Mellotronists

The Orchestron on loan to me has a bunch of Optigan disks along with the
Orchestron disks. The Optigan disks don't map to the Orchestron keys in the
right sequence, but at least you can get a flavor of what an Optigan sounds
like.

There are rhythm tracks and melody tracks. The s/n ratio is awful. I suppose
it depends on the condition of the disks. Very much like a phonograph,
except lower fidelity (much lower). Pops and clicks all over the place.
Think of a cartoon, where somebody goes up to a Victrola and puts the needle
down. You could use an Optigan for the cartoon's soundtrack. It's like a
caricature.

The rhythms themselves fall into the "cheesy lounge music of the early
sixties" category. We were such nerds back then. Now that it's 40 years
later it's cool again. I kind of like it too.

- Gene

-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Peters [mailto:mpeters@...]
Sent: Thursday, August 07, 2003 1:10 AM
To: Mellotronists@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Mellotronists] optigan recommendation?


"Optigan - the poor man's mellotron" - there's one currently on Ebay and I'm
wondering if it's worth it. What do you think? They say that an Optigan is
basically a toy and sounds crappy. Does it? The only thing I ever really
heard played on an Optigan was Steve Hackett's piece 'Sentimental
Institution'. I kind of liked that sound and it didn't sound very crappy.