Orba 2 Alternative

 A couple of posts have appeared on Reddit from people with Orba2's with 1.1.17 firmware. I am still not aware of any firmware file that will update to the latest versions, but it may be possible to get from the factory firmware to 1.1.17 but it's not sure what does it. This old firmware won't work properly with the latest Artiphon Connect versions so I am making what old software that may be suitable. The caveat is that can't tell what version will work best, and I have no way of testing that out. So there are six versions, three from before the release of the Chorda and three later (from before the release of the Orba3, I think). They are here: https://www.mediafire.com/file/36b5z1q47wfqj7w/Orba2OldSoftware.zip/file It is worth noting that the preset and samples content in the Public/Shared and Users Artiphon folders in the Documents folder will remain in place if you uninstall the software and re-install a different version. This means you won't have to put those...

 Well, probably the last unless something worth of it appears. I keep on forgetting to mention - some of the presets use pitch-bend, to work properly the pitch-bend setting on the devices setting page should be set to 100%. I always set my devices that way myself and I forget about it! Two packs here. The Sane presets are the ones that I might have put in the monthly packs if I was going to continue them. I did add "Neptune" in this pack - it should have gone in the Insane one but I thought it would be a nice sampler of the Insane - I particularly like the sounds. The Insane presets are all Drum mode presets  but with tonal samples - they are experiments with what can be done with the mode. They may seem like the configurations of the pads are random, but there was some logic somewhere in them all. I wanted to document them better but it was just too much work and I am moving on to other things. They are here for downloading: https://www.mediafire.com/file/b204ayd6mub83yj/TYY...

 As of today the placeholder pages at artiphon.com has disappeared and it looks as if won't come back. It only really offered a source of the final versions of the Connect app for Windows and MacOs - which are only good if you have the final version of the firmware on your device (and maybe the one version before that, but I can't confirm that). I will post a link to get those versions of the app soon, but they are available in a pack I linked to in the FAQ post I made a while ago -  so you can get that now if you need it. If your firmware is older you may need an older version of the apps. Don't ask me what one for which firmware because I don't know, and probably never will.

 It's uploaded and avail for you to download here: https://www.mediafire.com/file/6qd5ot27a8qvrkd/OrbaAlternative-December25.zip/file There's a few things that have been lurking around on my hard drives - I will try and put them together into one or two packs and some time in the not distant future but mostly I'm done.

I left out some presets from the updated version of Uncle Davids Presets in my last post. These had a rather medieval sound. I had intended to add some extra scales but that turned out to be more problematic than I had expected -  but I did make one minor scale one to include. These are here: https://e.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZvfhAZBWh0UWW9aGfxXiG4P0VLqLmr6jQV The December pack will follow shortly.

 I have been forced to cut down my plans for offering presets here. So, I am now re-posting  the "Uncle David's Presets" bundle again, with some adjustments and in a much easier format to use. They are now in Artipreset format which makes it's easy to pick and choose which ones you load and do it simply. If you got what you wanted from the earlier version there is no need to use the new (unless you think it may be useful in the future). I had intended to create a new bundle to demonstrate the unsupported things the devices could do but I realised that "Uncle David's Presets" did that function already so it was better to just re-bundle that and save myself a load of work. There will be a December bundle in due course as planned. I will try to add add one or two small bundles when I can. There are a few things that I have in hand or are in progress so I will let them out to those who may want it in due course. Here is the new version of "Uncle David...

 A while ago I read about a bug that affected the Orba 3. Artiphon released a firmware update to address it before they went into administration.  But as well as the new influenza and Covid bugs some of us have been experiencing Orba 2 and Chorda users may be experiencing a similar problem as the Orba 3, although it doesn't seem to be quite as bad as the Orba 3 one. It seems to show up when playing high frequency notes, showing up in some chord presets as a "wolf" frequency and sometimes making Lead presets play incorrectly in the high ranges. Although it can make the devices crash and reboot it doesn't seem to disable them and it doesn't need an updated firmware to recover, which is just as well as there will not be a new firmware to fix it. (I have not been testing things on the Orba 2 much because it is easier to use the Chorda for that. I have not seen this bug so much on the Orba 2.)

