From shojo@pln.com Mon Jan 23 17:11:03 1995
Date: Mon, 23 Jan 95 13:46:57 
From: Robert Schmeltzer <shojo@pln.com>
To: analogue@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu
Subject: The Optigan Explained

I'm surprised to see people talking about the Optigan. I have 
two and would never part with them. As far as I know, Mattel 
had nothing to do with the Optigan. The Optigan Corp. was first 
in Compton, CA and then moved to Pennsylvania. So what is 
it? First, from the Optigan owner's manual:

"The Optigan Music Maker. The most revolutionary musical 
instrument ever. Because it's EVERY musical instrument. And 
every combination. You've never heard anything like it 
because there's never been anything like it. And you have all 
the talent you need in your little finger to play the OPTIGAN. 
The "soul" of the OPTIGAN is the Music Program Disc. Organs 
try to mimic or imitate different musical sounds. But with the 
OPTIGAN you actually play the real sounds of pianos, banjos, 
guitars, marimbas, drums and dozens more. The sounds are 
on the Programs. You choose the sounds you want -to play the 
songs you want- on our piano-style keyboard and left-hand 
accompaniment panel. And you choose from Classic guitar to 
old time Banjo Sing-Along to Nashville Country to Rock and 
Roll. It all depends on the Program and there's a Program for 
every musical taste."

This is what the Optigan Corporation thought of their organ in 
1970. So what is it really? It is an ugly plastic (Optigan calls it 
"Temperite") organ. The way it makes sounds is by putting in 
these clear plastic records about the size of a regular LP. The 
plastic discs have the waveforms on them and are read by a 
light bar reader inside the organ. Each  "piano-style" key, 
chord button and effect switch has one waveform on the disc. 
Mostly, the right hand plays pretty unspectacular organ 
sounds; a few disks have marimba, but it's pretty weak. The 
best part of the Optigan is the chord button/special effect 
section. When you press A minor on a regular organ, you hear 
an A minor chord. On the Optigan, you hear a whole band; so 
Nashville Country is drums, bass, rhythm guitar all vamping 4 
bars in A minor; Polynesian Village has bongos, vibes and 
howling monkeys, Hear and Now sounds like the Partridge 
Family minus the singing. So, basically the Optigan is like a 
Mellotron aimed at the Grandma market.  It sounds very high 
tech and I suppose it was for 1970, but somehow the resulting 
sound can not really adequately be described; "cheesy", 
"hilarious" and "sounds like a 78 record" are comments I've 
heard.

For an idea of what the Optigan sounds like, listen to "Beautiful 
World" on "Devo's EZ Listening Disc"; the banjos, bass and 
washboard percussion are all the Optigan playing the 
wonderful "Banjo Sing-Along" disc. Tom Waits used an 
Optigan on "Frank's Wild Years", but he didn't use the 
accompaniments, just the cheesy organ tones. The only other 
artist that I know of that's released an album with the Optigan is 
Steve Fisk on his "448 Deathless Days". He really does all the 
fun things you can do with an Optigan on that album. Put a disc 
in upside down and you have the whole accompaniment 
section playing backwards, but still in tune. As Mark 
Mothersbaugh said "The banjo disc makes these great sucking 
noises when put in upside down." You can put in two discs at 
once and have the Bluegrass mandolins playing with the 
Gospel Rock rhythm section; not very musical but great if you 
like Stockhausen. 

Probably the main reason the Optigan never made it real big is 
that it is mechanical and not very stable.  Speeding up the 
tempo also raises all the tunings. Even if you don't touch the 
tempo control the tuning does drift quite a bit. The Optigan 
always stays in tune with itself, but good luck playing with 
anyone else. I got my first Optigan from a woman who said she 
had to get rid of it because it was her daughter's, her daughter 
recently died and seeing the Optigan reminded her of her 
daughter.  Then she said her daughter used to play the 
Optigan in a country band that would perform at churches and 
senior functions. Anyone who has ever played an Optigan 
should be crying with laughter at this thought.

Optigan Miscellany: 
%the Optigan color scheme is ugly brown with ugly tan; the 
"piano-style" keys have brown sharp keys. If you see an organ 
with brown keys at a thrift store or garage sale, investigate. 
%There were apparently four models; I have two. The difference 
between them is  one has two 7" speakers, the other has 
reverb and two 15" speakers. I have no idea what the other two 
models might have. 
%Optigan also put out its own music books arranged especially 
for the Optigan, even telling you what discs to use for each 
song. This is handy because the chord buttons are: Major, 
Minor and Diminished (instead of something useful like 
Maj.7th.). 
%From what I can tell, Optigans were made from 1970-1973. 
%Some Optigans have a matching bench. 
%The light bulb inside the Optigan (needed for the light bar 
reader) is easily found at most stores. 
%Mechanically, they are very simple, so if you see one that 
doesn't work, you could probably fix it (the one I just got didn't 
work, I fixed it with some WD-40). At the same time, looking 
inside an Optigan, one gets the feeling it is a prototype rigged 
together on short notice. So, it doesn't take brain power to fix, 
just a hell of a lot of fiddling and swearing. 
%Price: you can probably get one cheap. I've heard of people 
paying $200 for them, but those people must be desperate or 
filthy rich. $10-$50 is more reasonable, look at thrift stores, 
garage sales, the music store in your town that nobody ever 
goes to and Grandma's attic or basement.

I'm always happy to talk about Optigans with people. I've been 
actively looking for them for about 11 years and have seen 5, 2 
of which I own. So, obviously I don't talk about them much. If 
you ever get one and need tips on fixing it, I'll be glad to offer 
advice. I've taken apart a couple and gotten them working or at 
least working better. They are a bitch to take apart though. Go 
out and look for Optigans first thing tomorrow. Once you play 
one, you will want it even if you can't play a musical 
instrument.

OPTIGAN DISCS I HAVE:
Banjo Sing-Along
Big Band Beat
Bluegrass Banjo *
Bossa Nova Style *
Cha Cha Cha! *
Dixieland Strut *
Folk & Other Moods-Guitar *
Gay 90's Waltz (6/8 time)
Gospel Rock
Guitar Boogie
Guitar in 3/4 Time
Hear and Now *
Latin Fever
Nashville Country
Polynesian Village
Pop Piano Plus Guitar *
Rock and Rhythm
The Blues-Sweet and Low
Waltz Time (3/4 Time) *

* = I have two of this disc; willing to trade for those on my want 
list 
below.

OPTIGAN DISCS I'D LIKE TO HAVE:
Big Organ and Drums
Big Top Marching Band
Classic Guitar
Easy Does It With Vibes
Majestic Pipe Organ
Movin'!
Organ Sing-Along
Rollin' Easy
Romantic Strings (in 3/4 Time)
Singing Rhythm
(any others not mentioned in either list)

I know this is a long post, but I'm sure this will be a short 
thread, so it all evens out in the end, eh? :)
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\\\Robert Schmeltzer\\\\\\\\\"I listen to a solo and I think of a duet"\\\\\\\
\\\\\shojo@pln.com\\\\\\\\\\\\\Fabio, from his CD, "After Dark"\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
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