Tons of bonus content to this video: patreon.com/hainbach Thanks to Kyle Dixon for the interview! If you are interested in the Giallo disc, here it is: www.quilterlabs.com/collections/panoptigon-disc/products/giallo-optigan-disc
It doesn’t matter that I won’t ever have a one. The reason that I watch is that I like the feeling of child-like excitement about gear and making music. I can channel this same feeling to my Volca Keys or my Lyra or Digitakt. It’s about the approach more than the thing itself that feels special to me. The mindset. Well done as always!
It's great how companies like Quilter Labs are creating new record/vinyl players for sampling similar to the Vako Orchestron. I love the lo-fi tone of the discs played in the video, including the Giallo disc! Another awesome video Hainbach!
My grandparents had an Optigan for a while, and while nobody would confuse it with any high-class tech, for me at 8-9 years old it was a blast. "If I had known then....." I am reading Karl Bartos' book right now, and I believe he mentions the Optigan along with the Orchestron, would have to go back & check...Definitely something to the whole optical looping thing, good reason it is coming back. I think that Singing Rhythm was an original 70s disc, as they released a few of the loops from the master tapes just as a sampling of what they had, I remember downloading this maybe around 1999-2000 or so. We need the chicken clucking loop on a new disc!!! Great work as always!
Ahhh, the Vako Orchestron. Kraftwerk's "Nashville connection". The instrument has some interesting connections. Dave van Koevering was still working with Moog when this was being developed, and his intention for it was for church bands. You could add one and get string pads, choirs, and other suitable church staples. Huh? See, Dave van Koevering was also running a consulting gig, consulting with churches to update their musical capabilities. Around Nashville (where van Koevering was based), many churches upped their music and audio systems with his advice. But the Orchestron sorta kinda took on a life of its own, especially after it first popped up on Kraftwerk's "Radioactivity". Then Patrick Moraz commissioned a custom one with FOUR manuals and drives. And...it never took off. Part of the problem was that van Koevering saw this as something that stays in the church sanctuary with the rest of the praise band gear. So WEIGHT never factored into his original design. No, it doesn't weigh as much as a CS-80...but it IS in that general hernia-inducing range. Dave DID pay attention, though, coming up with a collab with Calzone Cases that gave the instrument a roadable Anvil Case-type housing. It made it safer when hauling it around...but it didn't do much about that weight problem. The downfall of the Orchestron was primarily due to technological advances. When Vako released it, it had few competitors. The idea was that it was meant to compete with the Mellotron while eliminating some of the Mellotron's drawbacks. But when early samplers started becoming cheaper, such as in the case of eMu's Emulator, people flocked to the better fidelity of the digital samplers. Vako shut down in the early 1980s, not long before Ensoniq showed up with the Mirage. BUT...samplers (at least, in their early incarnations) lacked the not-quite-rightness of the Orchestron. The wobble, fidelity, etc could be programmed into a given sampler patch, but it never matched the "oddly flawed" sound that a Vako could spit out. The other issue with the Orchestron, however, was the scarcity. Estimates range from 50 to 100 or so "standard" Orchestrons being produced. So this likely explains why I've only ever seen ONE in the wild, even though it was manufactured in my old hometown, with its huge installed base of whatever tech you could think of. I've actually had more encounters with the Orchestron's predecessor, the Mattel Optigan, than the sole one I've had with the Vako. The worst problem still plagues Vako users to this day: the discs. The Orchestron used glass discs. As in "if you break this, you're utterly boned". And this is even more true these days, as we get further afield from the Vako's optical reader tech. But as on the Panoptigon, you could stack discs up with some interesting results. The Panoptigon is technically a fourth-gen instrument. Its start came from the Chamberlain, which begat the Optigan, which turned into the Orchestron, and that spawned the Panoptigon. A long, strange trip to be sure! But oddly, the price for a tricked-out Orchestron hot off the line and the price for a similar Panoptigon are not that far apart. Plus ça change...
Just a few corrections from the guy that designed and builds the Panoptigon. The Orchestron uses the same types of discs as the Optigan, etc., but the track layout is unique (non-sequential, different number of tracks). The road-case editions of the Orchestron were built by Viking Cases, which were designed and built in-house at Vako (it was a side hustle). They had a unique construction that used a special extrusion for the frame that held the laminate panels in grooves. I own three Orchestrons, repaired a couple dozen of 'em, and have talked on the phone with former employees including Craig Bordlemay who was the main QA guy at Vako and was married to Dave Van Koevering's daughter.
