Artiphon Connect Reviews

It’s really disappointing to get a creative and seemingly well-made device and then realize the software you need in order to use it is buggy, poorly designed, and even deficient in basic functionality the company advertises, like the simple ability to save songs you create.

I really hope they double down to improve things, but it’s so bad that it’s hard for me to have confidence they will turn things around. The Orba has some great built in controls, but to even change sounds, you need a paired device with software. If the software were amazing and Artiphon were more of an established company, I might have a different impression, but I’m too familiar with how a company can—on a whim—decide not to support software anymore which essentially paperweights the device it’s needed for.

Though this is their second time around, these guys have not learned how to make an application accessible for blind people! The iOS platform has a wealth of accessibility tools and features, but ArtiphonConnect fails! The Orba is really cool! But the only way to change instruments, sounds, and use all of the amazing features advertised in ArtiphonConnect is to use ArtiphonConnect ! It’S useless for blind people! Come on guys! Think about more than yourselves. Blind people would love to use ArtiphonConnect!
If I could, I would give it zero stars. I hope you guys start paying attention to this complaint, I’m not the only one.

It Really Wasn’t Worth The 4 Month Wait For Them To Manufacture It And Ship It Out It Was The Audio Sounds At Very Basic And Limited They Try To Make It Feel Like You Had Some Bang For Your Buck But All It Really Is To Having It Is To Make Me More Bored Than I Have Been For 5 Months Straight Really Feels Like A Cash Grab And Not Fun I Got Bored After 5 Mins Of Playing Around With It What’s Worse Is My Mom Bought It For and To Expand My Sound For My Music I Just Ended Up Giving It To Her The Same Day I Got It And That Was Today

This is a great app and all but, my idea was that you guys could make it so you could record different sounds for different notes on the Orba hope this helps thank you.

Love the Orba 2 and App! To have a pocket sized synth that can be paired with an app so I can set it up how I like from the convenience of my phone, Killer!

It keeps crashing, lagging and it won’t allow you to send samples to the Orba 2 through bluetooth.

It's practically impossible to sample music and get it onto the orba. This is one of the main selling points and the 'cool new feature'; a NJ d it's totally ruined.

Scrolling presets is super annoying as ArtiphonConnect thinks I'm selectiny most of the time.

Samples can be saved, never too he found again.

Sometimes ArtiphonConnect demand a USB cable for no apparent reason,

Preset selection is really slim considering orba has been on market for over a year (two??). Really, what, like 20???

I’m new to Orba, but so far a couple of observations. We really need the ability to update firmware via the mobile app. Having to use a desktop/laptop kind of defeats the portability of the device. This takes me to ArtiphonConnect itself. Why in 2023 do we not have a native iPad app or at least one that recognizes the orientation of the iPad and doesn’t display sideways when in landscape mode. I look forward to messing around with this little device and hope the software side develops quickly. I’ll mostly use this as a midi controller, but anything to make the standalone mode better will be welcome.

They’ve made quite a few updates and improvements since this came out. I’d love to see more editing functions to utilize my own sounds in the drum portion. I’d love to be able to make my own kit with either the provided sounds (mix and match) or uploading my own samples to use. Thanks for the continued support!

I just got an Orba first generation as a slightly late Christmas gift and was tickled when I connected it to my iPad and it worked great as a Bluetooth midi controller! Then as I started exploring more and realizing that I had an older model (hopefully purchased on sale), I was a little disappointed but resided to just be happy with the more limited feature set and have fun exploring what it could do. Then came the realization that I could not use the most recent version of the software! Now I assume that I have features in the older software that closely match the capabilities of the unit that I have… but I also wonder why it needs to be a entirely separate application! It feels like that bodes poorly for future support of the device I now own. Why not just have one overall app that supports the feature set of the various models? I see the graphic feedback of ArtiphonConnect for example and I am not sure why that could not be implemented for the original Orba. 🤔 Also, as I was stunned to discover that I could not update the firmware from an iPad Pro. It feels very strange to not be able to use my incredibly capable device to send an update to the Orba. I am hopeful that the distortion I am hearing from the headphone Jack will be fixed by a firmware update, but I won’t be able to find out for another week. 🤨

