Moog Music Forum

I used to have an Optigon as well as a Melloton in the early 70's. The Optigon was made by Mattel and was kind of cool for it's day but very poorly made.

I know it is not a budget synth but just had to let everyone know that I b bought a Voyager AE last night. Will pick it up next week.

We've just acquired an Optigan at Technostalgia Towers, together with a Hammond Extravoice!!

Chord-Organs 'r' Us at the moment!

HRx

Are optigans really badass? They look and seem really badass.
-Tyler2000-

endocrine wrote:Are optigans really badass? They look and seem really badass.
-Tyler2000-

"Badly built" would be more appropriate.

I think it was Tom Waits who said that his Chamberlin, Mellotron and Optigan all "died just a little bit more" with every playing.

They sound like nothing on Earth. Really lo-fi and mournful. Even with a Bluegrass or uptempo rock disc it's impossible to make these babies sound cheerful.

We love 'em!

I remeber the Optigon, they were made by Mattel and you could buy them at stores like Sears in the US & Canada as well as other large retailers that carried toys. Those big round disks were something else as well but they were made of particle board that literally fell apart before your eyes. On the store floors they never seemed to be too solid, but like the Mellotons they were the first samplers. I still don't think of organs as samplers even though they used to have these big tone wheels in them. For all you Hammond A, B and C series nutz - be grateful for the small lightweight boards of today. Those of us who gigged with these monsters and were not fortunate enough to have a road crew are still in physiotherapy after lugging these huge beasts around. The Leslies were no light piece of gear either. I used to have a B3, Mellotron, Rhodes and miniD and my back still makes a daily point of saying to the rest of me "just what the hell were you thinking".

gd,

I saw the Revolution in your gear list. I'm still waiting for mine so I wanted to know what your opinion/analysis of its sound is?

Thanks!

gd wrote: I used to have a B3, Mellotron, Rhodes and miniD and my back still makes a daily point of saying to the rest of me "just what the hell were you thinking".

It's because we use gear like that we can't do many gigs. We can't afford the roadies or the artics.....

Gearlist on album:
Streetly Mellotron M400, Rhodes Suitcase 88, Yamaha CP80, Hammond A100, Leslie 145, Wurlitzer EP200, Moog Etherwave Signature Theremin, No.1 Electronics Theremin prototype, Minimoog model D, Moog Prodigy, Korg micro-preset, Korg microkorg, Bentley Rhythm Ace, Datanomics Synthi VCS3 Mk2, Datanomics Synthi DK2, Russell Hobbs K2r, Hohner Clavinet D6, Octave Cat SRM II, Yamaha DX7, Roland JX-8P, Akai S1000, Roland SVC350 vocoder, Arp Quartet, Stylophone 350S, Casio VLT-1, Hohner Melodica, Estey Reed Organ style 62 (1881), Yamaha G1 grand piano, Suzuki Omnichord OM-27, Gibson Les Paul Custom, Squier Stratocaster, Peavey Foundation, HMV portable gramophone, Erich Werner violoncello (1979), Musikus-Studio Chromatic Elite glockenspiel, Zojirushi CD-JSH30.

HRx

I think it was Tom Waits who said that his Chamberlin, Mellotron and Optigan all "died just a little bit more" with every playing.

I love Tom Waits! I had no idea that he used and Optigan, as well as the others. Could you tell me some songs he used them on!?

I had owned an OBX and then an OBXa. I bought an ION last summer. Alesis did a great job with this synth. Some of the emulations are pretty amazing. It does an great imiatition of a Mini Moog. However, it falls a little short in the Oberheim department. It can create a similar tone on some string pathces, but an 8 voice ION is not the same as an 8 voice OBX or OBXa. The RA's are still more gutsy and the filters have more sonic power than any VA.

The other side of the story is, the ION is current, you can get service and parts, and its relatively inexpensive. I bought it for LIVE gigs and it fills the bill nicely. But I'm not under the illusion that it can wear an Oberheim's shoes. Fortunately, 99% of the people I've ever played in front of don't know that and don't care.


Mike T

To Mike T.

To that 99%, a synth is just a synth. If they like the sound at all, you're doing the right thing.

To that 99%, a synth is just a synth. If they like the sound at all, you're doing the right thing.


truer words ...

Boeing 737-400 wrote:I'd have a Juno 106, an Oberhiem OB, Moog Prodigy, Moog Source, Opus 3, Jupiter 4, Korg Polysix, and a Polymoog Keyboard (if it can be described as a budget synth nowadays.)

And why not get a Prophet 600 just for the hell of it!

i have a jupiter 4
they are so cool
slowest lfo out of all the synths
sounds so alive

I might actually be getting one.

My Polymoog is being delivered tomorrow! I swear I have no more space left for synths.

I might actually be getting one.

My Polymoog is being delivered tomorrow! I swear I have no more space left for synths.

Lengai wrote:gd,

I saw the Revolution in your gear list. I'm still waiting for mine so I wanted to know what your opinion/analysis of its sound is?

Thanks!

I ended up selling it after 1 month or so, great lttle synth but I just couldn't see where I would be using it much while I have the AE and Source. I maybe selling the Source as I want to get some $ together to buy a PEK this fall.