Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker Launches Orchid, a New Musical ‘Ideas Machine’

The Tame Impala mastermind has launched a digital polysynthesizer designed for musicians and producers to explore new ideas.

Tame Impala performs at Coachella Stage during the 2019 Coachella Valley Music And Arts Festival on April 20, 2019 in Indio, California.

Emma McIntyre/GI

Tame Imapala mastermind Kevin Parker has further diversified his role within the music industry, this time launching a new musical “ideas machine”.

Dubbed Orchid, the new device is less of an instrument and more of a digital polysynthesizer designed for musicians and producers to explore new ideas.

Per a press release, the way Orchid works is “by employing a unique chord logic system, combined with a multitude of ways to shape and alter the chords to maximize creative musical expression”.

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“All this is brought into sonic existence by a lush and powerful 16-voice polyphonic synth engine with onboard ambience and modulation FX, plus a separate bass synth engine solely for bottom end,” it continues.

Designed by Telepathic Instruments co-founder Ignacio Germade, Orchid largely operates as a chord generating system. A ’70s-styled product video shows Orchid in action and illustrates how an operator can choose a root note from its single-octave keyboard, and utilise a its eight “chord-type selecting and chord modifying keys”.

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Put simply, hitting the ‘E’ on the keyboard and the ‘Minor’ chord modifying key will provide an E minor chord, with the ability to modify it further.

Orchird also utilises a patent pending voicing system which uses a rotary encoder to “re-pitch and re-position chords”, ultimately expanding the chords’ potential outside of the 12 keys found on the unit. The Strum, Slop, Arpeggiator, Pattern and Harp performance modes also add versatilty to the way the aforementioned chords are ‘played’ by the user as well.

“While other chord generators deliver a static and rigid outputting platform, Orchid paints a new landscape,” the press release adds.

Orchid is set to be released in December, with 1,000 units made available to US buyers at a cost of $549. A wider launch will follow in 2025.

Parker’s Tame Impala project last released an album in 2020, with The Slow Rush peaking at No. 3 on the Hot 100 – one position higher than its Platinum-selling predecessor, 2015’s Currents.

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