@@robertbecker5013 Cool! So maybe you can finally satisfy one point of curiosity I've had for some time: how many of the Vako Orchestron were built...the conventional single-manual ones? It's one fact that I've never have been able to pin down with certainty. Most of the time, I've heard that there were "around 100", but some sources of info over the years have said that there were more than that. At the same time, though, you didn't hear them being used on records back in the latter half of the 1970s, with Kraftwerk's heavy use being the big exception.
@@daccrowell4776 The exact number of single manual Orchestrons built is unknown. When Dave VK died a few years ago, a good friend of ours went back and visited the family and made scans of ephemera including correspondence, business letters, pictures, brochures, advertising, etc. There are some documents showing serial number lists, but they are not exhaustive. Between Pea and me, we probably know of about 30 or so instruments out in the wild. I can only guess that at least 100 were built, but it's probable that the number could be higher (200 to 300). I could ask Craig if he happens to remember. If you include the two-manual and four-manual versions and the weird prototypes (rack mounted remote drives), the number increases by a few percent.
Might I just say that this interchange between you two made this video worth it already? I consider you both to be top notch knowledgeable dudes, I hope you get to talk more in the future.
@@Hainbach couldnt agree more. This is fascinating. I was lucky enough to have an Orchestron in my studio for a year or so. It was always a little scary turning it on as there were times when it just wouldn't play nicely and the motor would grind away. It was great hearing stories from Rob Burger (the owner) about touring with Laurie Anderson and the machine. She was in love with it and would get Rob to play it as she told stories. I will say my wife is rarely one to comment on sounds from my room but when she heard the Orchestron she immediately asked what was making the sound. The recordings on the disks are absolutely incredible. What an achievement. Was great to briefly play your unit Hainbach :) Such a treat.
Was für ein außergewöhnliches Instrument mit einer wirklich außergewöhnlichen Ahnengalerie! Als Bub fand ich diese Kraftwerk-Chorsounds äußerst anziehend und suggestiv, da sie innere Bilder ähnlich unscharfen Erinnerungen entstehen ließen - und konnte aber gleichzeitig nachvollziehen, was andere Menschen an dieser Musik abstieß. Herzlichen Glückwunsch zur Anschaffung und zu diesem interessanten Video & Grüße aus dem Donnersbergkreis!
What an absolutely wild and unexpected instrument! I don't even fully understand it, but I love that it exists. I definitely love the Stranger Things soundtracks, it brings me back to my childhood in the 80s, very nostalgia-creating.
Karl Bartos was waiting for this for so many years. But Ralf didn't want to spend more money... 🤣 "Viel Spaß mit dein Vako (das hab' Ich dir frisch gekauft)!" - "Have fun with your Vako (that I just bought for you)!"
I'm curious what it would sound like if you printed various patterns (checkerboard, lines etc.) on transparencies and played that :) (Not following the optical grooves)
Similar experiments have been tried. Unless there is a repeating pattern on a very small scale (i.e., a waveform), you just get thumps, pops, and clicks.
Ive been collaborating with another sonic artist recently. I have most of my most useful gear in a "touring" flight case. So one of the ideas we've been exploring is, that everything has a useful sound. The willingness to embrace this opens up many possibilities, as Kraftwork found. This has worked well as we've been putting together long form ambient work. We're able to find the right frequency gaps to fit in just about anything, with a bit of modulation and eq thrown in.
omg I love it. I wish I had a some more fun instruments and sound design tools like that and even just a variety of Synths. But It challenges me to make sounds in ways most probably wouldn't even ponder on. I will definitely be going through your videos later to see what other fun eargasm causing things you have in your studio
For the price of this machine you should be able to make your own custom optical discs. They should really offer a service that can make custom discs for you.
Played an Optigon about 30(!) years ago. Much fun. Some of the disc grooves were so fonky. I recall sampling everything before I sold the instrument. Have no idea where those CDR are now.
Must say that the precursor of the orchestron was the Daphne Oram's "Oramics" system. She literally DREW the waveforms on transparent acetate stripes (a set of parallel ones). The concept is basically the same, only having all the stripes potentially synch-ed and same duration. While in a concentric wave, you have different durations depending on the circumference position. And probably they wouldn't sync very well.
