Optigan

The Optigan (a portmanteau of Optical Organ) was an early electronic keyboard instrument designed for the consumer market. It is best remembered today for its reputation of frequent failure and its kitschy appearance and sound. The name stems from the fact that the instrument relied on pre-recorded optical soundtracks to reproduce sound.

Engineering work on the project began in 1968 and the first patents issued in 1970. The Optigan was released in 1971 by Optigan Corporation, a subsidiary of toy manufacturer Mattel, Incorporated of El Segundo, California with the manufacturing plant located nearby in Compton, California. All rights to the Optigan, the disc format, and all previous discs were sold in 1973 to Miner Industries of New York, an organ manufacturer who formed a subsidiary, Opsonar, to produce it. Miner had record sales for a time, in part due to Opsonar. However, sales declined shortly thereafter and production of the Optigan and its discs ceased in 1976.

Appearance and construction

The Optigan looked like a scaled-down version of the electronic organs of the day. The various cabinet designs and their matching benches were simulated wood made out of a molded plastic the manufacturer dubbed "Temperite" and finished with matching speaker grille cloth. A mechanical reverb unit and cabinetry with genuine wood veneer were available as extra-cost options. According to optigan.com (http://www.optigan.com), two piano bar prototypes were produced. The Optigan played in stereo through two solid state amplifiers with the right-hand keyboard assigned to the instrument's right channel and the chords and effects assigned to the left.

The optical disc format

The Optigan's playback system functioned much like the storage and reading of an optical soundtrack as was used in motion pictures, using a light bulb to energize a photoelectric cell on the opposite side of spinning, 12" diameter clear plastic film discs encoded with fifty-seven concentric optical tracks. The system then translated the analog waveforms on the disc to an audio signal. Thirty-seven tracks were sustained notes in the timbre of a particular instrument and were played through a standard piano-style keyboard with the right hand; twenty-one were of a live band or soloist playing chords in different keys, specifically B-flat, F, C, G, D, A and E major, minor, and diminished and were played with the left hand in much the style of a chord organ or accordion. The remaining five were assigned to rocker switches above the chord buttons and featured (depending on the disc in question) percussion, sound effects, introductions, vamps, and endings synchronized with the chord buttons.

Not all of the chord buttons had their own track assignments, the result being only fifty-seven sounds on sixty-three buttons, keys and switches. There was even an ingenious optical metronome incorporated into the discs which showed as a red flashing light for the downbeat and white for the upbeats inside the Optigan badge above the keyboard. The advantages of this unique optical playback system were that the Optigan's range of timbres was infinitely expandable and that there was no limit on the duration of a note as there was on the Optigan's professional-grade counterpart, the magnetic tape-based Mellotron. The disadvantage was that notes could have neither attack nor decay, as the tracks had no specific beginning or end. Nevertheless, one was never without a considerable choice of music styles while seated at an Optigan. The "Starter Set," sold with a new Optigan, contained discs with fairly self-explanatory titles: "Big Organ & Drums", "Pop Piano Plus Guitar", "Latin Fever", and "Guitar in 3/4 Time." More modern styles were represented by titles such as "Movin'!," which was a rhythm and blues disc and "Hear and Now," with a sound clearly based on the hit single "Sweet Seasons" by Carole King. Other discs were marketed individually and packaged much like long-playing phonograph records. These individual titles were also bundled in much the same way as the "Starter Set" and sold as six-disc "Entertainment Folios." Some discs were available only as part of a two-disc "Style Pak" with titles such as "The Joyous Sounds of Christmas" and "Country Style Pak." Music books of various styles and even arrangements intended for individual disks were also available and sometimes packaged with the different bundles.

The initial run of musical tracks were recorded by Southern California studio musicians in Hollywood and Torrance. However, a musicians' union strike meant that some of the later discs were recorded in Germany. One disc is of particular note. The instrumental tracks for "Bluegrass Banjo" were recorded by members of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.

For the benefit of those unable to read music, the notes in the books were numbered in correspondence to a numbered and color-coded foil strip above the keyboard. The Optigan's songbooks were written and arranged by Optigan Corporation's music director, Johnny Largo. Largo, a well-known accordionist and session musician was a contemporary of Johnny Marks, a composer best known for his popular mid-20th century Christmas melodies. As such, many of the numbers in the Christmas songbooks were Marks compositions.

