This is a quickie video I shot to demo the modulated LED thingy that Robert built so I can monitor sounds directly from my computer thru a real Optigan’s signal path.

This essentially tricks the Optigan® into thinking there’s an actual disc spinning inside it, though it only works on the very first channel (ie, the outermost soundtrack ring on an Optigan® disc). There’s a spreadsheet which automatically calculates a 10-band EQ curve for each of the 57 Optigan® soundtrack rings, so if I’m trying to work on, say, the sound that goes on track 42, I EQ that sound using the settings for track 42 in the spreadsheet. These EQ curves are only for monitoring purposes through the Optigan. We did some tests, and it actually models the way a real Optigan® disc sounds very accurately. This way I don’t have to shoot in the dark and spend ~$200 on a test disc only to find out that the end result sounds terrible.

I also shot this video out of exasperation at the totally unreasonable amount of radio interference I get on Optigans at my house. Trying to discern subtleties in the sound through all the radio stuff is not easy or fun.

Coming soon: the Orchestron FRENCH HORN disc, remastered. Stay tuned.

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