MATRIXSYNTH: The iOptigan: the infamous Optigal Organ of the 1970s in your iPad!


Tuesday, April 01, 2025

The iOptigan: the infamous Optigal Organ of the 1970s in your iPad!


video upload by CatSynth TV

We present the iOptigan, a recreation of the infamous Optigan keyboard of the 1970s.

From https://ioptigan.com
'The Optigan, short for Optical Organ, was a chord organ from the early 70’s. It is remembered today for its unique system of sound reproduction using optical discs. These LP-sized film discs were optically encoded with 57 concentric tracks, which contained loops of musical combos playing chord patterns in different styles. Each disc contained a specific style of music (Bossa Nova, Big Band etc) which the user could control by pressing the chord buttons...
...Despite this novel technology, the scratchy sound of the Optigan left a lot to be desired. iOptigan truthfully recreates that lo-fi sound. For more information about the original Optigan, please visit https://optigan.com'

00:00 Introduction
00:24 History of the Optigan
01:46 Overview
04:02 Bossa Nova disc
05:49 Playing iOptigan from a MIDI keyboard
08:05 Tempo control
09:57 Bluegrass Banjo
11:37 Movin'
14:27 Playing discs upside down, and 'Gay 90s'
19:53 More Optigan discs
28:31 Conclusion

_________
Store: https://shop.catsynth.com
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/catsynth
Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/catsynth"

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: comments that insult people will be removed. Critique on gear is allowed. Do not ask if listings are still available. Click through auction links to check yourself. Posts and pics remain for historical purposes. To reduce spam, comments for posts older than one week are not displayed until approved (usually same day).

PREVIOUS PAGE NEXT PAGE HOME



Switched On Make Synthesizer Evolution Vintage Synthesizers Creating Sound Fundlementals of Synthesizer Programming Kraftwerk

© Matrixsynth - All posts are presented here for informative, historical and educative purposes as applicable within fair use.
MATRIXSYNTH is supported by affiliate links that use cookies to track clickthroughs and sales. See the privacy policy for details.
MATRIXSYNTH - EVERYTHING SYNTH