Panoptigon plays Giant Steps & Yakety Sax on Orchestron Saxophone Discs

Published on Feb 12, 2019 optigandotcom

"Another Panoptigon demo- this time a a comparison of a vintage Orchestron Saxophone disc with our remastered edition of the same disc. The vintage disc plays a midi file of Coltrane's Giant Steps, while the remastered disc plays a midi file of Boots Randolph's Yakety Sax. The reverb is onboard the Panoptigon, and there's a bit more applied in Giant Steps. Note that Yakety Sax has a fair amount of pitch bends, which are achieved on the Panoptigon by mechanically changing the rotation speed of the disc. Also note the fair amount of clicky noises when playing rapid passages like this. These sounds are a by-product of the unique way the Panoptigon produces sound, and were present on the vintage Optigan and Orchestron as well. This is an inherent and characteristic sound of these instruments. Both midi files were downloaded from the web. You can find info about pre-ordering a Panoptigon (which comes with our remastered edition of this Vocal Choir disc) here: http://optigan.com/2019/01/panoptigon..."

Panoptigon plays Kraftwerk URANIUM with Vintage Orchestron VOCAL CHOIR Disc

Published on Feb 11, 2019 optigandotcom

"Another Panoptigon demo- this time a rendition of Kraftwerk's URANIUM, using a vintage Orchestron Vocal Choir disc, including the onboard hall reverb. No other external effects, EQ, or processing were added to the Panoptigon signal. The disc used here is identical to the disc used by Kraftwerk on the original 1975 recording made with a Vako Orchestron. Synthetic speech generated by a web app. You can find info about pre-ordering a Panoptigon (which comes with our remastered edition of this Vocal Choir disc) here: http://optigan.com/2019/01/panoptigon..."

Panoptigon plays Vintage Orchestron PIPE ORGAN Disc

Published on Feb 11, 2019 optigandotcom

"Another Panoptigon demo- this time an improvisation using a vintage Orchestron Pipe Organ disc, including the onboard hall reverb. You can find info about pre-ordering a Panoptigon here: http://optigan.com/2019/01/panoptigon..."

Laurie Anderson - Optigan / Panoptigon 2010 One-Off Disc Demo

Published on Feb 11, 2019 optigandotcom

"This is a historical oddity that was never intended for public consumption, but in honor of Laurie Anderson's Grammy Award for LANDFALL (which prominently features Robert Becker's heavily modified "Optigan Pro"), we thought it'd be fun to share this and get in a quick Panoptigon demo at the same time (http://optigan.com/2019/01/panoptigon...). When we lent Laurie the Optigan, we thought it'd be fun to put some of her own sounds on a one-off disc for her to mess around with. We pulled drums & musical loops for the chord buttons, and short spoken phrases for the keyboard. This demo is just some spontaneous noodling, which was recorded in multiple MIDI passes and then dumped live to audio. The video was shot during the actual audio recording, so you can see the disc speed up, slow down, and go into reverse in time with the audio. Maybe not Grammy material (OK, decidedly not!), but a geeky curiosity nonetheless! Congrats, Laurie & Kronos!"

The Panoptigon Updates Classic Optigan, Vako Orchestron

Published on Jan 30, 2019 Synthtopia

"At the 2019 NAMM Show, Quilter Labs introduced the Panoptigon, an optical sample playback device, based on the rare Optigan and Vako Orchestron instruments of the 1970's."

NAMM 2019 Panoptigon

Published on Jan 27, 2019 sonicstate

"We're just really glad this exists. A personal favourite. Expensive, crazy and lovable, but brilliant"

Some history in this one.

NAMM 2019: Gamechanger Audio Motor Piano - Poly Synth Madness...

Published on Jan 27, 2019 sonicstate

"A weird concept that we're looking forward to see develop..."

Mechanical electo motors with optical discs for oscillators. Reminds me of the Optigan & new Panoptigon. 12 voice polyphony.

The Panoptigon with Quilter Labs at NAMM 2019 | Reverb

Published on Jan 26, 2019 Reverb

"The Panoptigon is inspired by the Optigan, a 70's invention originally sold by Mattel, which used an optical disc to sample prerecorded music. However, this new Panoptigon incorporates a host of modern features and brings a lo-fi, physical vibe to synthesized sounds."

Panoptigon Plays KRAFTWERK's "Franz Schubert" on Vintage Vako Orchestron VIOLIN Disc

Published on Jan 19, 2019 optigandotcom

"This is a demo of the PANOPTIGON- the new Optigan/Orchestron disc playing instrument by Quilter Labs, developed in association with optigan.com.

