Would love to see any feedback from anyone who’s tried both.
Nice traction here seeing AlphaTheta’s little gadget. But I noticed that the Orchid is kinda pushed to the side like some kind of meme-gimmick. I get why, but aside from marketing it’s a solid unit currently.
I picked up the Orchid cause I like a keyboard to octave-ate how I learned notes.
Now I see they’re priced at just about the same point (± a few plugin coins*).
*aside from the obvious grey market scalpers anyway
I bought a chordcat and am not really impressed with it.
It’s very tedious to do things on. The menu system is annoying and doesn’t save your settings between power cycles (things like MIDI in/out settings for tracks).
It does well at suggesting chords as advertised. But pretending it’s a groovebox that is any fun is delusional.
The touch sensitive buttons barely work with my fingers (I’m a climber and have calloused fingertips). The XY pad is also kind of terrible. It feels very cheaply made.
I don’t have the option of returning mine, or I would. It’ll eventually get put up for sale. 
I don’t have a chordcat though I’m confident that as long as it has a spread feature
for the chords so they don’t all sound mechanical I’m sure I could make it do what it do… However I’m aware that it does not have this feature, but the arp on it might be a work around I’m not sure… I don’t really hear anyone talking about this aspect of the machine.
the orchid which I do have is no joke… the piano keys on it are crap and people clown it because of who put it out but it is quite a capable device indeed… even the sounds on it are more than useable.
Man. I’m a big fan of chorders from SW to HW like Omnichord and have been considering CC and Orchid but it’s so many mixed messaging 
Many say both have shoddy build quality which is a big deal.
Theres a used orchid for $475 with the original orange bag I’ve been spying. But, I’ve heard so many users complain of QC issues with their Orchid. Also, seems to be lacking memory storage for storing songs/ideas which would limit its value as a standalone songwriting device. But man, it’s sexy to look at which is also a big deal as it compels you to use it. I’ve also been impressed by the native sounds. Now there’s an app for the synth engine?
On the other hand, CC has all the features I’ve been wanting in a sort of standalone Scaler but it seems like most users aren’t impressed for one reason or the other. I definitely haven’t heard users rave about using CC like Orchids user base.
Guess I may just sit it out and make do with Scaler on iPad despite wanting to limit my music production screen time to Live 3 which has pretty good chord functionality natively.
yeah the way they put the orchid together is just nice, have to reiterate not to be repetitive in these orchid topics but they really do hit the target in their marketing about being an ideas machine on it’s own… I’m not sure what the memory is like on the orchid as I don’t use it that way, i just use it with other gear at home, don’t take it out at all… in conjunction with other gear it’s much more than just an ideas machine … great controlling other gear and plugins and great for running it’s internal sounds through pedals and fx boxes for sampling etc… it has a looper and some nice drumbeats in it worth checking out although I don’t use them… i really like how all of the parts can be sent out individually on their own midi channels and I like the variations for triggering chords and the voice scaling it has on board
Yeah… That’s either a total scam or the deal of the year. Whatever your thoughts on it, you could easily resell for twice that amount (assuming offer is real).
Like captain8 said above, Chordcat sounds too mechanical without a spread feature. There’s really not enough content online that demonstrates an adequate workaround. I personally don’t think it sounds very good at all. I would choose a Roland J6 before a Chordcat.
As for Orchid, I have one. I love it. The voicing dial really opens your music up to some wonderful possibilities. The stock sounds are great. It’s only a meme instrument to the unimaginative. Use it as a controller for all the other synths you’ve acquired, and you’ll be pleased. I sure the heck am 
The controller aspect quickly became super useful. Analog Dreams on Live 3 in diminished minor 6ths, flowed through a little grain delay, while the bass track hits a chaotic Nacht in a dropped D. That hit me pretty hard as a tough patch to dream up any other way.
There’s a really cool open source alternative on IGG now, sadly it still hasn’t reached the target: https://www.indiegogo.com/en/projects/mbdaugdara/touchord-chord-generating-midi-controller#/section/project-story
Orchid also now has a plug-in for designing your own sounds which you can load into the Orchid.
Sadly, even for owners, it’s $50 for the beta and currently Mac only (PC apparently on the way).
But it does look like a great way to keep the sounds on the Orchid fresh.
Speaking of which I just found the manual on the Orchid discord (ty Kevin)
I’d imagine AlphaTheta has some intense behind-the-curtain settings but I haven’t seen any news about it yet.
For Orchid, this is absolutely mental for such a little portable kit, but with the Pistil plugin:
Advanced Mode reveals a significantly expanded interface organized into logical sections:
- Top Bar: Model selection (VA, Reed Piano, FM) and routing options
- Oscillator Sections: 4 independent oscillators with complete parameter control
- Envelope Sections: 4 AHDSR envelopes (Attack, Hold, Decay, Sustain, Release)
- LFO Sections: 4 LFOs with multiple waveforms and modes
- Modulation Matrix: 8 slots for routing modulation sources to destinations
- Reverb Section: Detailed reverb parameters
- FX Sections: Two effect slots with parameter-level control
- Noise Generator: Adjustable noise source
- Filter Section: Comprehensive filter controls with envelope and velocity
- Keyboard Section: Polyphony, glide, and other keyboard behavior settings
As a basic chorder, throw the sounds aside. Let’s say you are feeding synths with the midi. Isn’t the chordcat a lot deeper in terms of inversions and substitutions? Basically something that can help find ideas out of the scale that sound good?
I use expressive chords a lot on Ableton and it’s a great plugin but it’s also a bit all over the place. I’m either using that or playing the keys myself but a good chorder helps me find inversions and ideas I would never have played.
Just curious if chord cat has been upgraded since. I know it has voice leading and the orchid does not, for example.
Again I’m not really worried about the sounds, as I have synths I want to send the midi to.
I know it’s not hardware but surely a used iPad and scaler is better?. I know you lose the hardware feel but Scaler is more in-depth?. What an I missing
To be fair you could say that about maybe thousands of apps vs any hardware synth.
true, but for something more utilitarian I don’t mind using something like an app to create ideas.
As someone with a chordcat & scaler I would personally say Chordcat is the better product regardless of the hardware vs software conversation. Scaler is buggy, unfocused & difficult to use. ChordCat is none of those things and leads me to great ideas quickly. The chord editor they added in one of the latest firmwares makes is really what I think pushed it over the line for me. If they added some kind of more sophisticated player feature like Scaler has I would probably never use Scaler again. scaler 3 is the more powerful product in some ways but it’s just no fun to use, especially if you’re wanting to pipe it into external synths.
Personally I hate scaler. It’s not easy to do the things I want to do in it. I used to think it was all I needed but i even prefer expressive chords over it.
Expressive chords is so good, wish it was implemented in the move
If you like expressive chords, you will love Chordcat. You can even convert expressive chord patches you have in ableton to Chordcat presets pretty easily and vice versa
That’s awesome. Thank you. Sounds like what I’m looking for.