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Here is the complete list of all
the discs that were produced for the Optigan, along with their original cover art,
catalog blurbs, sound samples in mp3 format,
and liner notes written by myself. The sound samples feature one special effect switch,
followed by two chord buttons and a single note from the keyboard scale.
While most of the discs could be
purchased individually (like records), most of them were also available in various
bundles, which they are organized in for our purposes here. Please note that we
do not have any stock of these discs available for sale. If you would like to
find others to buy/trade with, please go to the Optiswapit
page. Otherwise, you can buy a copy of our Optigan/Talentmaker/Orchestron Sample
CD-ROM by going to this
page.
ABOUT THE LINER NOTES:
Given the fact that complete and accurate details are not available for the Optigan
recording sessions, I've had to simply do my best to piece together the information
found below. This information primarily comes from the session notes attached to
each of the mixdown master reels, but given the fact that these are merely MIXDOWN
reels, they contain little information (if any) about the actual recording sessions
themselves.
I began compiling these notes by attempting to pinpoint all of the who/what/when/where/why
(why?!) for each individual disc, but soon discovered this strategy to be very time
consuming and not very fruitful. In most cases it's simply not clear whether the
notes refer to recording studios vs. mixdown studios and recording dates vs. mixdown
dates. So what I eventually decided to do was to simply make a complete list of studios
and studio personnel, which can be thought of as the general technical forces of
the Optigan recording project. Under each disc, however, will be listed whatever
information is known about musicians and also the associated dates that are cited
for those sessions. As I said before, it is almost always unclear as to whether these
dates refer to recordings sessions or mixdown sessions, so I've opted not to try
to guess. Instead, I offer the dates simply to give a basic orientation as to what
time frame each disc's general sessions took place.
The Rarity ratings are, of course,
only relative to other Optigan discs, and very compiled from my fairly subjective
viewpoint. Some discs may be more common in other parts of the country. Here is the
rating system I used:
- EC: Extremely Common
- C: Common
- UC: Uncommon
- R: Rare
- ER: Extremely Rare
- IR: Incredibly Rare
OPTIGAN RECORDING AND MIXDOWN
STUDIOS
EMI Studios, Cologne, Germany
(All of the earliest Optigan
sessions were recorded in Germany in an effort to cut costs. German session musicians
were apparently a lot cheaper than American session musicians, and the same might
be said for studio and engineer rates as well. The German sessions are generally
credited to the "Mattel Special Projects Band." Most of these sessions
were rough and improvised, but a large amount of the material recorded there did
actually make it onto disc: in fact, roughly half of all Optigan discs feature German
material.)
Western Recorders, Hollywood, CA
Golden West Sound Studios, Hollywood, CA
Wally Heider Recording, Hollywood, CA
Quantum Recording Studio, Torrance, CA
Whitney Recording Studio, Glendale, CA
(The Whitney Studio, owned
by Lorin Whitney, was home to the Whitney Pipe Organ, which is featured on countless
recordings of sacred music.)
OPTIGAN PRODUCERS AND RECORDING/MIXDOWN
ENGINEERS
Generally speaking, most of the Optigan sessions were produced by Marshall Pearlman,
with Mike LeDoux joining in during the post-German sessions. Johnny Largo can also
be thought of as a producer during the post-German sessions, although his voice is
not heard quite so often on the tapes. Johnny was apparently more responsible for
contracting the talent.
There is almost no information available about who engineered the Optigan sessions
other than that alot of the LA work seems to have been handled by Bruce Ellison
of Bruce Productions, Ltd.