 (I've got bored answering questions about Apps and content for these devices.  I can't help at all for the Artiphon Instrument and the Orba 1.  If anyone has good firmware files for the Orba 2 and the Orba 1 I would happily add them for others if I think they are viable ie: someone has used them successfully. I can't test them myself. Content for the Orba 1 might also be useful.) No versions of the apps for mobile devices have surfaced at the time of writing. I believe iOS is blocking and/or deleting the app. The Android app is no longer on the store. Firmware: The latest version of the firmware for the Chorda can be loaded. There was only one update for the Orba 3 as far as I am aware - it was a fix for a bug which could stop the device working, so it should be used. These are included in this package, with instructions. It includes the PC and MacOs Apps. The apps are also still available at Artiphon.com if you prefer. Here: https://www.mediafire.com/file/yh4zj6xx5...

 The link to get them is: https://www.mediafire.com/file/qr5o09as7xpmg73/Alternative_Presets-November25.zip/file December is mostly prepared but I want to add a couple of things to make it more exciting first. After that I will stop trying to keep a monthly schedule, but in the meantime I am planning two bonus sets. One will be to demonstrate what can be done with Pitch-Bending and the other different uses of the Drum mode (apart from drums).

 This set has a stringy bias, but there's also a different sort of  percussion set ("drum kit" would be being rather too generous a term). It's here: https://www.mediafire.com/file/mlyn1u7jxtyp7c2/Alternative_Presets_October25.zip/file I forgot to put my own images in. If I remember I will do that later, but it doesn't matter much, they often don't show up anyway.

 I've recently noticed that I can't change from major to minor keys on Windows with the 1.0.670 version of the Connect app. I don't know if this is some strange problem of my own or affecting others. If it's a bug or bad coding it's not likely to get fixed so the fix, I have found, is to go back to 1.0.651 or even 1.0.608. (I slightly prefer the older style of 1.0.608, but there may be real benefits to go with 651.) Just thought I would let you know in case ........

 Five presets. One for each mode and an extra Lead preset donated by the taciturn but lovely GabbiMX. Here: https://www.mediafire.com/file/1h76magmx3kyufx/Alternative_Presets_Sept25.zip/file (October's set is in consideration already.)

 New presets will be posted very soon, but in the meantime: Some people will want to get the content that Artiphon sent out to users. I didn't download all of them myself but here is all that I did get if you need it. https://www.mediafire.com/file/13clvnbxfid0ptg/Artiphon_Presets.zip/file There will be some who need to update their devices to the latest firmware. We can only help for the Orba 3 and the Chorda. Until we can get a working file for the Orba 2 (eg: something that was sent by Artiphon in a support response) we can't help. Here is what we do have, and we know works: https://www.mediafire.com/file/yh4zj6xx5cacjet/TYYTappendix.zip/file I meant to add a note that I would not recommending loading Stems onto you device unless you are sure you want them. They use a lot of long samples and have limited use, taking up storage space you might want eventually. It's up to you, I can see some folk will love them. I don't. In case it's useful to know for Orba 3 users...

If you are here looking for help go to https://orbaalternative.blogspot.com/2025/11/a-faq-for-orba-2-3-and-chorda.html Since the apparent demise of Artiphon I've been trying to post information that might help people out, and am considering offering some content (just presets, not songs or stems) because there won't be anything coming from from Artiphon. It's a bit tiresome posting stuff on different places so instead I plan to post anything I have to offer here. In due course, feedback will make it more likely to continue - because I'm just human, but negative doesn't have to be a bad thing if it helps me be informed what people might like/want. I'd like to say that I will post something new monthly - but that's not realistic so it may be longer than that. I will aim in each link to include something brand new and something that you may already have if you've used my previous preset packs (although they may be slightly different for you convenience). Th...

