Telepathic Instruments Orchid: wildly popular synth and chord generator from Tame Impala gets its global releaseTelepathic Instruments – the gear brand co-founded by Kevin Parker, better known as Tame Impala – has announced the global launch of Orchid, a synthesizer with an emphasis on chord generation and helping musicians “get out of their head and into the music”.
Orchid has already proved wildly popular, with two limited drops in January and May this year selling out 1,000 and 3,000 units, respectively, in “minutes”.

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Now, Orchid is being released worldwide, meaning thousands of synth fans and music producers can now get their hands on one.
First conceived by Kevin Parker more than a decade ago as a personal songwriting tool, Orchid first arrived as a 12-key, 16-voice polyphonic synth with three synth engines, and crucially, a chord logic system for quickly building chord progressions. That chord generator comprised a matrix of eight chord-type selecting and chord-modifying keys, with users able to play a root note and subsequently generate chords and voicings.
It featured a collection of onboard effects including reverb, chorus and delay, four LFOs and envelope generators for modulation, and even a separate bass engine.
Credit: Telepathic Instruments
Since it first launched, Orchid has been adopted by a wide array of music industry professionals: it can be heard on Kid Cudi’s Submarine from his 2025 album Free; Don Toliver used it to write chords for his track Call Back, while other artists harnessing its creative potential include Janelle Monáe, Diplo, Ryan Tedder, Fred Again, Joy Anonymous, Madison Beer, Logic, Mark Hoppus, Murda Beatz, Gracie Abrams and Sarah Landry.
Now, the first 4,000 customers who were lucky to get their hands on Orchid during the first two drops – known as the Garden – have offered input leading to the latest iteration of the groundbreaking synth, and the one which is now available as a global release.
“Telepathic has turned feedback into features, ideas into interfaces, and accidents into innovations in this third release,” the brand says.
“Orchid is designed to help songwriters, producers, and artists find what’s on their mind, and what began as Parker’s sketchpad has evolved into a refined, community-shaped instrument, now ready for its first true global release.”
These community-led improvements and enhancements include: Beats, a number of pre-programmed beats by Kevin Parker; a dedicated cutoff frequency filter for sound shaping; Quantisation; the ability to save and modify sounds directly on Orchid; Drum FX, new rhythmic controls for the unit’s beat engine and more.
Watch Telepathic’s irreverent instructional video to celebrate the global launch of Orchid, which features comedians Matt Berry and Jemaine Clement, and channels ’90s synth DVDs in its equal part tutorial and comedy.

Pistil: a software companion to Orchid
Coinciding with the launch is a brand-new piece of software named Pistil, which takes the original synth engine Kevin Parker used to design Orchid’s 60 onboard sounds and turns it into a plugin.
Through Pistil, users can access Telepathic’s universe of sounds, create, customise and save sounds without an Orchid hardware synth, and take advantage of two-way sync with Orchid, meaning you can take sounds and put them straight into your DAW.
Pricing & Availability
Credit: Telepathic Instruments
Orchid will be available exclusively via telepathicinstruments.com on October 10, 2025, at 10:00AM local time across Telepathic’s key markets. Early access will also be available to members of the Garden via Patreon.
Orchid is priced at $549, while Pistil is available bundled with Orchid for $699, or as a standalone plugin at $129.
In the leadup to the launch, Telepathic Instruments is opening a ‘Flower Shop’  for people to play with Orchid in Los Angeles on 2-5 October, followed by a pop-up at Amsterdam Dance Event, taking over Filling Pieces in the heart of the city on 22-26 October.
For more information, head to Telepathic Instruments.
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