Orchid is a delightfully retro and approachable hipster synth

Orchid：一款令人愉悦、复古且平易近人的时髦合成器

A modern take on vintage reed organs from Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker that makes writing rich chord progressions breezy. 这是 Tame Impala 乐队成员 Kevin Parker 对复古簧片风琴的现代诠释，让创作丰富的和弦进行变得轻而易举。

In 2017, I bought an old Magnus chord organ off Craigslist for $10. It’s one of my favorite music gear purchases. Electric chord organs let you play full chords with just a press of a button, making them perfect for aspiring singer-songwriters or fooling around at home. But chord organs largely fell out of favor in the ’80s, as digital keyboards like those from Casio grew in popularity. 2017 年，我在 Craigslist 上花 10 美元买了一台旧的 Magnus 和弦风琴。这是我最喜欢的音乐设备采购之一。电动和弦风琴只需按下一个按钮就能演奏完整的和弦，非常适合有抱负的唱作人或在家中随意弹奏。但随着卡西欧（Casio）等数字键盘的流行，和弦风琴在 80 年代逐渐失宠。

The Telepathic Instruments Orchid attempts to recapture some of that simple parlor instrument magic. Just like those vintage electric chord organs, the Orchid allows you to play rich chord progressions without having to master a ton of theory or complex fingering. It’s not an instrument that demands mastery. It’s a way for songwriters to sketch out ideas with minimal fuss, and it expands on the chord organ heritage with distinctly modern twists. Telepathic Instruments 推出的 Orchid 试图重现那种简单的客厅乐器魔力。就像那些复古的电动和弦风琴一样，Orchid 让你无需掌握大量的乐理知识或复杂的指法，就能演奏出丰富的和弦进行。它不是一种需要精通才能演奏的乐器，而是为词曲作者提供了一种轻松构思的途径，并在继承和弦风琴传统的基础上，融入了鲜明的现代元素。

The Orchid was designed in collaboration with Kevin Parker of Tame Impala. Aesthetically, it harkens back to ’60s brown-and-tan organs by the likes of Magnus and Bontempi. The speaker grill even resembles the fan vents on those classic instruments. It’s definitely a spiritual successor, just, you know, a lot more expensive at $649. Orchid 是与 Tame Impala 的 Kevin Parker 合作设计的。在美学上，它让人回想起 Magnus 和 Bontempi 等品牌在 60 年代的棕褐色风琴。扬声器格栅甚至模仿了那些经典乐器上的风扇通风口。它绝对是精神上的继任者，只不过，你知道的，649 美元的价格要贵得多。

But where a Magnus organ is limited in how many one-button chords it can play by the number of physical reeds it can hold, the Orchid is all digital and can theoretically play any chord, in any voicing, from any scale. It also means that the Orchid can sound like more than just the beautiful droney cousin of an accordion. Magnus 风琴受限于物理簧片的数量，能演奏的一键和弦有限，而 Orchid 是全数字化的，理论上可以演奏任何音阶、任何声部的任何和弦。这也意味着 Orchid 的音色不仅仅局限于手风琴那种优美的持续嗡嗡声。

For a songwriter, this means you can focus on your lyrics and vocal melody. If, like me, you struggle to sing and play an instrument at the same time, this can take a huge mental load off. The variety of sounds also means that not everything needs to sound like a funeral dirge or a sea shanty, which isn’t necessarily the case with an old-school chord organ. 对于词曲作者来说，这意味着你可以专注于歌词和旋律。如果你像我一样，难以同时兼顾演唱和演奏乐器，这可以极大地减轻心理负担。丰富的音色也意味着并非所有作品听起来都像葬礼挽歌或海员号子，而老式和弦风琴往往难以避免这一点。

If you have even a passing knowledge of music theory (and it would be generous to call mine even passing), you should have little trouble with Orchid. There’s a one-octave keyboard and a handful of buttons to the left of it that correspond to different chord types, i.e., major, minor, diminished, major 7th, and so on. Press C and major, and you get a C major. Press F# and 9, and you get an F#9. Simple. 如果你对乐理有哪怕一点点了解（说我有了解都算客气了），使用 Orchid 应该没什么难度。它有一个单八度键盘，左侧有一排按钮对应不同的和弦类型，例如大三和弦、小三和弦、减和弦、大七和弦等。按下 C 和 Major，你就能得到一个 C 大三和弦。按下 F# 和 9，你就能得到一个 F#9 和弦。非常简单。

The Orchid can really hold your hand if you want it to (and I usually do). You can lock the Orchid to a particular key, so that it will only play chords in the key of E minor or Bb major. That means almost anything you play will at least sound decent and in tune. If your understanding of chord theory is limited, this can really expand your sonic palette with minimal frustration. 如果你需要，Orchid 真的可以手把手教你（我通常都需要）。你可以将 Orchid 锁定在特定的调式上，这样它就只会演奏 E 小调或 Bb 大调的和弦。这意味着你弹奏的几乎任何内容听起来至少都是悦耳且合拍的。如果你的和弦理论知识有限，这可以在极少挫败感的情况下极大地扩展你的音色库。

But the Orchid can do more than just blast out chords in a single block. It has strum, harp, and arpeggiator modes, plus 13 different preprogrammed patterns. My favorite performance mode (as they’re called) is “slop,” which introduces tiny random timing imperfections that approximate a human actually playing the chord, rather than a machine. The more you turn it up, the more unevenly the notes are struck. 但 Orchid 不仅仅能发出单一的和弦块。它还具有扫弦、竖琴和琶音模式，外加 13 种不同的预设节奏。我最喜欢的演奏模式（官方称之为 Performance Mode）是“Slop”，它会引入微小的随机时间误差，模拟人类真实弹奏和弦的感觉，而不是机器演奏。你调得越高，音符弹奏得就越不均匀。

There are three simple synth engines under the hood: one is a virtual analog (VA) synth, another an FM synth for ’80s-style e-pianos and bells, and lastly, a reed piano, perfect for getting those Wurlitzer sounds, but it can also give you more gentle Rhodes electric piano tones as well. 机身内部有三个简单的合成引擎：一个是虚拟模拟（VA）合成器，另一个是用于 80 年代风格电钢琴和钟声的 FM 合成器，最后一个是簧片钢琴，非常适合制作 Wurlitzer 音色，同时也能提供更柔和的 Rhodes 电钢琴音色。

There are 70 presets built into the Orchid, and they cover most of your bases. It’s a good thing, too, since there are very few ways to tweak the sounds directly on Orchid. You can change the filter cutoff or tweak the intensity of effects like reverb or phaser, but that’s basically it. Instead, if you want to design your own patches, you’ll need to spend $99 for the Pistil virtual synth ($50 bundled with the Orchid), which can send custom sounds to Orchid. Orchid 内置了 70 个预设，涵盖了大部分基本需求。这很好，因为在 Orchid 上直接调节音色的方式非常有限。你可以改变滤波截止频率或调整混响、移相器等效果的强度，但基本也就这些了。如果你想设计自己的音色，则需要花费 99 美元购买 Pistil 虚拟合成器（与 Orchid 捆绑购买为 50 美元），它可以将自定义音色发送到 Orchid。