Artiphon Orba Synthesizer

Most Liked Negative Review

Disappointing.

As a MIDI controller, it's just ok, if you're up for the setup; Bluetooth MIDI is only available for Mac products and an in-depth MIDI editor is only available for Max for Live, so elsewise you've got cabling and custom setup to mess with - it works, it's just that their marketing kind of leads you to believe that it's an out-of-the-box plug-and-play experience for everyone, when it won't be for many users. ... As a stand alone device, the Orba does not measure up to the hype: Sounds are basic, uninspiring and uneditable. There is often-occasional latency when triggering the internal sounds - latency which records onto the onboard sequencer - and the onboard sequencer does not have the ability to quantize, so it can take many frustrating takes to record a simple idea in-time. Also, all sounds have clicks and distortion through the headphone jack, regardless of played velocity or device volume. Switching between sounds while loop-recording causes all sound on the device to cut out for half a beat, with accompanying crackle/distortion, which is jaring and kills any vibe. There's a four part sequencer, but after recording-in the third part, expect distortion and crackle on all parts upon playback - frankly, the audio from this thing just sounds bad, all the time. Controls are janky and inconsistent. Sometimes pressing the record key combo will record, but sometimes it will not record, but switch instruments instead (it shouldn't do this.) Sometimes instrument selection will switch mid-recording, ruining your take (it shouldn't do this.) Sometimes selecting the bass sound will trigger the record button (it's not supposed to do this either.) User-recorded songs will occasionally self-delete at random, gone forever. All-in-all, while Artiphon sure did a good job of marketing this product - on the ground, outside of a paid reviewer's hands, the Orba is poorly designed, badly implemented and frustrating to use. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone