Almost precisely two years after releasing the Orba 2, Artiphon is finishing the trilogy. The newly introduced Orba 3 finds the Nashville-based startup baking live sampling into its intelligent handheld instrument. The function arrives by the use of a built-in microphone, which lets customers report their voice, devices, and different sounds.
All of that can be completed on-device, which means there’s no want for an exterior system to load sounds onto the instrument. Instead, you click on the massive, pink Sample button on the aspect, report a sound, and that’s just about it.
Switching the Orba into one of many 4 completely different modes — bass, chord, drum, lead — assigns completely different properties to the sound. It’s a intelligent addition to what was already a particularly enjoyable little gadget.
“In Drum mode, each pad can hold a unique sample, while in Chord mode, samples are automatically tuned to fit musical chords,” the corporate explains. “This is made possible by a sophisticated sound engine that automatically crops, tunes, and perfects the audio.”
As with its predecessors, the Orba 3 can be used as a MIDI controller when related to an exterior system by way of USB-C.
The instrument is offered for $160 over on Artiphon’s web site. The Orba 2 is sticking round, in the meantime, now priced at $120. Artiphon introduced the Chorda final yr, which Ztoog described as a mashup between Orba and the corporate’s first providing, Instrument 1.