Hi, my name is Ned and I love Optigan organs, of which I own two. This site is a memoir of my attempt to create new discs for the Optigan. My hope is that other Optigan owners will find something of value from reading about my experience. Just as an overview for those not familiar with the Optigan, these organs were made in the early ‘70s by the Mattel Corporation. Unlike many other home organs from that period, the Optigan did not produce its sounds electronically; rather, prerecorded sounds were played back via a transparent disc. Individual discs could be swapped out from a small opening below the keyboard and were created around musical themes. Really, if you want to know all there is to know about the Optigan, visit Pea Hick’s great website.

The whole idea of creating new discs came about after visiting Pea’s website a while back and reading messages on the forum regarding the copying of discs. It seems some owners had successfully copied Optigan discs using conventional copy machines. Not long after reading about disc copying, my employer gave me a Tectronics Phaser color laserjet printer that can handle 13 x 19 transparencies. So the thought occurred to me: why not scan Optigan discs and print-out copies on transparency sheets?

Well as it turns out, scanning and printing discs is not as easy as it sounds. Even conventional scanners have trouble capturing all the detail of an Optigan disc. And finding large transparency sheets can be a frustrating task, not to mention expensive. But probably the biggest obstacle to creating good copies has to do with registration. Back in the early ‘70s, Optigan discs were created using a complicated photo reproduction process ensuring precise registration. This is very important when it comes to the creation of the center hole, since any error can lead to poor playback.

My experience making copies so far, while promising, has made me think twice about the viability of creating new discs with original sounds. However, I’m going to continue the quest and see where it takes me. And since this is a blog, readers are encouraged to offer feedback using the comments feature.