Kraftwerk is undoubtedly the most famous user of the original Vako Orchestron, which can be heard on all their albums from the late 1970s. Most notable is their use of the VOCAL CHOIR disc, but they also made good use of the VIOLIN disc, heard on such tracks as 1977's "Franz Schubert." We painstakingly transcribed the two Orchestron tracks from the original recording and created a sequence in Cubase, which then played back the parts via MIDI into a Panoptigon loaded with a vintage VIOLIN disc just like Kraftwerk had. The left/right channel parts were then recorded in two seperate passes as audio back into cubase, and mixed with a soft synth plug-in recreating the repeating arpeggio pattern. A bit of reverb was added, but otherwise what you're hearing is the direct signal from the Panoptigon.

Please visit http://www.optigan.com for more information about the availability of the Panoptigon, as well as remastered editions of all the original Orchestron disc titles that Kraftwerk used on their albums!"

Optigan Panoptigon- Production Unit Pics

via Optigan.com

"Happy 2019, Optigoners!

We’re happy to announce that the PANOPTIGON – the new Optigan/Orchestron disc-playing hardware developed by our associate Robert Becker & his company Quilter Labs – will finally be available in an initial limited quantity production run of 25 units for US customers in 2019. (The initial run are not approved for Europe due to additional requirements that will be addressed on the next build.) Click on the thumbnails above to see the official flyer and photos of one of the first production units. We don’t have a release date yet, but it will be in the coming months. An official demo video will be ready soon, but in the meantime you can view a demo of the prototype unit from last year [posted here]

Quilter Labs will be showing the first two production units at NAMM this year, so if you’re attending, be sure to stop by their booth – number 4144 Hall D.

We’d like to encourage all of you to purchase the Panoptigon from this site (optigan.com) when it does become available. The Panoptigon was developed with Pea acting in an informal advisory role, but optigan.com will only be a dealer, rather than a partner, which means the only way we earn any cut is via sales commissions. In other words, if you hear about it from us, and decide to buy it based on our involvement/endorsement, but end up buying it direct from the factory, we will receive no commission. Either way, the price, delivery time, and service will be the same. MAP for the Panoptigon is $3999.

To this end, we will be offering an informal pre-sale for folks who are keen to reserve one of the initial batch of 25 units that will be offered for sale (10 of the initial run are already spoken for as of this posting date). Please send us an email if you’re interested in placing a pre-order, and we’ll get the ordering details to you as soon as we’re ready.

Along with the public launch of the Panoptigon, our entire back-catalog of discs will become more readily available on demand, so no more waiting around for bulk order deals as we’ve had to do in the past. The Panoptigon will play all vintage Optigan/Orchestron discs as well, but we’re also likely to remaster the vintage Optigan disc titles in order to add the strobe patterns that unlock additional features for discs that have them.

OK! That about covers it for now. See you at NAMM!"

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See @ NAMM! PANOPTIGON Prototype - New 2018 Optigan / Orchestron Disc Player

Published on Jan 22, 2018 optigandotcom

"This is a brief run-down of the main features of the PANOPTIGON, a prototype MIDI-controlled Optigan/Orchestron disc player (suitable for stage or studio) built by Robert Becker. Those attending Winter NAMM 2018 can see and play this unit for themselves at Quilter Labs - Booth 15120. Note that this unit is a PROTOTYPE / Proof-of-Concept unit, and does not necessarily reflect the design and/or feature set of any future production model. At this time, we cannot provide any estimates on pricing or availability- the unit is still in the R&D phase.

The Panoptigon will play vintage Optigan/Orchestron discs from the 1970s as well as the new line of discs made by optigan.com since 2008. Our new line of discs provide additional functionality, as they have strobe lines printed on them which allow for automatic tuning, transpose, pitch bend, and even mechanical vibrato. Vintage discs were never printed with such strobe lines, and thus are not compatible with these extended features, but will otherwise play nicely and sound better than ever. All the lo-fi you love, presented in the hi-fi you need!

The unit comes with an onboard DSP effects processor, which provides reverb as well as other basic effects such as flange.

Control is via MIDI- in this case, a basic MIDI controller keyboard.

The audio heard in this demo is direct from the unit, with no additional post-processing applied. The slight distortion you hear when the reverb is turned on is an artifact of Youtube's horrible audio compression.

For more information about the Optigan and Orchestron, please visit http://www.optigan.com"

The PANOPTIGON was first featured here on MATRIXSYNTH.