SAMPLE SOUND REVIEW: REVIEW: ANDEA by ORCHESTRAL TOOLS

Monday, January 17, 2022

REVIEW: ANDEA by ORCHESTRAL TOOLS

Orchestral Tools Andea by Richard Harvey is a collection of Central and South American virtual instruments.

OVERVIEW

ANDEA by Orchestral Tools operates in the Sine Player

System requirements for Andea by Richard Harvey
SINEplayer
Mac OS 10.13, i5, 4 GB RAM
Windows 10, Intel Core i5 or similar
(Windows 7 is not officially supported)
Interfaces: VST, AU
10.4 GB of samples (4.3 GB SINEarc compressed)
24 bit / 48 KHz patches

REVIEW

BAFTA Award-winning English musician and composer Richard Harvey creates Andea for Orchestral Tools. Richard Harvey was the founder of the progressive rock group Gryphon and is now best known for his composition work. Richard Harvey has worked with artists such as; Hans Zimmer, Paul McCartney, guitarist John Williams. He also has conducted, composed, orchestrated, and played on many film and television soundtracks, including The Da Vinci Code, The Lion King, Interstellar, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and much more. For decades Richard has collected for than 700 unique instruments from around the globe. It's exciting to have access to some of these instruments all in one library. There are 61 instruments total from South & Central America included in Andea. The instruments are divided into three categories and include, Plucked Stringed (11 plucked instruments), Woodwinds (18 wind instruments), and Percussion (32 percussive elements).

The instruments were recorded in an intimate dry setting with four mic choices and positions. All the instruments were played by Richard Harvey and pro instrumentalists Mauricio Venegas-Astorga and Carlos Fuentes. Harvey said, "There is a hunger for these sounds, The Ronroco, the Charango/Charagolin, and the 8 String Ukulele will make the collection for most users, and there’s so much to be found.” He continued, “The goal of assembling this collection was to add these traditional instruments into the vocabulary of modern scoring,” I couldn't agree with him more. These instruments were expertly sampled and do incorporate wonderfully with other libraries.

Andea operates in the Orchestral Tools SINEplayer Free sample library plugin. If you are not familiar with how the SINE engine works: there is getting started video that is better than I can explain it found here. Once you play with it a few times, it will become simple. However, the good thing is the SINEplayer has some Free sample library instruments when you subscribe to SINEfactory and there are exclusive instruments delivered to your email at no cost.

I found Andea to be authentic in its sonic flavor. These sounds are perfect for Cinematic scoring, New Age, ethnic world music, trailer scoring, documentaries, nature films, and other electronic music genres. The flutes in this library are first-rate and some of the best I've heard and played. The stringed instruments are beautiful and with an abundance of flexibility. The Ronroco, Cuatro, 8-String ukulele, Guitarra, and Très are my top favorites in the string section.

The percussion is intriguing and has several standouts, like the Bongos, Congas, Congos, Guiro, Cajon, Log drums, Shakers, Berimbau, and much more. As I said prior, the instruments are recorded in a dry setting that will allow you to sculpt the sound you want with your own external fx.

ANDEA by Orchestral Tools is an exceptional toolbox for any composer or musician looking to add some ethnic flair to their productions. You can buy the whole library or just the single instruments. The more I played it, the more I liked it. These are alluring unique instruments that Richard Harvey provided that certainly will be admired for years to come.

5 OUT OF 5 STARS!