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Seeing Tom Cosm as technical director has totally piqued my interest! big fan of his stuff for ableton, so now I have some good faith in the capabilities and execution of this.
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I hope so too
Is the OP-XY’s “Brain” accomplishing something of this nature?
I was into it but the email I got from them yesterday said they’re releasing 1000 units in December, but only to US customers, nobody else from anywhere else gets to order. That enough of a rude buzz-kill that I’ve lost interest.
I spoke to them about this. They could no nothing about it due to the patent not ready except us. Say it will definately be early next year.
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Agreed, I don’t understand why making chords is referred to as “music theory” and why people who are interested in music act like it is intimidating to understand or takes years of practice.
There are twelve notes available the Western equal temperament tuning system.
You can count the distance between each note and give specific distances an “interval name” (like a 5th). Your starting note + count 4 (major 3rd) + count 3 more (5th) = a major chord of that starting note. This is true for any note you choose. To create different chords, like minor, you just change the count from 4+3 to 3+4 so you get the starting note + minor 3rd + 5th. To get extended chords for your experimental ambient jazz techno, just keep counting, like 4+3+4+4. Go crazy with some extended suspensions and diminished chords with random counting like 2+3+3+4+5, if you like the sound you can use it.
Any scale using less than the entire chromatic set of twelve notes has certain chord combinations that use more of your chosen scale notes than other possible chords, so those will typically sound like they “match” a melody using those scale notes better because they have more consonance than dissonance.
There are no rules and you are allowed to make any combination of chords and mix any chords with any scales as you like. However, some will sound more consonant and some patterns will sound particularly “right” based on how often you have heard them used in whatever type of music you listen to the most. You don’t need to memorize all scales and chord combinations starting from any possible note (a key), that is primarily useful if you play a physical instrument with other musicians and you want to be able to instantly match and improvise with whatever they are playing with your instrument. If you program music into a machine like a DAW or groovebox you really don’t need this skill. Even if you do play a physical instrument, you still probably don’t need this skill because knowing a few scales and a few chord shapes can get you through 95% of any music you want to write.
So if you can count from 1-12 and read this post, you can graduate from a non-chord-using musician into an expert in “music theory” in a few hours. No longer do chords need be feared.
My comparison for this would be like learning the alphabet and being able to read and spell simple words vs. studying literature so you can learn to write a great novel with your own unique style. The literature and the novel are the music theory. Learning to spell is the chords. If you want to be a novelist/musician, you can’t be afraid of (or apathetic) about learning to spell first, and buying a $500 spelling machine is not going to make you understand great literature.
Ultimately music is sound played however you want it to be and you can enjoy it however you like, banging cans and spitting on a mic is fine hobby if you have fun doing it and no one needs to understand chords to have fun. But…they really don’t take any time to understand if you are interested.
All that said, I do think the Orchid is a cute design, and I am sure it would be fun to play for an hour if I saw it in a store. I was hoping it would do a lot more than what it does and be more innovative and adventurous from the first teasers that were shown. Maybe there is more happening under the hood and it will be a happy surprise when it comes out, but the marketing and information (and price) right now are dampening the idea that it will be a genuinely deep instrument.
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I concur I concur!
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The audience of this device is super targeted and aggressive pricing seems a bit malicious - why would you charge premium for a very plastic device. Even more technologically capable devices like roli sells even cheaper. Heck, you can even get a digitak 1, Ableton move, sp404mkii.
Clearly the “inspiration” is Rhodes but I’d have expected a bit more polish rather than just cheap plastic look. The industrial design production is at its peak nowadays. You can pretty much make platix look like anything you want.
Not saying this is an unnecessary device. It’s a good device but I def don’t think it worths 500-600 dollars. This is the case that I’d become “ackhually you can do this with cheaper tools” because seriously, you can. Many iPad apps are less convulsed and much easier to pull out these tricks. Eg: chordion
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well at least part of the price has to be attributed to the celebrity involved.
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I wonder if a waterfall keybed might not have been better… meh maybe not… but maybe
didn’t they say something earlier about kevins drum samples… does that mean there will be a mode where you can bang out some beats with those chord keys?
Maybe it’s just how he’s using it but that demo makes it seem really fiddly. Lots of jumping around into different menus and awkwardly turning the big dial with his thumb while using both hands to hold down two keys, and the end results sound like some pretty basic arpeggios.
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yeah fiddly is exactly the word that came to mind, maybe he was a bit nervous too, I’m sure they have high hopes for it’s success… but they should def make sure it’s well done before it’s served
Yeah I don’t mean to be too hard on it, it just wasn’t a great demo. I was thinking I should give it the benefit of the doubt and take another look. Like yeah I can play chords but maybe this thing allows you to come up with interesting chord progressions in a really free flowing improvisatory way that lets you create things you wouldn’t otherwise think of. But this demo wasn’t it. I think part of the fiddlyness comes from the fact that it’s so small but you basically have to play it with two hands and it ends up looking kind of cramped.
looked like a lot of struggling was going on with those knobs or buttons whatever they are but at the same time it could have just been him cause I’m comfortable with cramped spaces so i don’t have a hard time translating to and fro but hopefully they can smooth that workflow out… it looks like it will be fun to try out, and like it is going to offer alot of things kit like this usually does not
folks are mad as hell over there
which one of you got one?
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Zero chance they sold 1,000 in that amount of time given the very lukewarm vibe in the usual places. I’m guessing they sold 100, tops, and are trying to build hype. Could still be an interesting project and I hope it works out for everyone.
really, I’ve seen guitar pedals go faster so I’m not so sure… in addition to musicians there were probably alot of fans of the artist in on the stampede… it was funny though cause one minute everybody was like ’ i love you kevin’ be my childs godfather and then afterwards they brought out the pitchforks 
I tried to get one but I think the universe was guiding me to save my money.
There is probably some way to make this in Ableton and just use my keyboard