Artiphon ORBA OK. So, being not musically minded at all, I’ll confess I had no idea what I was looking at with this. Then it twigged! As a kid, I got given an electronic keyboard guitar and I thought I was the bee’s knee’s! But… there was something lacking. Yeah, you got it, musical talent! Not to mention the damn thing was heavy, ate batteries like no tomorrow and had the musical range of a tone-deaf duck… The ORBA from Artiphon is clear evidence that we’re living in the future as far as my 14 year old self is concerned. The internal synthesizer has been manufactured to respond to how you move the device and what kind of finger actions you use on it. If you tilt it, you get a kind of sliding scale noise, if you shake it, you get a wobbly noise and if you tap it on the side, it sounds pretty percussiony (a new word I created, just for this review – aren’t you lucky souls?). Of course, this is all within the relatively limited sound selection of synthetic music but if you like that kind of thing then no problem, right? It’s fair to say that this thing is fairly intuitive and easy to use. It fits neatly in your hand and is small enough to allow your fingers to do the talking when it comes to the music. You can also link it up to your favourite DAW (Digital Audio Workstation for us un-initiated) and music making apps via Bluetooth and use it to help create some new tunes or improve on current ones with ease. And, despite the limited sound selection, there is a surprisingly good level of depth for those willing to explore.
$99.99
An intuitive, easy to use musical synthesiser that fits in the palm of your hand.