Interesting electro-mechanical instrument with a nice sound. The physical manipulation is good and it's like a more accurate, smooth bit crunched Mellotron.
This is definitely a cool tool. The closest thing I can come to what you're doing is playing with the "Simpler" in Ableton. Though it isn't as feature rich as a singular instrument, what it does let you do is feed your own tracks into the playback utility like it is a mellotron. I have made loads of tapes and transcribed them into digital and any of my weird old stuff I did i can now create an instrument out of it, with the warts and weird sounds intact. Great video!
Did Vangelis use the Optigan? The choir in Popol Vuh's 'Aguirre' sounds very similar to the later added 'deckard dream sequence' of the unicorn in Blade Runner.
I often wish for more concise Vangelis gear lists when I research instruments. It seems he had a lot of special instruments but it is not easy to pin it down exactly.
An optical "record player" that modifies/syncs your midi controller, if I'm understanding correctly? I'd love it just for that, but then also you can layer records, pitch shift/bending, and built in effects This is so awesome, alas... the price... 6:40 instant twin peaks background music
Indeed! I wanted to mention that, but I cut it in the edit. Same as I left out Coil. It is just too much to put into one video, unless I transition to one hour essays. But my poor synths would feel neglected then!
Designer of the Panoptigon here--There is an input jack that drives the motor via TTL compatible signal. I can envision a simple interface that would take a CV input and convert it to TTL signal, and provide an option switch for linear or exponential conversions so it will play in-tune.
Someday someone will give us the way to print any sound on a Optigan/Vako/Talentmaker disk. BtW, do you know that a vast majority of the sounds you can find in these optical disks where also used to make the Chamberlain/Melotron tapes? (As point out K Dixon, the optical disks have this "superiority" to the melotron system as they can play loops, not just 8 seconds of tape, when you sustain chords like Kraftwerk did it's important!) "Uranium choir" is maybe one of them, with its indirect 3rd life as a sample in New Order's Blue Monday
Printing a disc is hard--many have tried it. You need something super hi-res. I plot the discs at over 8000 dpi. For that kind of resolution, you need something like a photographic process (think microfilm or the film used for fine pitch circuit board fabrication).
The only Optigan/Orchestron/Mellotron crossover sound is the choir, which was, as far as we've been able to determine, a custom Mellotron sound that was ported to the Orchestron. All of the other Optigan/Orchestron sounds from the 70s were created for and used exclusively on those instruments.
@@optigandotcom Thank you for the info. I would think if they did it for the choir, why not for the strings and woodwinds? For the "accompagnement loops", yes, they were orgininal but for the "classic" sustained sounds I guessed the company went for the easiest way (buy something already made instead of paying for a complete recording). Anyway, all these instruments are great pieces of History!
@@FLH3official Hi, all of the original Optigan/Orchestron master tapes are in our archive, and the dates/artists/etc are all known. None of the material, apart from the choir sound, was previously used in any other instrument. :)
@@Hainbach 😂 wouldn't be surprised if he's done it. My last idea was for a mid/sides processor guitar pedal & surprise surprise he's currently working on one 🤦🏼 crazy talented lad!
Looks interesting, a labour of love for the designer but for the rest of us a bit of a gimmick. Mellotron or Memotron is a better investment or if you want this kind of sound plus to be able to make your own sounds the Onde Magnetique is much cheaper and gives you the same vibe.
Ay 3:11 I immediately thought of Coil and the tune "Where are you? " from the Musick to play in the Dark Vol 2. I don't know if they used one of those but it wouldn't surprise me. ruclips.net/video/dBfbbdj0Yd8/видео.htmlsi=2qyROVHXyAZg37kW&t=63
I will stick with iOptigan. Used to have an actual Optigan, but it literally disintegrated after many attempts to fix it. A more robust modern version could be fun and hopefully less $$$$
I generally appreciate this channel without compromise. Also the content in this post, but I don't understand the headline - "The Optical Sampler Kraftwerk Loved Modernized". First of all, it's a sample-player, not a sampler (unless you are equally privileged that they put your sounds and samples on such discs). And secondly, I don't understand syntax and grammar. Thirdly, I don't understand the connection between Kraftwerk and 'sampler'. As far as I know they never used one, or even a sample-capable machine like the Fairlight. Looping & pitching yes, but sampling (technique/machines?! Could be, but I'm not aware of it so far. But that doesn't detract from the informative and pleasantly presented content here.
