Artiphon Orba 2

At the Review Smiths we love it when tech comes along to produce something fun and creative, this super dinky device is in fact a musical instrument, actually it is ALL musical instruments, the Orba 2 is the second generation of Artiphon’s award-winning synth, looper, and controller.

It fits in the palm of your hand at 3.14″ (diameter) x 2″ (height), it has a USB-C port, 3.5mm (1/8″) TRS Analog headphone stereo output, it has a 3W built-in active speaker system and uses Bluetooth LE MIDI (MIDI only) it is worth noting that Windows 10 does not currently support Bluetooth LE MIDI. The Orba 2 works alongside the Orba App to allow you to capture and import your own sounds to create your own personalised instrument, sample guitars, keyboard or drums but why stop there, play with vocals, birdsong, car alarms, anything that strikes your imagination. You can record loops right on the device itself, using Drum, Bass, Chord, and Lead, you can then layer sounds to create songs, these can be downloaded and shared with friends.

The quantize feature lets you snap your musical phrases to the beat so that it all fits together perfectly to create songs up to 128 bars (3-5mins). The touch and motion sensors work together to capture even the most subtle micro – movements, the playing surface simultaneously responds 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 making a hugely versatile instrument. The Orba 2 can be used to control MIDI – based software and hardware instruments (via USB – C or wirelessly via Bluetooth MIDI) and it is compatible with GarageBand, Ableton Live, Logic Pro, Pro Tools, Cubase, FL Studio, as well as any MIDI – compatible mobile app, it is also fully compliant with the new standard for MIDI Polyphonic Expression (MPE), making it capable of multiple independent note expressions. This new and improved Orba 2 is a small but mighty piece of musical tech offering a world of creativity at your fingertips. RRP £139

Click here for more info
Orba 2