TL;DR Summary: I’m thinking about a new product based on the Orchestron, and I’m looking for input.
I’ve received a few product suggestions from potential customers:
- Can you make a smaller version?
- Can the discs be smaller (10 inches)?
- Can it have an envelope generator (ADSR)?
- Can you make it less expensive?
- Where are the tone controls?
- What about a USB port?
- Can I sync it to my DAW?
- Can it have a built-in keyboard?
If I take this list seriously, it would suggest a new type of disc player. These requirements don’t really fit well with the legacy Optigan discs due to size and format. However, I can envision a smaller Orchestron-like machine that addresses most of this list.
If you study the list, you may notice a potential conflicting requirement: Make it less expensive and add a keyboard. Keyboards are expensive! There are many types of keyboards—everything from cheap plastic mini keys all the way to weighted wooden keys with sensors for velocity and polyphonic aftertouch. There are also weird versions, like the PCB pressure keyboard on the Arturia MicroFreak. Many synthesizers use keyboards made by the Italian company, Fatar, and you pay for their quality.
The cost of the keyboard hardware is just the beginning. You need to house the keyboard in a sturdy chassis, and you need to acquire larger, sturdier shipping cartons/padding. The increased size and weight make shipping expensive. If this new player is to be affordable, it probably cannot have a conventional keyboard. Being a niche product, economies of scale aren’t in play.
I’m not saying a version with a keyboard is out of the question, but I would have to have enough confirmed sales orders to make it happen. Also, I’m sure the company I work for doesn’t want to commit the warehouse space for the raw parts or finished goods. Smaller is better.
The proposal:
Make an Orchestron style player that uses 10” discs, has polyphonic ADSR, is smaller than the Panoptigon, is affordable (target: half the price of the Panoptigon), and has a USB port.
As far as other controls and features: I’m looking for reasonable suggestions. What would you pay extra for? What are the must-have features?
As far as syncing to a DAW: This is a popular feature request for the Panoptigon, but there are a number of technical hurdles involved.
Briefly, assuming the DAW would be the master, we’d have to come up with a way to chase sync and ensure the downbeat of the disc aligns with the downbeat of the DAW. There’s also the matter of time signatures to consider, as well as tempo changes. Starting, stopping, and dynamic changes in any of these factors will cause audible lags while the disc tries to catch up. And don’t forget that tempo always determines pitch.
DAW sync may be a useful feature for the Panoptigon despite all these issues, but probably less useful for this new instrument concept, since Orchestron discs, with a few exceptions, are mostly non-rhythmic in nature.
Since making the Panoptigon, I have thought about ways to reduce costs (and therefore, the selling price). I won’t go into details here (too technical), but I believe I see a way forward.
Comments 5
January 5, 2023 at 10:47 pm
The Panoptigan is one the most important instruments in my studio. I appreciate that it’s not locked up to a DAW …. Otherwise just use samples if that’s what you want to do. I want instruments that rely on performances that I can’t recreate.
That’s where the magic is …. In spontaneity. .
I’m grateful to Pea Hicks and team for
Creating this instrument. It’s total
Inspiration.
January 5, 2023 at 10:59 pm
Making it not compatible with current and past Optigon discs and creating a new 10" disc format seems to create a whole new problem. Unless my Optigan discs will still be usable on the new smaller machine? I can't imagine having to buy the whole library of discs again. You would have created an even more "niche" machine.
Honestly the ONLY request I would have is #4, to lower the cost. Utilize cheaper chinese made parts if possible. $4k for the current Panoptigon is only for the elite music producers out there. Hell, even $2K or $1k would still be too expensive for most to justify.
Can you remove ALL options and just have a speed pitch wheel that is solid and a midi out for a keyboard? That would be a dream machine for me. I'd love it for under $750.
Or, thinking out loud, how about coming up with a solid drive motor for the exisiting Optigans, that we could drop in for stable speed?
That would also be a dream for me.
January 10, 2023 at 3:10 am
Seconded re: cheaper option. I have a lot of original and reissue Optigan discs and currently no Optigan. Unfortunately, I can’t justify the price of the current version of the Panoptigon as cool as it is.
January 6, 2023 at 12:56 am
I like the idea of MIDI/usb – there's a ton of MIDI controllers that aren't USB.
ADSR – of course.
Sync to DAW – not necessary but if so, it would get used a lot more.
Keyboard – no, for your reasons above.
Question: Tabletop with top controls, rack?
Seems almost like the discs themselves are a huge limitation/cost; it would sell so much better as a built-in sample set but using hardware (like the digital Mellotrons do), plus your hardware software control.
January 12, 2023 at 3:23 pm
I think a keyboard version of the Panoptigon is not necessary. Most users have enough master keyboards, or synths. A smaller disc format is also not useful as 'GB' already mentioned.
What I could imagine would be 3 versions of the Panoptigon a 'simple' version without DSP FX, sync and servo motor, only with a 'simple' motor, as suggested above by 'GB'.
Then the version as it already is and as an upgrade a version with additional ADSR's and synchronization of a DAW with the Panoptigon as master, if that seems somehow possible.This would likely require 60 ADSRs and an additional CCD sensor that reads a digital code copied to an additional digital track copied on the disc. Of course, this would make the device more expensive.
However, all three versions can have the same housing, which reduces the manufacturing costs for this.
As an alternative, a plugin with a simulation of the Panoptigon might be possible. However, then the analog charm of the original is lost. But it would be a less expensive entry into the 'Optigan' and 'Orchestron' world. Maybe some people would prefer to buy the 'original' afterwards.