I literally can’t have ArtiphonConnect open for more than a minute before it crashes and not to mention how long it takes to actually connect to the Orba itself

I love the orba and the orba 2 ArtiphonConnect has improved tremendously I like that fact that the team keep improving on it, one suggestion would be the addition on inter app recording and a AU3 to record samples internally from other apps or the ability to search the phone library to upload sounds

My mom got this as a Christmas present and I haven’t been able to use it. I have no computer and there is clearly a button on the bottom on step 3 in ArtiphonConnect to update it. I spent hours trying to make it work. I only have 4 sounds to mess around with And ArtiphonConnect has little to no accessability for blind people.

Cool app when it works, but it constantly crashes. Disconnects from the Orba. Deletes the loop you just crafted. Syncing is mandatory and it fails often. It takes forever when it does work. It’s like telling you it’s a sundae but the worms are real instead of gummy.

The device is cool, but the iOS app doesn’t work. NOTHING works. I was able to upgrade the firmware using a PC and USB cable, and I’m able to connect the ORBA 2 via Bluetooth to my iPad mini 6. I’m using the latest iPad with the latest iPadOS, latest ORBA 2 firmware, latest ORBA 2 app, yet NOTHING works. I’m amazed this software was released. It definitely wasn’t tested.

The device itself is great but ArtiphonConnect is a disaster. How could you publish something like this? It lags, is completely unresponsive and wants to sync for 5 minutes on a regular basis. Virtually unusable on iPhone 14 Pro Max. I’m really looking forward to an update so I can actually use this thing because the concept is very cool.

I don’t know if this is a me problem but I can’t get ArtiphonConnect to “share” the beats I have created. I can get it to work on the PC. Also ArtiphonConnect is generally cumbersome.

ArtiphonConnect keeps crashing and there’s so many bugs please fix it

Where to start with this poor software/hardware integration..

- ArtiphonConnect often crashes and orba2 restarts when attempting to save a song. The song disappears. Auto save could help here on software side. Recalling a previous track can also crash ArtiphonConnect .
- Changing track volume doesn’t stick (getting overridden by signal coming from hardware? Possibly should be prioritizing user triggered messages over programmed ones.)
- when switching tracks (clicking the middle A button on Orba2) the new track output audio glitches and stops which just makes live performance impossible. I’ve never had this problem on midi controllers before, it’s a deal breaker.
- drum pads should be independently controlled e.g. user should be able to delete all bass drum or high hats without wiping whole track
- need to plug into usb to send sample to device. Why? Bluetooth can handle data transfer so hopefully a software issue.
- UI bugs. Non standard UI. Connecting to Bluetooth device in onboarding flow doesn’t close the panel and advance user to songs/play screen. Glitchy hard to control volume sliders. Just use a straight slider it’s easier and takes up less screen space.
- quantization seems to be turned on regardless of setting on app. Can’t get lead playing back with the same rhythm it was played. Volume/expression is tracked well though.
- app should have .wav output option on songs so users can send to DAW to continue workflow
- device doesn’t come with manual explaining features e.g. holding BPM while in REC mode removes the click track. The device isn’t that intuitive, documentation needs to improve.

I could go on but you get the picture. Orba team I really like the form factor of this device but with how badly this device copes with it’s limited feature set, you should be spending less money on marketing and more on achieving a stable feature set. This is not ready for production.

Would rate zero stars if possible. Artiphone needs a class action lawsuit. Orba 2 and all associated apps (android and windows as well) do not perform as advertised. Apple app never connects to Orba 2 via Bluetooth. App is as utterly useless as the hardware. No connectivity means no app use, no changing the stock sounds, no midi controller, no content updates, no capturing samples, no layering, no ....... music. What a scam Artiphone! The total lack of functionality in ArtiphonConnect basically makes the Orba2 a 150 dollar paperweight. Everything Artiphone displayed in their ads is false. They put out a product that does not perform ANY of the functions advertised. If anyone wants to know, Korg, Roland, and Yamaha make some pretty sweet controllers that have more than 4 stock sound kits to play with that are at or cheaper than the price point of this Orba shyte. I want my money back Artiphone!

