Artiphon's quirky Orba now lets you create musical 'selfies'

When Artiphon launched its $99 Orba musical instrument, we found it to be an "idiotproof" device that lets you create in your spare time, while offering more depth for those willing to explore. The main thing missing was social and sharing functions, but that has now been rectified with the Orbacam iOS app that "expands the Orba instrument into a creative multimedia studio," the company said.

The idea is that you can use the app to lay down multilayer loops, then create a music video around the track with "musically reactive" visual effects. Those include color augmentation, pixelation, pulsing effects and more. You can add those effects to images or video, with the result being shareable musical "selfies" or videos that sync with whatever loops or music you're playing on Orba.

You can jump between Drum, Bass, Chord and Lead Modes, and the sounds and visual effects are built into the video export, "no audio routing or post-production required." You can also sing or rap into your phone's microphone, shoot video while you play live, or important camera roll videos or photos.

The company notes that the app makes it possible to marry sound and video, but rather than just "pasting someone else's song on your video... people can create musical videos that are entirely their own." The app is now available as a free download for Orba users.