Anyone can contact them to make discs, only for this we agreed that it should be a product, too. Other users are more personal about their sets of sounds. So I think it’s fair to call it a sampler (same as the Mellotron is called a proto-sampler), it’s just that the process of this is slightly complicated 😄.
@@Hainbach ok, didn't see any offer on their page. 2 other/left points: the headline/Kraftwerk suggestion, and I'm German :D , so, it could be easier to explain/communicate. However, such a great Channel & thx 4 response!
![Moog, Retailers, And Clones [Op-ed]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/PyA7XnqdufI/mqdefault.jpg)
![Moog, Retailers, And Clones [Op-ed]](/img/tr.png)
Tons of bonus content to this video: patreon.com/hainbach
Thanks to Kyle Dixon for the interview! If you are interested in the Giallo disc, here it is: www.quilterlabs.com/collections/panoptigon-disc/products/giallo-optigan-disc
Page is unreachable currently.
Server is down.
It doesn’t matter that I won’t ever have a one. The reason that I watch is that I like the feeling of child-like excitement about gear and making music. I can channel this same feeling to my Volca Keys or my Lyra or Digitakt. It’s about the approach more than the thing itself that feels special to me. The mindset. Well done as always!
I would really like to own this, but I would also like to keep my kidney.
What for you have two 😉
An arm and a leg ŵould be sufficient, no need to lose the kidney.
it's cheaper than a prophet 10 or a Moog One, so there's always that. $4k isn't too bad.
@@MetatronsCube23 sounds like someones trying to convince their selves to buy one!!!
It does look fun though 🤔
@@MetatronsCube23it is 4000.00 worth of synth, regardless
3:20 sample used on coil's "where are you?" and goldfrapp's "eat me"
Good spot!
It's great how companies like Quilter Labs are creating new record/vinyl players for sampling similar to the Vako Orchestron. I love the lo-fi tone of the discs played in the video, including the Giallo disc! Another awesome video Hainbach!
My grandparents had an Optigan for a while, and while nobody would confuse it with any high-class tech, for me at 8-9 years old it was a blast. "If I had known then....." I am reading Karl Bartos' book right now, and I believe he mentions the Optigan along with the Orchestron, would have to go back & check...Definitely something to the whole optical looping thing, good reason it is coming back. I think that Singing Rhythm was an original 70s disc, as they released a few of the loops from the master tapes just as a sampling of what they had, I remember downloading this maybe around 1999-2000 or so. We need the chicken clucking loop on a new disc!!! Great work as always!
Chicken loop? I missed that! I loved Karl's book, it was such a good insight.
Ahhh, the Vako Orchestron. Kraftwerk's "Nashville connection".
The instrument has some interesting connections. Dave van Koevering was still working with Moog when this was being developed, and his intention for it was for church bands. You could add one and get string pads, choirs, and other suitable church staples.
Huh? See, Dave van Koevering was also running a consulting gig, consulting with churches to update their musical capabilities. Around Nashville (where van Koevering was based), many churches upped their music and audio systems with his advice. But the Orchestron sorta kinda took on a life of its own, especially after it first popped up on Kraftwerk's "Radioactivity". Then Patrick Moraz commissioned a custom one with FOUR manuals and drives. And...it never took off.
Part of the problem was that van Koevering saw this as something that stays in the church sanctuary with the rest of the praise band gear. So WEIGHT never factored into his original design. No, it doesn't weigh as much as a CS-80...but it IS in that general hernia-inducing range. Dave DID pay attention, though, coming up with a collab with Calzone Cases that gave the instrument a roadable Anvil Case-type housing. It made it safer when hauling it around...but it didn't do much about that weight problem.
The downfall of the Orchestron was primarily due to technological advances. When Vako released it, it had few competitors. The idea was that it was meant to compete with the Mellotron while eliminating some of the Mellotron's drawbacks. But when early samplers started becoming cheaper, such as in the case of eMu's Emulator, people flocked to the better fidelity of the digital samplers. Vako shut down in the early 1980s, not long before Ensoniq showed up with the Mirage.
