Orchestron

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. The Vako Orchestron is a keyboard instrument, which produces its sound through electronic amplification of sound pre-recorded on an optical disc. It is the professional version of the Mattel Optigan. Vako Synthesizers Incorporated, founded by electronic instrument pioneer and former Moog technician and salesperson David Van Koevering, started to build improved versions of the Optigan under the name Orchestron in 1975. Intended for professional use as an alternative to the Mellotron (hence the name Orchestron), it featured improved recorded sounds over the Optigan. The Optigan was an organ that played its sounds from light scanned graphic waveforms encoded on film discs. The sounds with the highest fidelity were on the outer rings of these discs. These outer rings were used for the Orchestron sounds to improve the sound.