Optigan

A flowchart illustrating the timeline of Optigan disc manufacturing.

A telephone memo, for comic relief.

Mike LeDoux’s thoughts on optical disc mastering.

A design change issue from Mike LeDoux.

An index of the contents of the Optigan master reels.

A photo essay documenting the creation of Optigan discs.

Most of the arrangements weren’t “written” per se, but were improvised by the session guys based on certain guidelines laid down by Johnny, Mike and Marshall. The earliest sessions were very haphazard in this respect, and contain excessive noodling. Later on, Johnny Largo contracted arrangements from a variety of artists.

Over the years, a wide variety of session musicians played for Optigan. The earliest sessions were produced in Cologne, Germany, and constitute the bulk of material that was actually released as discs. The German session musicians can be heard chatting away auf Deutsch in the background of many of the master tapes. Back in the [...]

Click here to see a photo essay of the disc-making process.

The core production team for the Optigan discs was Mike LeDoux and Marshall Pearlman. Marshall really oversaw the project as a whole, and Mike was largely responsible for actually creating the discs themselves.