the companion app to the ground-breaking Orchid has finally arrived

Pistil – the companion app to the landmark Telepathic Instruments Orchid synthesizer – is finally out of beta, and is available now for download.

Telepathic Instruments made waves last year when it launched the Orchid, a revolutionary new synthesizer with an emphasis on chord generation and helping musicians “get out of their head”. 

The unit was one of the most-talked about synth releases in recent memory, with two limited drops in January and May 2025 selling out 1,000 and 3,000 units, respectively, in “minutes”. This was followed by a full-scale global release in September.

So far, Orchid has made its way into the hands of a cornucopia of musicians, including Kid Cudi, who used it on his 2025 track Submarine, Don Toliver, who used it on Call Back, plus Fred Again, Logic, Joy Anonymous and more.

When the world was first introduced to Orchid, it arrived as a 12-key, 16-voice polyphonic synth, boasting three synth engines, plus arguably its main selling point, a groundbreaking  chord generation system allowing users to play a root note and generate new chords and voicings. The first iteration also included onboard effects like reverb, chorus, delay, LFOs, envelope generators and a separate bass engine.

But a core pillar of the ongoing development process for the Orchid has been community feedback; the third-generation global release introduced a number of community requested features, including a selection of pre-programmed beats by Telepathic founder and Tame Impala mastermind Kevin Parker; a dedicated cutoff frequency filter for sound shaping, Quantisation and more.

That same community-first approach has kept Orchid’s companion app Pistil in beta phase while users test and hash out features, until now.

Offering “direct access” to the three synth engines behind Orchid, Pistil V1.0 arrives with ten new sounds, a rebuilt delay engine, plus a raft of stability improvements.

“After months of development with our community, Pistil is out of beta,” Telepathic writes. “If you’ve spent any time in the Discord, you know they’ve been thorough. The sound of Orchid, no hardware required.”

While Pistil also works as a standalone plugin, it’s the perfect companion app, offering bi-directional control with an Orchid hardware unit. Simply put, connected together, Pistil responds to how you use Orchid in real time, so you can morph and sculpt sounds, and record performances directly into your DAW with ease.

“Unlock the sonic world of Kevin Parker and Telepathic Instruments with Pistil, all within your DAW. It’s digital magic,” the brand writes.

Pistil is available now for download for £99. Learn more at Telepathic Instruments.

Sam is the Associate News Editor for Guitar.com and MusicTech. Thoroughly immersed in music culture for the majority of his life, Sam has played guitar for 20 years, studied music technology and production at university, and also written for the likes of MusicRadar, Guitar World, Total Guitar and Metal Hammer.