Start a new topic

Introducing Orbasynth: A Powerful Preset Creator for Orba's Internal MPE Synth

Thanks so much for your patience and feedback provided on Orba. Today, we have some exciting news regarding something a lot of you have been asking for. If it seems like we’ve been quiet here recently, it’s because we’ve been working behind the scenes on a couple of bigger things. One of these things is Orbasynth, our new gesture-mappable synth that allows for extensive customization of Orba sounds. 


Here are a couple of key features

  • Morphing oscillators that mix saw, triangle, and novel harmonic-rich waveforms, with variable-width pulse waveforms that change dynamically with dedicated envelopes.

  • Three ADSR dynamic envelopes allow the synth tones to be sculpted by the player’s continuous playing on Orba’s capacitive-sensitive playing surface and respond to note-on and note-off velocities. Two different envelopes can control the two oscillators, noise, and the ring modulator while the third one controls a resonant filter.

  • A waveguide allows for physical modeling, creating unique instruments that have an acoustic-like familiarity. Orbasynth has two modes that emulate string and pipe harmonic structures.

  • Reverb and Delay effects provide sounds that range from subtle ambient air to dense sonic textures.

  • Map Orba’s different playing gestures to synth destinations like filter cutoff and resonance, oscillator level, vibrato, harmonic, saw/triangle mix, harmonic mix. noise level, and LFO rate.


Here's the link where you can download it (available on both Mac and Windows): https://artiphon.com/pages/downloads 


Here's the first tutorial video for Orbasynth (more to come!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lvXA3oz1to


Here's the user manual for Orbasynth: https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0229/7157/files/Orbasynth-manual-v1.1.pdf?v=1649731694


Give it a try and let us know what you think!


16 people like this idea

Excellent work team, I look forward to diving in. Any mobile plans for Orbasynth?

1 person likes this

Appreciate that Sam. At this time, Orbasynth is only available for Mac and Windows. That's a great idea though! 


2 people like this

"The first tutorial video for Orbasynth" is more like a demo. We could really do with a starter walk through, with no assumptions made. How do you play a note or a rift as in the demo and then get to hear the parameter changes you make?


1 person likes this

Thanks for the feedback, Alan! We'll keep that in mind when working on upcoming Orbasynth content. Is there anything else specific you'd like to see covered? 


For now, you should be able to find everything you need in the User Manual. For example, if you're asking about audio output, that's on page 4. 


1 person likes this

Wow - great work, thanks!


1 person likes this

Downloaded Orbasynth and playing with it ... how do you get it to audio output?  I have it set up for Windows out, and the "TEST" button plays a sound, but I'm not getting any other output.  Is there a "play sound" option somewhere once you've configured the synth shapes?

Duh, sorry, just now saw the link for the user manual.  I'll follow the instructions.

Hi Karl. You should be able to adjust the output in the "Audio/MIDI Settings" menu (the gear icon on the top left corner of the app). Make sure that your Orba is connected, though we recommend using "Built-in Output" or an audio interface for the output. 


If that doesn't work, would you mind sending us a screenshot of that menu? 

Bravo! This is exactly what I was hoping for. Thanks, Artiphon.

1 person likes this

Took me a while to figure out how to get some sound so I could hear the changes I was making. Watched the tutorial, looked through the manual. Not much help but eventually figured it out. Here is what I am doing-


1. Connect your Orba and start your Orba app and your new OrbaSynth app

2. In your Orba app click on the Artiphon A in the right corner.

3. The second item is Orba Sounds. Turn that off so you aren't hearing the orba sounds when you press the buttons (Don't forget to turn it back on when you want to hear the loaded presets again)

4. In the OrbaSynth click the gear symbol in the upper left

5. Set your output to the orba and your input from the orba.


Now when you press the orba buttons it will play whatever the synth is set to. The default settings sound alot like acoustic guitar in Bass and Lead mode


4 people like this

@ Rpneal, Great walk through there. Neat how you can use the pads of the Orba as key press' and as a sequencer, such as the riff in the demo. So you can use any MIDI controller to create your own patches, time to reshuffle my cabling and get the keyboard to talk to the OrbaSynth.

Thanks for sharing.


1 person likes this

Good work! Keep on and remember the next in line: quantization and scales.


5 people like this

+1, after the sound editor, a scale editor would be amazing. 


4 people like this

I think quantization will be the most important feature to add. Loops need to feel clean


4 people like this
Login or Signup to post a comment