For the handful of Talentmaker owners out there, here’s a rare chance to add a few discs to your collection: Beguine (sold for $159.50, 5 unique bidders) Bossa Nova (sold for $203.50, 4 unique bidders
Nearly complete set of Optigan® discs sells for $1011.00 on eBay
See the auction results here. Looks like the only two discs missing from the set were Polka & Mazurka.
David Lynch sings w/ Optigan
I heard a bit on NPR yesterday about a new album that’s a collaboration between David Lynch, Dangermouse and Sparklehorse. Lynch sings on one of the tracks, and is accompanied mostly by the Optigan’s
Optigan® in Britney Spears Video
Thanks to Tony for the heads-up on a brief but very clear bit of Optigan® at the beginning of the video for Britney Spears’ song “Circus.” It’s from the “Big Top Marching Band” disc. http://www.youtub
Optigan® on big-time pop record
Thanks to Micheal Wookey for a heads-up on this one. Here’s a track by Lily Allen featuring the Optigan’s Pop Piano Plus Guitar disc. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkoRBRjoZxs] Greg Kurstin
Double-manual Orchestron on eBay
Just thought I’d post a link to this eBay auction for a double-manual Orchestron. These are definitely very rare- I’ve only ever seen one other for sale. As for his comment about all the Orchestron di
German Optigan® Radio Show
Michael Junck has produced a German language radio show about the Optigan. It features lots of music he made (covers, mash-ups, etc) using time-stretched Optigan® samples. Here’s a version of the Spice Girls “Wannabe” that he made. Maybe I should brush up on my German- I took four years of it in highschool but can hardly remember a damn thing!
Michael has also made some simple transcriptions of various Optigan® riffs which he says may or may not be of use to anyone else. I haven’t had a close look at his shorthand, but I’ll paste his list here in case anyone might find it useful:
Has the Optigan® appeared on any commercially available albums?
Yes. Many. They are listed on the Optigan® Discography page.
Optigan.com is one of Yahoo’s Picks of the Year for 2000!
Optigan.com is selected by Yahoo as one of its Picks of the Year for 2000. Optigan.com was also featured by Yahoo on June 26, 2000.
Optigan® in CMJ
The Jan. 2001 issue of CMJ has an article about strange/obsolete musical instruments in it. Pea contributed some info about the Optigan® and some other instruments as well.