 In July 2024 Artiphon released new firmware and a new version of the Connect app for the Chorda and Orba 2. This had a big effect on Chord presets and this was a big blow to me. I will try to explain it and what I have been trying to do to mitigate the damage it did to my use of the Orba 2 and the Chorda. The most obvious difference was that all chord presets by default play their standard chord set. Other chord sets defined in a preset are ignored and are no longer used. The standard set is OK, but it is restrictive and rather plain - but I could get round that by creating my own chord sets - I made a lot of them. That has now been stolen from us and instead the app only allows us two alternatives, the pentatonic chord set, again OK but even more restricted, and the chromatic set which bewilders me as I can find no rational to the choice (and placing) of the chords included, there's not even a basic set of chords for the chosen root key in there. (Another change was that the Chor...

 With the Chorda a new feature with songs that seems to have confused people. Sadly Artiphon didn't explain it well which really didn't help. First let's understand the songs that come with the Chorda at the start. I should say here I get annoyed by their use of the word "song" in this context. Being old school, a song needs to be sung and have some degree of structure as minimums. Artiphon songs have neither, but never mind for now. The built-in songs are really just a set of settings. When you press "play" in the app you are setting the presets for each mode (Lead, Chord etc.), and also you set the key, the speed - Beats Per Minute, and the scale, Major or Minor. The Lead preset loaded will contain the setting for whether its scale is Pentatonic or Diatonic - that's not part of the song. These songs contain no musical content - I refer to them as "empty songs" in my own head. Once your Chorda has been set to a particular song you can chan...

 After thinking about it for a while I have come up with a simple system for notating music on these devices. It was first thought up for Lead mode. It was written in Notepad and just to ensure the text doesn't get mangled being displayed on other systems I will show a .png file as well as the text content. Eventually I plan to make a pdf version. This is my first draft and I forgot to mention that this notation will work just as well for all other modes. It doesn't really need any adaption for them. Yo Yo Tablature for the Artiphon Chorda and Orba (1 and 2) instruments. NB: This tablature can be written using a plain text editor such as Notepad in Windows or (WHAT?) on Macs, however they do not define a line length and tablature may be altered when displayed where word wrapping and different sized windows are used. This will particularly some use of the Advanced features. Use a word processor and convert/save to PDF to ensure correct display for others and compatability. A sin...

This is about ten chord presets for the Chorda. Before you get too excited they all use the same sounds - a sample set for a section of strings. I didn't like the stringed instrument sounds on the Orba or Chorda so I have tried to get something I prefer. This is, I think, a good albeit synthy string sound. You can get an idea how it sounds at my previous post "A little thing you can do with Chorda Chords" although I have tweaked it a bit to sound and play better now. Since the sound "CelloBlue" sample set was working well I decided to try some things with chords and here we have the results. https://www.mediafire.com/file/saz9l1tjnlg6dnr/the_Blue_set.zip/file But I should explain what's there. BlueString-ST simply uses the Artiphon standard chord set - (ST for standard) Since I like flattened sevenths in both scales and chords BlueString-ST-f7 has one on pad 7. (f7 for flattened 7th). Adding Ext to the name means I used a pitch-bend trick so that you can get...

I'm now offering three drum presets for the Orba 2. (They will work on a Chorda but they won't make much sense.) We have a Celtic PanDrum preset - with samples of course. I'm not that keen on it myself, but it's useful if you want these sounds. The other two are laid out with two different Japanese scales and are rather moody. Remember, these presets go in the Drum folder and the arrangement of the notes on the pads are intended to try and be as they would be on the real things. Get them here: https://www.mediafire.com/file/dumi5rdcloczlkk/PanDrums_for_Orbas.zip/file

By chance I came across a technique using the arpeggio bridge when in Chord mode on the Chorda that is rather neat. I won't try and explain it - listen carefully and you should get the idea. The only technique you need to use is to overlap your touches when moving between chords, very slightly will do. (This is my first attempt at putting up audio to play  and I'm not sure it's working. If you're reading this and it's not - my apologies! Right click and you can download the mp3 just copy the link address.) There is no trickery in this brief recording except that I faded out the final chord in Audacity. There is no trickery in this brief recording except that I faded out the final chord in Audacity.