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Chorda Deep Dive 🤿 – Everything You Need to Know in 12 Minutes – Chorda by Artiphon
"Chorda is a fresh take on instrument design from Artiphon, offering an open-ended form factor and a touch-sensitive surface that may be held and gesturally controlled in nearly any way you can imagine. Strum it like a guitar, tap it like a drum, use it as a synth, or MIDI control your favorite MPE synthesizers—these are all ways that you can make use of Chorda. With the dedicated companion app, you can configure Chorda to respond to touch and gestures in many different ways, as well as explore sound libraries spanning numerous instruments and genres. And thanks to the built-in battery, speaker, and headphone jack, Chorda can join you anywhere that you go. Make music effortlessly with Chorda from Artiphon.
CHORDA FEATURES
Gestural instrument, looper, and MPE MIDI controller Chorda companion app for configuration, sound selection, and more Capacitive touch surface with LEDs and haptic feedback Internal accelerometer and gyroscope Multi-sensor touch bridge for strumming and more Bluetooth LE for MIDI USB-C connectivity Internal battery and speaker"
"At this year's NAMM 2023, Sonic State met Adam from Artiphon to discuss their latest product, the Orba 2. The major upgrade from Orbit 1 is the built-in sample engine, which enables users to add real sounds like acoustic guitars, pianos, and audio files from real songs onto the device itself. Artiphon has added a new level of automation with song stems, and full audio patterns so anyone can grab a handful of notes, choose when and how to play, and mix and match different sounds to bring their music to life.
Artiphon has collaborated with New Zealand artist Kimbra taking the stems from her latest single, Replay, and turning them into playable Orba 2 presets. The company has made all of the different sounds, including the work they've done with Kimbera and other artists, available for free in the Orba 2 app.
"Artiphone's Orba Synth gadget is more versatile than you might think, but it could be even more so if the accompanying software came with more functions. In this video, I take a short look at Orba's config files, where to find them and how to edit them. WARNING: On the Orba forums, users warned that getting some of the pitch values in the chords template wrong might brick your Orba. I can't confirm this, for me, all that happened was a hard reset. But proceed with caution. Table of contents:
00:00 intro 00:25 hello 00:59 hardware overview 01:17 how to get the synth editor 01:26 editor overview 02:40 file locations, file transfer 03:27 your own chord progressions / keyboard shortcuts 05:36 drum patch setup 06:29 sampled instruments 07:33 conclusion 07:58 important things to consider 08:27 short demo using my own patches 09:30 what's wrong with my orba 2? 10:24 bye-bye
"Orba 2’s comes with synthesized and acoustic sounds like upright pianos, guitars, found sounds, and more, and can work with no wires or screens attached.
Adam demonstrated it responding to bump, tilt and finger position giving control over timbre and velocity, and told us it can send all this control data over USB or bluetooth. There's a built in sampler with 4 gig of memory so you're not limited to the on board sounds, and it can loop up to 128 bars or up to 5 minutes of overdubbable audio.
Orba 2 Available to preorder now. Price 149 USD Shipping: Summer 2022"
Onboard sample engine and synthesizer and built-in speaker offer an immediate playing experience
Eight capacitive-sensing pads respond to the lightest velocities
Accelerometer and gyroscope capture a range of multi-dimensional gestures
Use the built-in looper to layer Drum, Bass, Chord, and Lead parts
Connect to the cross-platform Orba app for more sounds, songs, and settings
Connect via MIDI over Bluetooth or USB-C, and use MIDI Polyphonic Expression (MPE) to play your sounds in dynamic new ways
Use the 1/8" (3.5mm) output to listen on headphones, speakers, and amps
"Here's a demo of the progress I made on my own #WebMIDI/Javascript sequencer. In this demo:
- LEDs used for showing status (selected track, active step)
- track muting
- swing!
- copying patterns while playing
- transposing tracks while playing.
- switching and queueing tracks while playing
This sequencer will work in Edge and Chrome(ium). You can try it at https://sequencer.floydsteinberg.com
Feel free to take a look at the source code. I'll also upload a video explaining how it works later.
Synths used:
#MotorSynth for the arpeggiated chords
#RefaceDX for pads and EP
Orba for drums and bass
Effects:
Strymon NightSky
Perhaps not the hottest improv under the sun, but I think there are some nice moments in there."
