Telepathic Instruments, an electronic instruments company co-founded by Kevin Parker of Tame Impala, along with Ignacio Germade, Chris Adams, Charl Laubscher, Tom Cosm, is releasing a new synthesizer, Orchid. It’s described as “an advanced chord generating hardware synthesizer” and Parker originally came up with it over 10 years ago. Here’s more from the press release:
The instrument works by employing a unique chord logic system, combined with a multitude of ways to shape and alter the chords to maximize creative musical expression. All this is brought into sonic existence by a lush and powerful 16-voice polyphonic synth engine with onboard ambience and modulation FX, plus a separate bass synth engine solely for bottom end.
Physically designed by product designer and Telepathic Instruments co-founder Ignacio Germade, the Orchid boasts a beautiful aesthetic form, with dual stereo built-in speakers, a single-octave fully velocity sensitive keyboard and rechargeable battery for complete portable usage.
At the heart of Orchid is its innovative chord generating system. The layout consists of a matrix of 8 chord-type selecting and chord modifying keys, together with a single-octave keyboard to choose the root note and trigger the chord. The chords are then voiced with the unit’s patent pending voicing system, using a rotary encoder to re-pitch and re-position chords. This process effectively expands the potential of the chords to an entire piano’s key set, not just the 12 keys found on the unit.
Orchid offers a range of methods to bring the chord to life that are referred to as Performance modes. These consist of Strum, Slop, Arpeggiator, Pattern and Harp, the latter of which mimics a harp being strummed to the sound of a given chord across a four-octave range. While other chord generators deliver a static and rigid outputting platform, Orchid paints a new landscape.
A limited edition of the first 1000 Orchids will be available to purchase starting on December 18. You can watch an entertaining promotional video about it below.
