Optigan LED Disc Simulation Thingy

This is a quickie video I shot to demo the modulated LED thingy that Robert built so I can monitor sounds directly from my computer thru a real Optigan's signal path. This essentially tricks the Optigan into thinking there's an actual disc spinning inside it, though it only works on the very first channel (ie, the outermost soundtrack ring on an Optigan disc). There's a spreadsheet which automatically calculates a 10-band EQ curve for each of the 57 Optigan soundtrack rings, so if I'm trying to work on, say, the sound that goes on track 42, I EQ that sound using the settings for track 42 in the spreadsheet. These EQ curves are only for monitoring purposes through the Optigan. We did some tests, and it actually models the way a real Optigan disc sounds very accurately. This way I don't have to shoot in the dark and spend ~$200 on a test disc only to find out it the end result sounds terrible.

I also shot this video out of exasperation at the totally unreasonable amount of radio interference I get on Optigans at my house. Trying to discern subtleties in the sound through all the radio stuff is not easy or fun. Coming soon: the Orchestron FRENCH HORN disc, remastered. Stay tuned to http://www.optigan.com.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• optigan
• orchestron
• talentmaker

[skabot0045]

what would playing an actual song through that setup sound like?

[peahix]

more or less like an AM radio.

[itsmeme07]

is that music playing or the radio signals

[peahix]

that's radio interference, which includes music.

[CaptainSiberia]

Can't you re-engineer the machine just a little to kill the interference? It's a matter of shielding components, isn't it? You'll need to know how to tackle these problems when you manufacture the brand new Optigans and Orchestrons (oh yeah, you're gonna do it.)

[EricB256]

My that radio interference is really nasty. Does it come in on the short wave bands and medium wave bands as well?

The noise reminds me of when I used to live next to a ham radio enthusiast who used a VHF band, and he came into our stereo even when it was switched off.

[DrNoose]

Very cool indeed! Thank goodness I do not have that kind of interference. I think I would go nuts and start destroying stuff!

Dan

[SheepRanic]

Did you try using a isolation transformer on the optagan's power feed, and wrapping the ribbon cables that come off the optical pickup in grounded foil? Also, I've never seen how the amps are mounted in a optagan, but I bet you could modify the mounting such that a ground plane could be installed under them,which would also probably help.