BUT...samplers (at least, in their early incarnations) lacked the not-quite-rightness of the Orchestron. The wobble, fidelity, etc could be programmed into a given sampler patch, but it never matched the "oddly flawed" sound that a Vako could spit out.
The other issue with the Orchestron, however, was the scarcity. Estimates range from 50 to 100 or so "standard" Orchestrons being produced. So this likely explains why I've only ever seen ONE in the wild, even though it was manufactured in my old hometown, with its huge installed base of whatever tech you could think of. I've actually had more encounters with the Orchestron's predecessor, the Mattel Optigan, than the sole one I've had with the Vako.
The worst problem still plagues Vako users to this day: the discs. The Orchestron used glass discs. As in "if you break this, you're utterly boned". And this is even more true these days, as we get further afield from the Vako's optical reader tech. But as on the Panoptigon, you could stack discs up with some interesting results.
The Panoptigon is technically a fourth-gen instrument. Its start came from the Chamberlain, which begat the Optigan, which turned into the Orchestron, and that spawned the Panoptigon. A long, strange trip to be sure! But oddly, the price for a tricked-out Orchestron hot off the line and the price for a similar Panoptigon are not that far apart. Plus ça change...
Just a few corrections from the guy that designed and builds the Panoptigon. The Orchestron uses the same types of discs as the Optigan, etc., but the track layout is unique (non-sequential, different number of tracks). The road-case editions of the Orchestron were built by Viking Cases, which were designed and built in-house at Vako (it was a side hustle). They had a unique construction that used a special extrusion for the frame that held the laminate panels in grooves. I own three Orchestrons, repaired a couple dozen of 'em, and have talked on the phone with former employees including Craig Bordlemay who was the main QA guy at Vako and was married to Dave Van Koevering's daughter.
@@robertbecker5013 Cool! So maybe you can finally satisfy one point of curiosity I've had for some time: how many of the Vako Orchestron were built...the conventional single-manual ones? It's one fact that I've never have been able to pin down with certainty. Most of the time, I've heard that there were "around 100", but some sources of info over the years have said that there were more than that. At the same time, though, you didn't hear them being used on records back in the latter half of the 1970s, with Kraftwerk's heavy use being the big exception.
@@daccrowell4776 The exact number of single manual Orchestrons built is unknown. When Dave VK died a few years ago, a good friend of ours went back and visited the family and made scans of ephemera including correspondence, business letters, pictures, brochures, advertising, etc. There are some documents showing serial number lists, but they are not exhaustive. Between Pea and me, we probably know of about 30 or so instruments out in the wild. I can only guess that at least 100 were built, but it's probable that the number could be higher (200 to 300). I could ask Craig if he happens to remember. If you include the two-manual and four-manual versions and the weird prototypes (rack mounted remote drives), the number increases by a few percent.
Might I just say that this interchange between you two made this video worth it already? I consider you both to be top notch knowledgeable dudes, I hope you get to talk more in the future.
@@Hainbach couldnt agree more. This is fascinating. I was lucky enough to have an Orchestron in my studio for a year or so. It was always a little scary turning it on as there were times when it just wouldn't play nicely and the motor would grind away. It was great hearing stories from Rob Burger (the owner) about touring with Laurie Anderson and the machine. She was in love with it and would get Rob to play it as she told stories. I will say my wife is rarely one to comment on sounds from my room but when she heard the Orchestron she immediately asked what was making the sound. The recordings on the disks are absolutely incredible. What an achievement. Was great to briefly play your unit Hainbach :) Such a treat.
I can't wait to see what delights yah come up with using this thing! Thanks for sharing.
Wow I’m totally mesmerized by this unique piece of gear. You now have unlocked my next purchase obsession!
It’s so nice to see you and Kyle together talking about this inspiring machine. I absolutely want you new disk!
07:21, Wow a knob that turns everything into Angelo Badalamenti darkness! :-D
Was für ein außergewöhnliches Instrument mit einer wirklich außergewöhnlichen Ahnengalerie! Als Bub fand ich diese Kraftwerk-Chorsounds äußerst anziehend und suggestiv, da sie innere Bilder ähnlich unscharfen Erinnerungen entstehen ließen - und konnte aber gleichzeitig nachvollziehen, was andere Menschen an dieser Musik abstieß. Herzlichen Glückwunsch zur Anschaffung und zu diesem interessanten Video & Grüße aus dem Donnersbergkreis!
