Orchestral Tools releases 'Tides' in collaboration with Rachel Portman

Orchestral Tools has unveiled Tides, a new orchestral sample library created in collaboration with Oscar-winning composer Rachel Portman. This collection offers a curated selection of instruments designed to evoke human emotion, making it ideal for emotive, nuanced arthouse scores. Tides features a chamber orchestra combined with a unique set of 'special character instruments.' Everything was recorded at the Teldex Scoring Stage in Berlin in a musical context, with a focus on lyrical legato performances. Rachel Portman, known for her diverse and expressive film, television, and theater scores—and as the first female composer to win an Oscar (for Emma) —emphasizes the importance of instrument choice, noting, 'Choosing instruments is incredibly important. I think of the different instruments in the orchestra as characters.' The library includes: Chamber Strings: Six first violins, four violas, and four celli. Solo Strings: Violin, cello, and bass. Solo Woodwinds: Flute, alto flute, oboe, cor anglais, clarinet, bassoon, and soprano saxophone. Solo Brass: Trombone and French horn. Special Character Instruments: Musette accordion, mandolin, concert guitar, dulcimer, and piano, along with the harp from Berlin Symphonic Strings. Tides incorporates several compositional tools: Tempo-Synced Patterns: Basic patterns played on the same note, recorded in various tempos and automatically synced to your DAW. Measured Trills: Tempo-synced trills in both ascending and descending directions for animating string chords. Lyrical Legato: Features long transitions for expressive and musical melodic lines, recorded in a curated dynamic for pure performance sound without crossfading artifacts. The library runs within Orchestral Tools' free SINE player, which offers features like mic merging to conserve system resources, auto keyswitch options, easy remapping tools for greater usability, and the ability to download individual instruments and mic positions as needed. Pricing and Availability: Tides by Rachel Portman is available now for an introductory price of €349.00. The regular price is €499.00. The introductory offer ends on June 11, 2025. YouTube/s4PryOsExt0 Read More