Well, looks like I can put to rest my quest to make new Optigan discs. I made it as far as being able to scan existing discs and print copies, but the fidelity was not all that great and it was difficult to punch out the center hole of the disc. Making a disc with brand new sounds presented even more challenges as many who have tried this before can attest. But some folks with far more technical expertise than myself have managed to do what I never was — create a brand new Optigan disc. Go to Pea Hick’s blog to see a demo and hear about the technical details. I’m super excited about this development and I’m eagerly awaiting the opportunity to buy a new disc.

I haven’t been spending any time recently working on Optigan discs because Pea Hicks’ CD-ROM sample set has been keeping me busy. If you haven’t purchased it yet, I’d highly recommend it. I’ve been loading the Akai samples into my Kurzweil K2000VX and they work just fine. Pea posted a video to YouTube highlighting some of the material from his new .wav collection on DVD-R. This new disc offers cleaner loops from the master tapes.

There was also an interesting comment on this blog a while back from a fellow Oregonian who got pretty far in trying to replicate Optigan discs. He had been working with a pre-press outfit here in Portland, but ran into the same problem I did with centering the punch-out. Anyway, I’ll have to do some sleuthing and find out who this printer is.

Pea Hicks has recently overhauled his Optigan sample CD-ROM. Not only has Pea lowered the price to $100.00, he has added an additional CD-R with all the samples in the .wav format as well (the orginal disc is all Akai format BTW). And Pea has added additional samples of prototype Optigan discs. There are also some samples of a Chamberlin Rhythmate just for the hell of it as well. And finally, Pea says he has an Optigan software emulation in the works.

http://www.optigan.com/shoptigan.html

Again, sorry for not posting more frequently. I mentioned in my last post that I was running a big relay race in August and, well, it led to a pretty bad case of tendonitis in my right ankle. I’m currently in an aircast and have physical therapy a couple of times a week. Suffice to say, my free time is a bit limited at the moment due to this injury, but after I get a clean bill of health from the sports medicine folks and things get back to normal, I promise I’ll return to working on Optigan related projects. I’ll probably start with some experiments exporting waveforms to Flash since they just upgraded my Adobe Creative Suite software package here at work.

Not much going on Optigan wise this month. I’m getting ready for Hood to Coast on the 24th, so that is taking up my free time along with the usual summer stuff. In the meantime, here is some hot Optigan action for your enjoyment:

Vox Humana Disc
This little video clip comes courtesy of RedRoomNW (Sean Wolcott?). It’s a demo of the rare Vox Humana disc.

OK, so I haven’t bought one of these yet, but they look pretty cool. Of course there is nothing stop you from making your own!

Optigan Tote Bag
http://www.cafepress.com

Optigan Ash Grey T-Shirt
http://www.cafepress.com

This isn’t really related to the Optigan, but it’s a fascinating article folks might find interesting. The Birotron was a cheaper version of the Melotron, only instead of tape banks, the Birotron used 8-track tapes. The last part of the story turns sad though, when the author reveals the frightening financial state that had befallen the inventor, Dave Biro.

Ker-Chunk! — A Hit-Making Keyboard Made of 8-Track Car Stereos? Meet Rock’s Rarest Instrument
The Believer (June/July, 2007)
http://www.believermag.com

That Optigan disc scan came back from TIS last week and I printed a copy on transparency last night. Unfortunately, I’m still having the same problem with the copied disc playing back at the same volume as the original. It could be an issue of registration, since my center hole cutting was kind of sloppy. I’ll also take a look at the .tiff file in Photoshop tonight to check the resolution of the waveforms. In previous scans, the waveforms were kind of pixilated. But this last scan was at 1,500dpi, so I’m guess the jags won’t be as pronounced as in the past. The other thing I need to check is printer preferences for the laserjet. It should be outputting the file at 1,200dpi, but I have a sneaking suspicion it’s printing at 600dpi for some reason. I don’t know if printing the file at a higher resolution will make a difference, but it’s worth a try.

Really, this whole disc copying thing is just a starting point. The issue of resolution may not come into play if I’m ever able to make my own discs with original sounds, since those waveforms will be vector files (no jags). But I’m also starting to wonder now about the transparency stock I’m using. It’s thinner than the original Optigan discs, so there is some concern it won’t playback as reliably.

I was looking for some information on the Optigan light sensor and came across these original patents. Fascinating stuff.

Light Collector for Optical Organ
http://www.google.com/patents

Endless Record Audio Signal Generator and Means for Playing Record
http://www.google.com/patents

Cabinet for Keyboard Instrument
http://www.google.com/patents

Musical Recording with Re-Entry Track
http://www.google.com/patents

It’s been a slow week here at the Optigan Project. I have a disc at TIS waiting for scanning, so there is not much to do. Just for the hell of it, here is a list of all my Optigan discs:

Nashville County
Latin Fever
Big Top Marching Band
Bossa Nova Style
Polynesian Village
Big Organ and Drums
Guitar in 3/4 Time
Pop Piano plus Guitar
Rock and Rhythm
Organ Sing-Along
Walz Time
Banjo Sing-Along
The Blues Sweet and Low
Bluegrass Banjo