Artiphon Chorda Black Synthesizer

I have no quibbles with the condition of my B grade, or with the customer service received by Bax Music.

I showed a friend a video of the Chorda in action, and he says that looks cool; so I hand him mine and say "yeah, but I'm not sure about it." He has a play with it for five minutes, he's really impressed, asking how much it was, am I really planning on returning it. So I told him "just wait," and connected the Chorda to my iPad and GarageBand.

He continues to be impressed and asks why I want to return it.

So I turn the Chorda off and show him what I can do on the iPad's touchscreen.

He then says "you don't the Chorda."

If you're a talented musician, who has a PC with a ton of software, you can use the Chorda as an expressive wireless MIDI controller. But, if like myself, you're not a talented musician with a ton of software and experience, then.... it's a fun for five minutes child's toy. A well made child's toy with the headphone socket located in a place where it's going to interfere with how the instrument can be expressed, if you've got headphones plugged in. And you will be plugging headphones in.

Whilst the Chorda does do more than an Orba 2 does, I think perhaps an Orba 2 would have suited me better, as an expressive MIDI controller and maybe I'll get an Orba 2 in the future. For now, I've gone a different route.

If you're new to music, or wanting to learn, then a 25 key keyboard, with knobs and pads is going to be a much better (but not so portable) use of your money; there is plenty of choice of keyboards in the £80-£120 bracket that come with licences for software, such as Ableton Live.

If you're an experienced musician, then the Chorda is a solidly built expressive MIDI controller, with severe musical limitations.