Over the years, I’ve had lots of folks propose various schemes
for making new Optigan® discs using computer software. Finally, someone
has come through with a workable system! Robert Becker is the
engineering wizard that made this technological advance possible! And
what kind of sounds do I give him to make the first test disc with?
Crappy-ass cheesy 80s synth pop!!

OK, this is just a quickie demo, and actually the sound quality on this video isn’t that great but
trust me, the disc sounds fantastically lo-fi and sounds just like an
Optigan® disc except with brand new sounds!

We screwed up a few of the chord button assignments, but that’s an easy fix. The drum
sounds are from an Oberheim DMX. The chord patterns are sounds from
Native Instruments Reaktor, sequenced in Cubase. And the scale tones
are also from Reaktor.

We’re working on developing a scheme for making more discs and making them available. All I can say right now is that generating a master is very expensive, and additional copies are
also quite expensive. So unfortunately we won’t be able to just do
whatever the hell we want. But soon I’ll post a survey of some sort at
optigan.com so y’all can weigh in on what kinds of discs you’d put down
some cash for!

Oh, and yes- we’ll be able to make new Orchestron
discs too! (In theory we could make new Talentmaker discs, but the
demand for those probably would not justify the expense.)

Here’s a sneak peak print-out of the disc with the label design: