Orbis

Name: Orbis
Price: 349 USD
Author: Spitfire Audio

by Spitfire Audio · Synth · World-instrument sample synth

Not rated yet

Orbis is a synth built from more than 2,500 sounds taken from David Fanshawe's archive of field recordings made around the world between 1967 and 1994.

It runs on Spitfire's eDNA engine with two sound bays and an effects chain, and costs $349.

Best for: Sound Design, Acoustic Instruments, Keys & Synths. Genres: Ambient & Cinematic, Electronic & EDM.

Keywords: 60s, 90s, pads, film & game audio, sequencer, cinematic, heavy, monophonic, preset-driven, sound design, textures.

What it does

Orbis turns the field recording archive of composer and explorer David Fanshawe into a playable instrument. The archive holds about 2,000 hours of recordings made between 1967 and 1994 across Egypt, Sudan, East Africa, the Nile and the Pacific islands, which Spitfire's engineers treated and mapped into the eDNA engine.

Sound sources: over 2,500 sounds (about 18,450 samples), around 90% of them treated, sorted into treatments, loops, playable loops, one-shots, playable one-shots and pads.
Browsing: fully tagged content you can search by sound type, country or region, and instrument.
Two sound bays: each with trim, bend, glide, tuning, ADSR envelopes, low- and high-pass filters, and a wobble that moves pitch, volume and filters.
Cross-fader: blends the two bays from the mouse or mod wheel, or with its own oscillation at set speed and phase.
Gate sequencer: gates the two bays independently, with control over amount, shape, speed and sequence length.
Effects: a five-stage FX path with 41 custom effects and preloaded impulse responses, including per-bay stages and an auxiliary send stage.
Presets: the page lists over 400, from lightly treated to heavily distorted, including 50 added in an update; NKS compatible.

There is an education discount and a PDF manual is available, but there is no trial.

Source: Spitfire Audio product page

When to use it

Orbis is the pick when the source material matters more than the synthesis: rare instruments, voices and ambiences that no other library has, run through a simple two-layer engine. Compared with Omnisphere 3 or Pigments 7, it has far less synthesis depth and is a weaker general pad maker, but its loops keep a human, unquantized feel that oscillator synths can't fake. Unlike Serum 2, it is not a tool for leads and basses at all. It is also pricier than many texture libraries, so it suits composers who will use the global character often.

Best for: world-flavoured pads, pulses, loops and textures for film, TV, documentary and game scores.
Genres: cinematic, ambient, electronic and experimental music.
Look elsewhere if: you want deep synthesis for leads and basses, or accurate playable world instruments; Omnisphere 3 or Pigments 7 suit synthesis better.
Tip: MusicTech suggests starting with the preset loops, then crossfading the two layers on the mod wheel.

What producers say

Reviewers agree the source recordings are exceptional, but are split on the interface.

MusicTech gave it an Excellence award, calling the playback "profoundly good" and the interface well thought through.
Synth and Software praised the loops' "unquantized humanity" and the wind one-shots, but found the interface confusing.
Criticisms: poor contrast, weak documentation, no solo buttons, no MIDI clock sync for the LFOs, and some pads that lean on sampled distortion.

Where to buy

Spitfire Audio: $349
PluginFox: $349

Tutorials and reviews

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