Problems with the Optigan

Despite its use of recordings of actual musical instruments in lieu of internally generated sounds, the Optigan suffered from poor tonal quality due not only to the bandwidth limitations of its optical system but its mechanical system as well. The disc could be sped up or slowed down via a thumbwheel next to the chord buttons to cause a corresponding change in tempo and pitch; however, faster speeds tended to roll off the lower frequencies, slower speeds rolled off the highs and moderate to slow tempo lent a slightly muddy quality overall. Natural imperfections on the celluloid discs as well as dust and dirt came through as scratches, clicks and pops, much like a worn phonograph record. Furthermore, the pitch change brought on by the tempo adjustment made session work with live musicians a difficult proposition, especially since the pitch varied greatly from disc to disc.

Even though the technology of the day was more than sophisticated enough to avoid them, there were numerous mechanical problems with the disc's motor drive due to its having been engineered to be as affordable as possible. Changes in environment which had a physical effect on the photocells frequently led to crosstalk between tracks. One common example involves the F at the upper end of the keyboard; press this key, step on the volume control pedal and the C-diminished/A-diminished chord can often be heard in the background.

These same diminished chords intentionally found their way onto the row of major chords. And as pointed out earlier in this article, not all of the chord buttons had their own track assignments. A-major utilizes the same soundtrack as B-flat-diminished, G-diminished, and E-diminished while E-major shares space with F-diminished and D-diminished. Apparently, this was done to save space on the disc, further explaining the lack of infinitely more useful dominant seventh chords or any chords in the keys of E-flat, A-flat, D-flat, B and F-sharp. A somewhat bizarre end result of these "diminished major" chords is that playing anything in either the key of A- or E-major is impossible on the Optigan without adding a dissonant, even Gothic flavor to the music.

Since the instrument was aimed at amateur players, the majority of the songs in the Optigan's music books are written in the much easier keys of F, C and G. The Optigan certainly had its share of detractors, then as now. Yet it provided an entertaining and educational introduction to the world of music and likely sparked interest in a generation of budding musicians and composers.

Vako Orchestron

Vako Synthesizers Incorporated, founded by electronic instrument pioneer David Van Koevering, built licensed versions of the Optigan under name Orchestron in the 1970s. Intended for professional use as an alternative to the Mellotron, the Orchestron featured improved recorded sounds over the Optigan. Some models included sequencers and synthesizers. While the same fidelity limitations of the Optigan applied to the Orchestron, these instruments were built to be more reliable and were used successfully in commercial recordings. Kraftwerk and Patrick Moraz are among musicians who have used them.

Use in the music industry

Regardless of its limitations and its problems with pitch, the Optigan has seen use in legitimate recording work with many leading musicians. Among them: Elvis Costello, Blur, Fiona Apple, Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo — who mixed in parts of the "Banjo Sing-Along" disc on a later remix of Devo's 1981 single, "Beautiful World" — and Steve Hackett. Hackett's 1980 album, Defector, features an unusual number called "Sentimental Institution", recorded with a solo Optigan spinning the "Big Band Beat" disc behind Hackett's vocals. His 2003 release, To Watch the Storms, features sonically expanded samples of the Opsonar "Champagne Music" disc on the track, "Circus of Becoming". Also of considerable note is the band Optiganally Yours, featuring keyboardist and optigan.com founder Pea Hix; they base their original compositions around the Optigan and employ it and similar keyboard instruments on virtually all of their recordings.

What might be considered to be the most recent commercial use of an Optigan sample was used on a premiere episode of the Cartoon Network series, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, on October 22, 2004. In it, a mirror image of the character Bloo played sped-up samplings of the vamps and endings of the "Dixieland Strut" disc through a horn which appeared on his body.

AK-momo uses this instrument prominently on Return to N.Y.

External links

• Optigan.com (http://www.optigan.com/) - Easily the best resource for learning about the Optigan, Orchestron, and the simliar Chilton Talentmaker.
• "Discography" at Optigan.com (http://www.optigan.com/discography_frames.html) - A list of commercial recordings featuring the Optigan
• "The 'Optigan' and 'Orchestron'" at Obsolete.com (http://www.obsolete.com/120_years/machines/optigan/) - A page on the history of the Optigan and a word about the Orchestron
• Optiganally Yours' official webpage (http://www.optigan.com/oy.html)
• Orchestron models (German) (http://www.synrise.de/docs/types/v/vako.htm)
• Orchestron page incliding sound samples (http://www.hollowsun.com/vintage/orchestron/index.html)