Artiphon Orba 2 Portable Synthesizer, Sampler, Looper & MIDI Controller (8 Touchpads, Motion & Layer Sensors, Onboard Looper, New: 2GB Sample Engine, Quantization Function, Up to 128 Clocks)

Product Information

Orba 2’s touch and motion sensors combine to capture even the most subtle micro - movements. Its improved cera mic - like playing surface simultaneously reacts to the nine simple gestures: Tap, Press, Radiate, Tilt, Shake, Spin, Vibrato, Move, and Bump. Each gesture can control the onboard synth engine or your MIDI music software of choice. With unprecedented express ive potential, you’ll never play the same note twice. MIDI CONTROL Orba 2 players can also capture or import their own sounds to create completely unique instruments. With the press of a button in the Orba App, everything around you can be turned into an Orba preset. A bicycle bell, a bird singing, or your roommate’s amazing voice can all be played, looped, and shared as a musical melody. LOOP SONGS IN SECONDS Orba 2 features a brand new sound engine that includes sampled audio recordings. This means you can now play instruments like electric guitars and upright pianos, as well as more adventurous sounds like vocals, found sounds, and custom artist songs. Imagine conducting an orchestra in the park with no strings attached and no screens required.

Changing volume of the particular instrument type forces switching to the next instrument type, that's really annoying. Play on the move thanks to the built-in lithium-ion battery. This rechargeable battery means you can use the Orba 2 on the move for up to four hours. The Orba also features built-in Bluetooth LE MIDI connectivity so you can control your music apps wirelessly. What’s IncludedWe’re also pleased to be introducing an all new Drum sampling feature, which lets you sample your world. Build your own drum kit and add custom samples to individual pads. And you’re not limited to drum sounds, by the way: you can turn your Artiphon instrument into your own sound effects board and DJ kit. This feature has been highly requested, so we expect some crazy creative setups from all of you! You should get an instant answer on whether your application has been successful, though in some rare cases Klarna or V12 may need to look at the application in more detail. The Android bluetooth orba app quality is, to put it mildly, disappointing. To be honest, it feels like it was developed by a students being paid with a bag of chips. App is constantly crashing, disconnecting from the Orba, or app can decide that it is connected in the connection menu, but refuse to do anything useful telling that you are not connected indeed. Speed of development of Orba2 seems to be quite slow paced, and no patches or fixed had been provided for more than a month at this point, so it is hard to expect some dramatic changes soon.

With the Orba 2 app, you’ll be able to record any sound from the real world and transform it into a playable musical instrument. I waited four months before writing this review, hoping that Artiphon would provide fixes and I would be able to write a positive review to support a small company doing interesting device, but there was no significant change during this time. Capacitive Touch Sensitive Pads: 8 Pads can be used with different gestures. Tap, Press, Vibrato, Radiate, Slide First of all, you need a bluetooth app to control the device, as soon as some vital functions are not available on device itself - without an external app you cannot swap sets of instruments, set tunings, set reverb. (there is a pc app using usb connection for that as well, but the whole point of the Orba is to be portable, so using it in pair with a phone is a main use case). With Orba 2, you can also capture or import your own sounds to create unique instruments. With the press of a button in the Orba App, any sound can be turned into an Orba preset. For example, a bicycle bell, a bird in a tree, and your roommate’s singing can all be played, looped, and shared as a musical melody.

Orba 2’s touch and motion sensors combine to capture even the most subtle micro - movements. Its improved ceramic - like playing surface simultaneously reacts to the nine simple gestures: Tap, Press, Radiate, Tilt, Shake, Spin, Vibrato, Move, and Bump. Each gesture can control the onboard synth engine or your MIDI music software of choice. With unprecedented express ive potential, you’ll never play the same note twice. MIDI Control: Use Orba to control your MIDI - based software and hardware instruments (via USB - C or wirelessly via Bluetooth MIDI). Touch, glide, tap, wave and much more. The Orba 2 provides a variety of ways to interact with the onboard synth. The onboard motion and touch sensors capture even the most subtle of movements so you can express yourself without boundaries. You can create vibratos using different gestures, shake the Orba, or even wave it in the air, resulting in different tones and dynamics. The intuitive design makes it perfect for both beginners and professionals. This device has potential for custom presets, but Orbasynth app that was available for Orba1 device and can edit instruments, does not work with Orba2. It is not clear from the marketing materials that there is such a regression in functionality compared to Orba1 and no version for OrbaSynth for Orba2 is still available, after half a year of release. Perfect your song by adding Quantize, which snaps your musical phrases to the beat so that every moment fits perfectly into the groove. Another side of the problem is an absent vendor communication - while Orba2 seems to be in state similar to Early Access games, that usually requires speaking with community a lot, Artiphon is completely silent about their roadmap and development, and their presence on their own forums is close to zero. Actually. They might release OrbaSynth for Orba2 tomorrow or never, you cannot guess. Nobody knows if they are doing something cool or filing for bankruptcy. That's quite annoying too.