This playlist features a collection of Optigan demo recordings, made by in-house musical director Johnny Largo.

The recordings, via Pea Hicks of Optigan.com, are previously unreleased, having languished on the original studio master tapes for 45 years.

“This will give a good sense of what the Optigan can sound like in the hands of a true professional, as well as serve as a general demonstration for the various discs,” he notes. “Sorry, I don’t have recordings of Johnny demonstrating every last disc that was released, but I’ve posted what I do have.”

They also highlights that the Optigan, like the Mellotron, was originally made for the home organ market.

The Optigan is a sample-playback keyboard instrument, introduced in 1971. It uses transparent sound disks, with sounds optically encoded on them.

The company was originally a subsidiary of the Mattel toy company. It’s been resurrected as a website dedicated to releasing new sound disks for the instrument and sharing information about the unusual instrument.