Named as TIME’s Best Inventions of 2025, and already one of the most talked-about new instruments in music, Orchid has fast become an industry favourite – shaping sounds from Kid Cudi and Don Toliver to Diplo, Fred again.., and Sara Landry.
Clocking nearly 500,000 views within a week, Matt Berry and Jemaine Clement star in an instructional video inspired by classic 90s synth DVDs that shows you How to Orchid – Watch here
Friday marked the official worldwide launch of Orchid, the groundbreaking songwriting instrument from Telepathic Instruments, co-founded by Kevin Parker (Tame Impala). Following two limited drops that sold out within minutes, Orchid is now available globally exclusively at telepathicinstruments.com.
Described as an “Ideas Machine,” Orchid is a chord-generating digital hardware synth designed to help songwriters, producers, and artists find what’s on their mind. With this worldwide release, Telepathic shares Orchid’s most refined firmware iteration yet – shaped by feedback from its first 4,000 users, known as The Garden. This release brings major new creative tools, including exclusive Beats by Kevin Parker, a cutoff frequency Filter for shaping sound precisely, Quantisation to keep loops locked in time, feature to Save Sounds directly on Orchid, Loop Save + Recall to capture spontaneous ideas and bring them back instantly, new rhythmic controls for Orchid’s beat engine with Drum FX, and 10 New Sounds all designed by Parker.
Also launched on Friday is the BETA of Pistil, a new software plugin that extends Orchid’s sound engine into any DAW. Pistil lets users create, customise, and sync sounds between hardware and software, offering the full Telepathic sound ecosystem in one workflow. For now Pistil BETA is available bundled with Orchid ($699 USD) with standalone due for full release later this year ($129 USD).
Recognised as one of the most innovative new instruments in music technology, Orchid has become an immediate industry darling, shaping the sound and songwriting of musicians worldwide. It’s instantly recognisable in Kid Cudi’s “Submarine” from his 2025 album Free; Don Toliver used Orchid to write the chords on his upcoming track “Call Back”; and other artists seen using Telepathic’s groundbreaking device include Janelle Monáe, Diplo, Ryan Tedder, Fred again.., Joy Anonymous, Madison Beer, Logic, Mark Hoppus, Murda Beatz, Gracie Abrams, and Sara Landry.
To celebrate the global release, Telepathic enlisted Matt Berry and Jemaine Clement for an instructional short titled How to Orchid. Shot at Pony Studios in London, the video pays homage to the eccentric charm of 1990s synth tutorials. In just over a week it’s quickly become a cult favourite online nearing half a million views on YouTube alone.
Following last week’s Flower Shop pop-up in Los Angeles, Telepathic will next appear at Amsterdam Dance Event (October 22–26), taking over Filling Pieces for a hands-on Orchid showcase. Stay in the loop for Telepathic ADE events here.
Founded by Kevin Parker, Ignacio Germade, Charl Laubscher, Chris Adams, Sophie Parker and Tom Cosm, Telepathic Instruments is a music technology company dedicated to building intuitive, insightful, iconic tools that help musicians find what’s on their mind.
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