Listen to a few short sound samples, or you can peruse the list of musical releases where the Optigan can be heard providing sonic assistance. The discs used by the Optigan are made out of the same material as photo negatives. Instead of grooves, the Optigan discs have little waveforms which are read by a light bar reader inside the Optigan. The discs sits on a felt pad and a brass wheel drops on top of the disc when the drawer is closed. The wheel spins the disc when the Optigan is turned on.
Volume is controlled with a foot pedal.
The unique feature of the Optigan is that the chord buttons do not play a chord when pressed, but an entire band jamming in the key chosen in the style of music that the disc is for. So, pressing the A minor chord button on the Nashville Country disc brings to life a whole country band doing a looped riff in A minor. The five switches above the chord buttons are usually percussion, but sometimes have special effects like crowds cheering or monkeys howling. The new album, 'Good Morning Spider,' contains 17 tracks and was produced by Sparklehorse main man Mark Linkous. It is released by Parlophone on July 20.