Optical Organ (aka Optigan)

In 1998, I convinced my wife to drive with me from San Francisco to Sedona to pick up a broken Optigan for $50. The Optigan was originally marketed as a kid's instrument by Mattell in the 70s and has a broken, scratchy charm that must be heard to be understood. Anyhow, the problem with this particular Optigan was that it would not power on, so I had a hunch that the issue was a bad fuse. One fuse and a little soldiering work later, we were back in business, and I had picked up 13 optigan discs in the sale. Not bad.

We have since used this Optigan again and again for Autopilot and many, many recordings.

Optigans generate sound through optically read "discs" which rotate like a real record on a turntable located beneath the keyboard. Each disc contains beats & musical accompaniments that you play with your left hand via rocker switches and chord-organ-like buttons and tones (organ, marimba, strings, etc) that are played with the right hand on a standard keyboard. There are many cool discs (New Orleans Blues, Gospel Rock, Guitar Boogie, Swing It!, Polynesian Village, Champagne Music, Country Waltz, Singing Rhythm, etc.) which fetch pretty prices on Ebay.

Here are a few Air King pieces which use Optigan:
- Live AutoPilot rhythm performance (1998).
- Piece I recorded for my friend (and fellow Air King compatriot) Geoff's wedding. (2002)
- Another piece from the same wedding.