Optigan

Optigan.com has announced a new Philip Glass-inspired Minimalism Optigan disc, featuring the vocal talents of Tara Busch (Analogsuicide.com):

We’re proud to announce the latest in our series of new Optigan discs: MINIMALISM! This is a special release for us, since it marks our first musical collaboration with the fabulous Tara Busch of AnalogSuicide.com. Tara sang the vocal solfege scale for the keyboard, a haunting sound that you’re sure to find plenty of uses for.

The Optigan is a bizarre 70’s musical instrument/music toy that’s features an electomechanical optical sound generator.

It’s available for pre-order now, for $99.99.

Details below. Read more…

This is a quick audio demo of the first new Vako Orchestron title since 1975, Marimba.

Optigan.com is now taking pre-orders for this disc, which will retail for $99. The initial run will be limited to 25 copies, and they will require 15 pre-orders before going to press.

Read more…

Optigan.com has announced plans for a new Optigan disc, based on the work of minimalist composer Philip Glass:

“Minimalism” is sort of a generic working title. It’s very specifically and shamelessly Philip Glass Ensemble (circa late 70s / early 80s) style chord patterns. But I don’t want to call it “Philip Glass” for potential legal reasons.

Maybe I’ll call it something a little more clever like “MNMLSM” or “Half Full” or “Fill Up Glass” ok stop me before it’s too late… if anyone has any title suggestions, send ‘em my way!

This disc is intended to be more versatile than simply for churning out fake Glass riffs. Set at a slower speed, it can be used in a more ambient way, and I’ve specifically worked out the voicings and special effects tabs to allow for good sounding extended chords when you press more than one button (ie, Cmaj + Emin = Cmaj7). Also, the rhythms are varied enough that you can get some cool polyrhythmic effects, etc. At this point, the keyboard sound is going to be a solo female voice, singing vowels from the various solfege syllables.

The Optigan is a vintage sample playback keyboard that uses optical discs to generate sound.

This is a video demo of a remastered Vako Orchestron disc, Solo French Horn.

It’s now available for pre-order for $99. Read more…

This is a preview video for the newly remastered Vako Orchestron Disc – Saxophone. Read more…