else, ever, just stretches out endlessly in mediocrity, never to be as brilliant as we today with our oil and our dependency and our willingness to deepthroat a f**king shithead like bush

all because, it's the sweet spot, we're the most advanced.. they were all that sticks and stones bullshit, never any metal or plastic.

look, just stand in a line and i'll just run straight and slap you all at once.

I happily don't give a shit on where it comes from, it's just too expensive and rare. as mellotrons, organs, etc..hollowsun has some of the them for free, so there are still some trees left for you to sit on, folk. but rush, Cm and Fm are out monthly.

[chris_b]

oc that will be te movie line where you go see the new twat brainthink movie

Twat Brainthink's got a new movie out? he's my favourite actor