The design team for the Optigan® largely came from a toy manufacturing background, and consequently most of the engineers thought purely in mechanical terms. There were many elements of the Optigan’s design that could have been much better handled using electronic parts and transistors (such as the disc drive system), but even after designing and patenting some technically superior electronic designs, the engineers nevertheless chose to go with mechanical means instead. This combined with the fact that the target price had to be kept reasonable meant that the Optigan® suffered from a pretty flimsy design, by musical instrument standards.