What an absolutely wild and unexpected instrument! I don't even fully understand it, but I love that it exists. I definitely love the Stranger Things soundtracks, it brings me back to my childhood in the 80s, very nostalgia-creating.
Those dark drones are so cursed, I love it! 😻 "looks at price* 😱
Karl Bartos was waiting for this for so many years.
But Ralf didn't want to spend more money... 🤣
"Viel Spaß mit dein Vako (das hab' Ich dir frisch gekauft)!" - "Have fun with your Vako (that I just bought for you)!"
I'm curious what it would sound like if you printed various patterns (checkerboard, lines etc.) on transparencies and played that :) (Not following the optical grooves)
Similar experiments have been tried. Unless there is a repeating pattern on a very small scale (i.e., a waveform), you just get thumps, pops, and clicks.
Ooooooh! - looks interesting, thanks as always
Ive been collaborating with another sonic artist recently. I have most of my most useful gear in a "touring" flight case. So one of the ideas we've been exploring is, that everything has a useful sound. The willingness to embrace this opens up many possibilities, as Kraftwork found. This has worked well as we've been putting together long form ambient work. We're able to find the right frequency gaps to fit in just about anything, with a bit of modulation and eq thrown in.
8:20 Portishead needs to get one of these and MAKE A NEW ALBUM
omg I love it. I wish I had a some more fun instruments and sound design tools like that and even just a variety of Synths. But It challenges me to make sounds in ways most probably wouldn't even ponder on. I will definitely be going through your videos later to see what other fun eargasm causing things you have in your studio
absolutely fantastic
For the price of this machine you should be able to make your own custom optical discs. They should really offer a service that can make custom discs for you.
AFAIK they are working on a process for that so it’s less manual then it’s now
Well, that thing sounds AMAZING
It would fit your sound rather well
Played an Optigon about 30(!) years ago. Much fun. Some of the disc grooves were so fonky. I recall sampling everything before I sold the instrument. Have no idea where those CDR are now.
Must say that the precursor of the orchestron was the Daphne Oram's "Oramics" system.
She literally DREW the waveforms on transparent acetate stripes (a set of parallel ones).
The concept is basically the same, only having all the stripes potentially synch-ed and same duration.
While in a concentric wave, you have different durations depending on the circumference position.
And probably they wouldn't sync very well.
Much more straightforward, the tech was used in cinemas as the audio track for movies on the edge of the celluloid film.
That optical sampler kit has a nice gnarly sound to it!🙂🙂 Sounds cool🙂🔊🙂🔊
My love for Kraftwerk never waned since I was a child in the 70s, this instrument is so cool.
One for the ever increasing list of great gear I might never be able to afford but am happy is out there. Great days.
I really like the sound of this thing!
Great conversation!
Oh yep. this deff going into the collection...
It was also used on Blue Monday (Kraftwerk sample)
Fantastic!
It looks like it's a large disc hard drive with interchangeable discs. Interesting and beautiful. EXPENSIVE.
Very cool stuff!
Let’s just 🙏 they drop a vst version for us mere mortals!
There is an iOS app iOptigan, and Gforce has samples from Coils machine as part of their M-Tron
@@Hainbach I’m on iPad only so thanks for the tip. Will definitely be checking out ioptigan.
But first your fluss app is top of the list!
Sounds great bro even if I don't understand all what you are doing with all these machines and vinyles 😂❤
Nice one!
Loving the opening track!
Thanks! That was fun to patch up
surprise surprise new find ....wunderbar
Where a complete session of this sound ???!
the singing rythm was used in a song on epidemic sound ages ago, if you happen to have watched old seananners videos you know which one
top shelf content!
Interesting electro-mechanical instrument with a nice sound. The physical manipulation is good and it's like a more accurate, smooth bit crunched Mellotron.
iOptigan for iPadOS does have a lot of those loops but not the famous choir sound on the keys.
It's got all the wow and flutter you will ever want. And then some.
This is definitely a cool tool. The closest thing I can come to what you're doing is playing with the "Simpler" in Ableton. Though it isn't as feature rich as a singular instrument, what it does let you do is feed your own tracks into the playback utility like it is a mellotron. I have made loads of tapes and transcribed them into digital and any of my weird old stuff I did i can now create an instrument out of it, with the warts and weird sounds intact. Great video!