"The Artiphon 'Orba' is a 4 part multitimbral, 12 voice polyphonic virtual analog / wavetable synth equipped with some smartphone sensors, MIDI support and unique ideas, marred by some software shortcomings and a noisy headphone jack. That doesn't stop it from creating some great sounds and being fun and inspirational. Table of contents:
00:00 intro 00:38 hardware overview 02:37 touch & tilt controls 04:19 example track #1 06:36 the Orba companion app 08:46 MIDI features 09:57 MIDI demo w/ Nord Drum and Novation Peak 12:23 conclusion 14:14 verdict 15:01 bye-bye, please subscribe etc.
"Orba by Artiphon is what they describe as “a musical instrument designed for your hands” and I would say that's a pretty accurate description. It certainly struck a chord (sorry!) on Kickstarter as it raised almost $1.5 mill at launch.
Orba is a small, dense plastic semi-sphere with 9 touch pads (8 segments and a central button), it has a built in speaker, on board sound engine with a 9 sound drum part and three melodic (bass, chords, lead)
There’s an on board looper and a number of gesture controls - pressure, radiate, spin move, tilt, shake slide, vibrato and bump.
"Simple melodic modular demo with an Orba live component.
Orba BT to iPhone -- Midiflow app -- mio MIDI USB interface out via
cam. adapter -- MIDI DIN out to Mutant Brain module input -- MB CV/gate out to Plaits module, etc.
One or 2 visible misfires on the Orba keys, but it worked pretty well - some modular glitches too… hey it’s live. :-)"
"Artiphon Orba first demo, internal sounds and looper only, custom set of presets loaded from the Orba iPhone app (several sets come with the app already).
Another video showcasing some MIDI control of iOS apps over Bluetooth coming shortly."
See the Artiphon label below for more.
Update: a couple of screenshots of the iPhone app interface and additional details via SynthAddict:
"Artiphon Orba first demo, internal sounds and looper only, custom set of presets loaded from the Orba iPhone app (several sets come with the app already).
I adjusted the brightness/contrast to show the LEDs better. The red recording LED at around “8 o’clock” on the ring is noticeable but a bit dim in some scenes, and you can see the bright blue LEDs count up as the loop progresses. The center button is like a shift modifier, controlling the device with macros.
Internal looper has control over tempo and octave, but the 4 layer recordings (drum, bass, chord, and lead) aren’t quantized.
The internal gyro and accelerometer allow various changes to modulation or timbre, and a simple bump can trigger another note as well (good for percussion). The 8 velocity pads (keys) in the ring can allow vibrato in one axis and filter cutoff in another. The modulation can be added after the layer is recorded as long as the recorder is still on.
Another video showcasing some MIDI control of iOS apps over Bluetooth coming shortly."
"Strum your voice! We’ve been having a ton of fun around the office using iZotope's new VocalSynth 2 plug-in with the INSTRUMENT 1 to enter new dimensions of music-making. Here’s just a sample!"
"The new Moog Model D app sounds perfect. For those looking to spin some knobs on a Minimoog, this gets you pretty close. We’re using a grid tuning to play this fun pad preset called “Rick’s Lead.” Not sure who Rick is, by boy do we like it."
"What’s New:
You strummed, we listened. The INSTRUMENT 1 just got a major playability update for muting strings. Now simply strum a chord, and when you lift off the fingerboard the strings will automatically mute. Easier than pie.
Bonus: Strummed notes will ring out for as long as you can hold them with new infinite sustain. Can you hear it?
The volume knob also learned a new trick – it now sends data to your DAW (via CC#9) so you can map your favorite effects, dynamics, and more when using an external sound card or line-out from your iPad. Awesomely optional.
Fixed:
Previously, the bridge on Tap Fretted Strings mode was strummable. Now, it’s tappable. That just makes sense.
Bow method also gained velocity sensitivity, for the orchestrally-inclined. Perfect for Hans Zimmer covers – or John Williams, if you prefer.
How to Get It:
Simply open the Artiphon iOS app or Desktop Editor and follow the prompts to update your firmware."
"Artiphon sent me an INSTRUMENT 1 to demo. Here's that demo.
The INSTRUMENT 1 is a multifaceted, multidimensional MIDI controller that you can use to play software instruments on Mac, PC, and iOS.
You can change its behavior using the INSTRUMENT 1 Editor software. Play modes include things guitar, bowed instruments, pianos, percussion, autoharp and more. A built-in arpeggiator and various scale modes can inspire new ways of interfacing with your software or hardware instruments. It has velocity and aftertouch and you should touch it and think about your life."