Stefan Stenzel, co-founder/CTO of Waldorf Music, and Pea Hicks, self-styled custodian of all things Optigan, have announced iOptigan, an adaptation of the Optigan for iOS.
The Optigan is an early-70s vintage chord organ with a unique system of sound reproduction using optical discs.
These LP-sized film discs were optically encoded with 57 concentric tracks, which contained loops of musical combos playing chord patterns in different styles. Each disc contained a specific style of music (Bossa Nova, Big Band etc) which the user could control by pressing the chord buttons. Changing the discs was as simple as putting a new record on your turntable. Think of it as the 1971 version of GarageBand.
Despite this novel technology, the scratchy sound of the Optigan left a lot to be desired.
The iOptigan we present here truthfully recreates that lo-fi sound.
25 of the original 40 discs are included, the remaining 15 can be purchased individually or all together in the Complete Pak.
iOptigan features
- Disc loading rigth-side-up or upside-down.
- Spring Reverb (virtual).
- Optical Metronome.
- Audio Demo for each Disc.
- MIDI in/out.
- MIDI chord detection.
- MIDI File Import.
- Sequencer with Record and Playback.
- Sharing for songs as Audio and MIDI File.
- iTunes File Sharing.
- Inter-App Audio.
- Smart background audio.
- Help overlay.
- Headphone optimised stereo (optional).
- Radio Mode for Chord Buttons or Keyboard.
- Comfortable speed control in semitones or BPM.
iOptigan for iOS is available for $4.99 USD.
More information: iOptigan
