Artiphon's Lack of Ethics Update: Really? That's Artiphon's response? This is just deflection; "Let's post something and hope it goes away." Since my original review (see below), I've received my reward and it's impressive. It's a well-designed and nicely engineered device and I'm pleased I backed the Kickstarter campaign albeit that the company's communications and behavior was disappointing so I guess I should not be surprised that rather than address or even acknowledge my complaint, the company decided to trot out a non-reply. Will I ever back an Artiphin project again should they do one? Nope. Will I forever see the company and their CEO as unethical? Yep. Will they care? Obviously not. Original Review: Artiphon ran a Kickstarter campaign to launch their new product, the Chorda. As is often the case with Kickstarter projects, the campaign ran behind schedule but the company at least kept backers reasonably well informed on their progress. They supposedly started shipping at the end on 2023 but since then only a small number of backers have received product and, it transpires, Artiphon is now selling the product via retailers. I checked with Sweetwater, one of their resellers, who, as of a few days ago, had eight Chordas in stock. I spoke to one of their extremely helpful sales engineers who told me they put Chordas on pre-order back in November and start shipping around December 28th last year. They've sold something like 80 units since then. This puts paid to Artiphon's claims of shipping problems and underlines that the company has probably been trying to bootstrap sales and thereby cash flow for the product. The problem with this is the lack of transparency and the company's assumption that backers can just suck it. It's a monumental failure of ethics no matter how you view it. Finally, Artiphon has no published phone numbers at all; you can only contact them via email. That says a lot about the company. A one star rating is more than they deserve.

Nonstop Fun and Functional Instrument The Orba2 is an incredible music instrument. Within just a few minutes following setup, I was composing tunes and making functional loops. Within an hour, I was recording new songs and sharing them online with family members who also have Artiphon Orba devices. It’s amazing how much power Artiphon has placed in such a small and portable device.

Looks nice, but very bad software: Don't buy! I got my kickstarter Orba way too late. Weeks after I bought another one online. About the same price. The software is very bad (no save/load). Not suitable for serious stand-alone use. It can be used as a midi controller via a USB-cable. But there are better and cheaper solutions for that. Artiphon constantly promises improvement. Nothing. I wouldn't buy it until Artiphon has the software in order ... PS: Yes, this is Artiphon's standard response. Translation: - temporary = 4 months already - it's our top priority = apart from selling cool stuff with bad software without a decent warning - we are perfecting this feature = not possible because it is no longer there.

If I had three wishes Positive: Great device, lots of fun, impressed by the sensitivity of the buttons, the gestures and all the features and functions in this small device, feels good in the hands, very inspirative. It's a real Instrument. Negative: sudden resets out of nothing. Sometimes, sound gets interrupted when changing the instrument while recording a loop. Wishlist: 1. more presets 2. possibility to chose between pentatonic and diatonic scale for each preset (e.g. by pressing A-4 for 5 seconds or so). 3. Possibility to chose between major and minor key without the app (e.g. by pressing A-3 for 5 seconds or so)

Bad Kickstarter experience with Orba project (still waiting after over a year) Backed the Orba project on Kickstarter. After more than a year of waiting I have still not received a tracking number or estimate for delivery time. Apparently there are still hundreds (if not thousands) of backers who have not received the unit, while it is already commonly available in shops. Based on comments there were also problems in the previous Kickstarter project. Avoid.