The Orba 2 is a really fun instrument to play with. However, there are couple things that could be done better.

The manual was lacking, there was a lot of information missing from there that should have been easily accessible; like how to change the tempo or clear a recording. My biggest issue is the quantization, it’s absolutely horrendous. Even when you click the button in ArtiphonConnect to make your song sound "as recorded", there’s no difference between the snap quantization. The "Groove" setting is the only one which makes it sound as recorded, but it ALWAYS adds another beat, and takes the last one away in the last measure.

I really want to use this instrument to record music, but I cannot do so unless you fix the quantization.

I can’t use ArtiphonConnect bc I can’t get past step 3 which is updating the Orba 2 firmware. I have a 2022 m2 MacBook Air and the device does work as midi controller in Logic Pro but the orba 2 desktop app doesn’t recognize my Orba 2 so I can’t use any patches or my own samples which is why I wanted to get the Orba 2 in the first place. I’ve already spent several hours troubleshooting it. Really hoping this works and doesn’t become a paperweight soon :(

Won’t connect to BT no matter what I try…

Won’t let me upgrade firmware past 1.03 through USB, tried multiple USB chords and turned off all Bluetooth in my house and my MacBook and OS is compatible. Can’t make new songs in ArtiphonConnect , although it does connect to Bluetooth, it just doesn’t read the Orba 2 when plugged in by USB. Overpriced midi controller only that you can use in other apps and your daw. I did buy brand new through Reverb, but that shouldn’t affect the usability and me being able to update firmware. Whack product as a stand alone instrument, gimmicky after awhile without being able to upgrade firmware. Focus/Fix the problems the people are highlighting(software/app/bugs) and this product will sell like hot cakes. Especially if you can save/export the audio to your daw for completing the beat. Maybe you can in the new firmware update, but Like I said I can’t update the firmware cause it won’t read when plugged in via USB.

The original Orba app never had a 1.0 release and has been abandoned for nearly a year. This new app does not support the Orba 1. That would be bad but less shocking if you could not still buy the Orba 1 new at retail stores. But you can, so it is a real mess.

The Orba devices are good as MIDI controllers. And that’s not a knock, they really are good MIDI controllers. However, their software is awful and undercuts the Orba’s functionality as an independent device.

My first Orba 2 I received had a defective battery but the situation was swiftly corrected by Artiphon. They’ve done nothing but improve ArtiphonConnect since I’ve been using it and with all the new additions it has elevated this little instrument to something more than a toy. Keep up the innovations Artiphon 👏🏼

I cannot get my Orba 2 to connect to my phone in ArtiphonConnect . I’ve tried every suggestion on the Artiphon website, and it is not connecting. Not with usb or Bluetooth. There are multiple pages about not connecting on the forums, so this is a common problem. Orba 2 does connect with my computer and it’s a super fun little machine, but ArtiphonConnect is unusable.

App is … I don’t know, ok? Relying on ArtiphonConnect for the sole way to access most of the functions is a fundamental design flaw of the Orba 2. I cannot get the thing to connect, update firmware, anything… either with a cable or via BT. So can’t change sounds, can’t access samples, can’t change keys, can’t mess with recordings, etc. Effectively I have a round, four voice keyboard…
If they can get ArtiphonConnect functioning, it would be great if they could improve quantization to be more… idk musical? The ability to choose a key is cool but only limited to maj/min … so no funky melodies or chords are possible. This, especially, should be an east fix that would greatly expand the usefulness of Orba 2, which is currently limited to a simple do-re-mi. Unless you went to the trouble of manually sampling every note for all instruments…. but then I can’t get the samples to work so….

I’ve searched high and now for a way to use ArtiphonConnect in landscape mode on iPad. There doesn’t seem to be a way to do that. Which makes no sense since the usb port is on the bottom of the iPad and in order to connect my chorda I hook it up to the iPad with a USB cable.

So until there’s a landscape mode it’s almost impossible to use ArtiphonConnect….