i brought the last model last year since i need to cheer myself up with so much illness lost and health issues for myself. now find out you brought out a Obra 2 when i spend my money trying to get use to the to Obra instrument and waiting on updates etc including if there were maybe recording. at the time i felt as good potential but was limited for self expression as a beginner. Now you have a newer model in a short time. I felt I should of waited instead of wasting money. O well ! maybe i should wait again just incase you have a sudden surprise Obra 3 or do you have discount for already subscribe members.
Response from ArtiphonSep 8, 2022
Hey Trevor, we're giving all of our Orba 1 owners a discount on Orba 2. Please send us an email at [email protected] and we will be happy to help get you set up. Thanks.
MM
Micheal M.
It's a fun toy but getting bored very…
It's a fun toy but getting bored very fast,
Response from ArtiphonJun 14, 2022
Thanks for your review, Michael. Be sure to follow our Instagram for some daily inspiration! You may find some new musical ideas to try with Orba.
BM
Brittan M.
Product is awesome but...
Product is awesome! It's super fun and I can't wait for updates. My reason for 3 stars is due to the lag in shipping times. I feel that Artiphon was dishonest about what they could achieve and how long. I understand COVID issues but they need to be more transparent about how long things will take
Response from ArtiphonMar 2, 2021
Hey Brittan, thanks for your feedback. I apologize that it took so long to get your order to you. Our fulfillment partner has been experiencing delays due to a few different factors, and we try to relay that information the best we can to our customers. We understand how important transparency is when making a purchase and are working to make this process better in the future.
PM
ŦΞPҤΔИΞ Ͼ.
More samples
Nice experience to play with, but:
More samples :)! Or maybe possible to import Our own samples.
Response from ArtiphonMar 2, 2021
Thanks for your review on Orba. We'll take this feedback where it needs to go. Please let us know if there's anything else you would like to see Orba do!
PK
Pawel K.
Decent and fun hardware with catastrophic software and serious shorcomings
I bought Orba via Kickstarter. They had 8 months delay in shipping and a really bad communication with the backers. In the end they delivered a device which looks nice but seriously underdelivers.
The goods first.
The device itself looks good and is nice to hold in hand. The keys on the top are great to touch and (with serious limits) react to touch with haptic feedback vibrations). This is by far the best element in Orba, the highlight of the whole project. And fun to use, I must admit.
The device has 4 modes which work quite well and a simple, but well thought track recording.
Also, the 11 preset sounds shipped (in the catastrophic app) sound generally good.
The device promises a number of gestures that alter the sound, including vibrato, radiance and more. These are very fun and cool... but work only sometimes. By that I mean that there are some very strange conditions for a given gesture to activate (e.g. "shake" works only in DRUM mode and only if you keep the "8" key pressed, the "radiance" can only be heard with BASS etc.). The only reliable gesture is a tilt and - to some degree - vibrato.
I hope one day they will fix that with firmware update.
The whole experience is ruined however by a very bad - catastrophic, I would say - app and a very poorly designed sample management.
The app currently works reasonably only with USB, which is stupid for a device relying on gestures and movement. Bluetooth works sometimes, very slowly and for short periods (constant disconnects) which makes even changing the sample a nightmare. Basically the mobile phone cannot now be used as an extension of the device shortcomings.
The app itself looks like someone had an idea to use the app to easily change modes... and then hired high school students to implement all the rest without instruction nor checking what and how they do that. In the effect the sample management is plain stupid (where are the strings? Oh, in "Boomy Booms", of course!) and non-intuitive, the controls are in random places (changing the current key? sure, open the song and look for a drop-down box) or missing the most obvious features (want to delete the last track? sorry, no).
All in all - I give the device 3 start for innovation and physical construction and with hope that the most severe shortcomings will be soon fixed by the software. I think that the software could fix the device and make it something more than just a 15 minute toy to play a bit and toss on a shelf.
Perhaps they should open source the software? This would definitely help, as the device has potential and many of the 12k+ backers alone are software engineers :)
Response from ArtiphonFeb 22, 2021
Hey Pawel, thank you for your feedback. We take our customer feedback very seriously, and we're working to improve Orba based on your experience. Please be on the lookout for firmware and app updates. If we can help you with anything else, or if you have any other thoughts on how we can improve Orba, please drop us an email in our support portal at Artiphon.com. Thanks!
CU
Customer
Great Product
Great Product - Very disappointing Customer service.
Response from ArtiphonDec 4, 2020
Hey there, thanks for leaving us a review. I'm sorry we weren't able to offer you a great customer support experience. Our small support team has been experiencing an influx in tickets and I apologize if your ticket got lost in the shuffle. We recently brought on additional help in our support department and we're working on improving that experiencing for our customers. We really appreciate you hanging in there with us!
BI
Bianka
Excellent instrument
Excellent instrument and idea but you have to improve communication and operations and a bit also on software development related things. Keep up the good work guys, you will be awesome! :)
Response from ArtiphonDec 4, 2020
Hey Bianka, thanks for your review! We really appreciate your feedback. I'm sorry we weren't able to provide you with exceptional customer service. Our support team is a bit overwhelmed with an influx of support tickets, but we recently brought on more help so we can better serve our customers. We're also using more reliable couriers now. We appreciate you hanging in there with us. :)
We're also working on more firmware updates to provide better playability and add more functions to Orba. So be sure to keep an eye out for more firmware updates in the very near future! Thanks again.
SC
Scott
Very happy with the device but.
Very happy with the device. The app on android is not working properly on my Galaxy tab s4/ S20 ultra. Windows app has worked great.
Where I am unhappy is the pre-order through kickstarter communication was a mess. People were receiving them before me. Charged for express shipping 😂.