Simpler is lovely, I used it similarly a lot for my theatre scoring work which was always on the road
Did Vangelis use the Optigan? The choir in Popol Vuh's 'Aguirre' sounds very similar to the later added 'deckard dream sequence' of the unicorn in Blade Runner.
I often wish for more concise Vangelis gear lists when I research instruments. It seems he had a lot of special instruments but it is not easy to pin it down exactly.
Love it❤ lets be patient, maybe in a couple of years 😊
I wonder if you could do something similar with a cd player by controlling the speed and its direction ?
I don't need a Panoptigon... I don't need a Panoptigon... I don't need a Panoptigon
Damn it. It's not working. I want a Panoptigon
My inner monologue exactly before I bought it
Is it able to play standard LPs or just the discs formatted for the system?
@@BinauralBaeit’s optical and not a groove like LPs, so no!
@@erlannderrantem6972 Thank you! That's good to know
@@erlannderrantem6972 Also it was hard to tell because on one of the close ups the discs look grooved
What does it take to create your own disks?
Very interesting device 😃
at the 05:55 mark i thought to myself that this sounds very dungeon synth/ambient black metal. Cool instrument!
Nice sitar tone!
Will you be bringing it on tour or is it too fragile? Looking forward to Colchester UK date next year 😊
Oh it’s not fragile, just pretty big, like travelling with a turntable. Would be fun though! See you then!
2:32 don't put you thumb on that?? (But, I guess the resolution is much larger, so it's less of an issue)
that waltz time rhythm section is at warp speed...
An optical "record player" that modifies/syncs your midi controller, if I'm understanding correctly? I'd love it just for that, but then also you can layer records, pitch shift/bending, and built in effects
This is so awesome, alas... the price...
6:40 instant twin peaks background music
Wow 16:00 is all I ever wanted my ears to hear. Could be used in black metal too
By the way, KW's "Uranium" choir was sampled by New Order for their "Blue Monday" master hit.
Indeed! I wanted to mention that, but I cut it in the edit. Same as I left out Coil. It is just too much to put into one video, unless I transition to one hour essays. But my poor synths would feel neglected then!
@@Hainbach Well understandable, mate! 😀
Wonderful!
And also my career as a weirdo wedding entertainer can finally take off.
Has got me wondering if I could rig up cv inputs to the pitch & somehow direction of my record deck 🤔
I got you: ruclips.net/video/DqXTKm02d3Q/видео.htmlsi=0w0DwJPoMZ2AsJgu
Designer of the Panoptigon here--There is an input jack that drives the motor via TTL compatible signal. I can envision a simple interface that would take a CV input and convert it to TTL signal, and provide an option switch for linear or exponential conversions so it will play in-tune.
@@Hainbach amazing 😃 cheers 👌
it wobbles!
Do you edit your videos yourself? Which camera setup you have inplace? Which editing software?
Yes, Pocket4K, Panasonic GH6, Davinci Studio
pat quilter is a cool guy!
Someday someone will give us the way to print any sound on a Optigan/Vako/Talentmaker disk.
BtW, do you know that a vast majority of the sounds you can find in these optical disks where also used to make the Chamberlain/Melotron tapes? (As point out K Dixon, the optical disks have this "superiority" to the melotron system as they can play loops, not just 8 seconds of tape, when you sustain chords like Kraftwerk did it's important!)
"Uranium choir" is maybe one of them, with its indirect 3rd life as a sample in New Order's Blue Monday
Printing a disc is hard--many have tried it. You need something super hi-res. I plot the discs at over 8000 dpi. For that kind of resolution, you need something like a photographic process (think microfilm or the film used for fine pitch circuit board fabrication).
The only Optigan/Orchestron/Mellotron crossover sound is the choir, which was, as far as we've been able to determine, a custom Mellotron sound that was ported to the Orchestron. All of the other Optigan/Orchestron sounds from the 70s were created for and used exclusively on those instruments.
@@optigandotcom Thank you for the info. I would think if they did it for the choir, why not for the strings and woodwinds? For the "accompagnement loops", yes, they were orgininal but for the "classic" sustained sounds I guessed the company went for the easiest way (buy something already made instead of paying for a complete recording). Anyway, all these instruments are great pieces of History!
