“It's about shaking up your creative process”: Tame Impala’s Orchid polysynth is like a hardware chord cheat sheet

This is Orchid by Telepathic Instruments. - YouTube

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We’ve kept a close eye on the progress of Telepathic Instruments’ debut synth Orchid since it was first announced earlier this year. The company, which is founded by Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker, dropped a series of cryptic teasers over the past few months before giving us our first proper look at the esoteric instrument last week. Now Orchid has been fully revealed, and it’s no less interesting than the teasers led us to believe.

Pitched as being ‘made for chords’ Orchid is a 16-voice digital polysynth that features three distinct synth engines designed by Stefan Stenzel, best known for his work with Waldorf. These offer a virtual analogue subtractive synth, an FM synth engine, and a vintage reed piano emulation. The FM and VA engines each have four oscillators, four LFOs, four envelope generators and a filter.

The synth also features onboard reverb, chorus and delay effects. As well as letting users assign a sound for the main chords, Orchid also has a separate bass synth engine that will generate sound solely for the low-end.

The most interesting aspect of Orchid, however, is its distinctive chord generation system. This is based around a matrix of chord type and chord modifying keys, paired with a single octave keyboard used to dictate the root note of the chord. The central rotary can then be used to repitch and reposition chords, which can then be played back in a number of ways, using the Strum, Slop, Arpeggiator, Pattern and Harp functions.

According to its creators, “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.”

According to Telepathic Instruments, Orchid was first envisioned by Kevin Parker over 10 years ago. The design of the instrument itself has been developed by company co-founder Ignacio Germade.

“Orchid isn’t just about how much you know or don’t know – it’s about shaking up your creative process,” says Charl Laubscher, another of Telepathic Instruments’ co-founders. “It’s a tool for anyone who wants to step outside their musical comfort zone, to experiment and to find what’s on their mind.”

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Orchid’s hardware has a unique and – to our eye at least – stylish design, but also features a number of modern conveniences. There’s a stereo pair of built-in speakers, plus a rechargeable onboard battery. The single octave keyboard is velocity sensitive too.

Although the look and format of Orchid is unlike much else on the market, in terms of its functionality, it actually reminds us quite a bit of Polyend's new instrument, Synth – another multi-engine digital poly that makes use of powerful chord-following features.

Orchid is being released in a limited run of 1000 units that US residents can order from 18 December. A wider release is planned for early next year, although those who buy the instrument through its initial run will have a chance to shape its ongoing development via a Patreon group known as The Garden. The first run of Orchid synths are priced at $549. Head to the official site to find out more.