Earlier this year, we reported that Australian artist Kevin Parker - better known as Tame Impala - was behind the launch of a new musical instrument company called Telepathic Instruments.
Following a handful of cryptic Instagram posts, the company shared a brief glimpse of an unnamed first product back in August that looked like some kind of compact, chord-generating keyboard.
Yesterday, Telepathic Instruments has revealed that its first product is called Orchid, giving us a closer look at the instrument but providing little in the way of detail save for the slogan "For Chords" and a statement that Orchid is "a new kind of instrument that helps songwriters and musicians find what’s on their mind."
As expected, Orchid is a one-octave keyboard that appears to be designed for chord generation. In the teaser video, embedded above, the instrument cycles between a number of chords selected via a combination of its keyboard and a set of eight buttons on the left-hand side of the interface, while the display in the centre shows the chord being played.
Orchid's buttons control the chord type (we can spot major, minor, diminished and suspended, along with buttons for introducing major sevenths, minor sevenths, and ninths) while two dials in the centre seem to adjust the voicing and the bass note.
Elsewhere on the unit, there are encoders labelled Sound and FX, implying that Orchid will unsurprisingly offer an array of sounds and effects to play with: some of the sounds in the video are decidedly lo-fi, so we wouldn't be surprised if there was a bitcrusher involved. There are additional controls for key, BPM, and volume, along with an encoder that presumably either adjusts the volume or the timbre of the bass notes.
The dials labelled Loop and Perform imply that Orchid has an onboard looper, along with some performance-related tricks up its sleeve that have yet to be revealed; the teaser video shared in August appeared to show Parker playing with the instrument's arpeggiator. The chords in the video are strummed, so it's likely you'll be able to trigger chords in this fashion.
Orchid's method of sound generation remains unclear, but given the apparent lack of controls for timbral manipulation, it seems likely that this isn't a synthesizer, but instead a keyboard stocked with a collection of sample-based sounds.
Much like the virally popular Nopia, Orchid seems to be squarely aimed at music-makers unacquainted with the mechanics of chord-building, though it offers a novel way to construct chord sequences (and presumably, some additional functionality) that could lure in more experienced players.
Telepathic Instruments says that more will be revealed "very soon". To stay informed, sign up to its mailing list.
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