@@FLH3official Hi, all of the original Optigan/Orchestron master tapes are in our archive, and the dates/artists/etc are all known. None of the material, apart from the choir sound, was previously used in any other instrument. :)
Pretty sure Goldfrapp used on of these on Seventh Tree, or at least it sounds very much like it,
Herrlich! suRRism cheers! ❤
Always wondering if laser discs could be scratched with a giant cdj 😃
Ha that would be a build for look mum no computer
@@Hainbach 😂 wouldn't be surprised if he's done it.
My last idea was for a mid/sides processor guitar pedal & surprise surprise he's currently working on one 🤦🏼 crazy talented lad!
Looks interesting, a labour of love for the designer but for the rest of us a bit of a gimmick. Mellotron or Memotron is a better investment or if you want this kind of sound plus to be able to make your own sounds the Onde Magnetique is much cheaper and gives you the same vibe.
These would work really well in Rap, Soundtrack work or odd pop type music.
If the part 6:44 where it slowed down had a saxophone on it I feel like it would’ve became a lo-fi version of Bohren & Der Club of Gore.
Love Bohren, one of the most memorable shows I ever attended.
Talk about an old school lofi sound
4K wow
Proper madness
Damon Albarn is another Optigan fan, he used one with Blur a few times.
11:24 what is circon
Cirklon, a sequencer
@@Hainbach ohhh thanks
Very cool! Looked into it right away and then the price...sigh! I guess it's another instrument out of reach for now. Thanks for sharing it though
Yea if I could. I like this box.
Love the Panerai watch also 😅
Are you publishing these tracks?
The two pieces I made with it? Yeah these will end up somewhere. Right now you can get them on my Patreon, just uploading the bonus content now.
Pea Hix is a Hero
14:54 sounds like a Madlib beat
Reminds me of those tracks which were intended to emulate someone’s descent into dementia
It sounds like Glitch Hop!
Ay 3:11 I immediately thought of Coil and the tune "Where are you? " from the Musick to play in the Dark Vol 2. I don't know if they used one of those but it wouldn't surprise me.
ruclips.net/video/dBfbbdj0Yd8/видео.htmlsi=2qyROVHXyAZg37kW&t=63
They used indeed an Optigan, well spotted!
MORE GEAR!
MOAR GEAHHHHH
Perhaps a BPM readout,?
Thank you Hainbach for another beautiful video. Thank you Kraftwerk for an amazing body of work. Thank you DETROIT for creating techno.
cool
I will stick with iOptigan. Used to have an actual Optigan, but it literally disintegrated after many attempts to fix it. A more robust modern version could be fun and hopefully less $$$$
But this is a modern version?
An optical disk system? I see what you did there.
4k and in stock now. lol.
Grab an Optigan if you can't afford this. I picked one up just a few years ago with a bunch of discs for only $200 and a long drive.
Lucky find! All I ever came across are half broken and 6k plus
I love your channel. I really do. However, I become insane with envy seeing your studio. Fuck!
It helps getting other musicians in here for sure :-)
I see a Novation Summit
Sagenhaft🙏👌🎹🎹🎵🎶
I generally appreciate this channel without compromise.
Also the content in this post, but I don't understand the headline - "The Optical Sampler Kraftwerk Loved Modernized". First of all, it's a sample-player, not a sampler (unless you are equally privileged that they put your sounds and samples on such discs). And secondly, I don't understand syntax and grammar. Thirdly, I don't understand the connection between Kraftwerk and 'sampler'. As far as I know they never used one, or even a sample-capable machine like the Fairlight. Looping & pitching yes, but sampling (technique/machines?! Could be, but I'm not aware of it so far.
But that doesn't detract from the informative and pleasantly presented content here.
Anyone can contact them to make discs, only for this we agreed that it should be a product, too. Other users are more personal about their sets of sounds. So I think it’s fair to call it a sampler (same as the Mellotron is called a proto-sampler), it’s just that the process of this is slightly complicated 😄.
@@Hainbach ok, didn't see any offer on their page. 2 other/left points: the headline/Kraftwerk suggestion, and I'm German :D , so, it could be easier to explain/communicate. However, such a great Channel & thx 4 response!
i did not want to know about this i already have too much stuff :(