Review: Evolution Dry Relic by Orange Tree Samples

This is the best-sampled guitar I’ve ever played. Orange Tree Samples have taken a massive leap forward in terms of sampled guitar quality and realism with the release of Evolution Dry Relic.

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Review: Evolution Dry Relic by Orange Tree Samples

The sample market is saturated with guitar libraries. Each claiming to be able to capture the nuance of a realistic acoustic performance. Because of how detailed and packed full of different playing techniques even simple guitar performance is, recreating it with samples is a monumental undertaking. Some companies have had success with specific techniques which can sound quite good in very carefully controlled contexts, but I would argue no one has really come close to creating a tool capable of recreating convincing acoustic guitars. Until now.

In my time writing for Sample Library Review, I’ve reviewed a lot of sampled guitars from many different companies. Many of them were alright, while some of them were unusable. They each often had their own strengths and weaknesses which made them ideal for different kinds of techniques. Because of these differences among the nice-sounding libraries, there was never a clear winner that stood above the rest. Enter the Evolution Dry Relic. This is the best-sampled guitar I’ve ever played. That sounds blunt and you might be wondering if there ought to be more room for nuance and taste than I’m giving here but it’s simply the truth. If you’re looking for a realistic acoustic guitar sample library, the Evolution Dry Relic from Orange Tree Samples is simply the top of the line. As someone who spends a great deal of time playing the real thing, my jaw was on the floor when playing this instrument for the first time.

Evolution Dry Relic normally sells for $179.00 from Orange Tree Samples

Thoughts

Sampling guitars is difficult. There’s no way around that. It’s such a specific instrument packed full of so many subtle performance techniques that all combine to create the idiomatic performance we are all so intimately familiar with. The fact that it’s perhaps one of the world’s most popular instruments means that even the most uninitiated among us will be so familiar with how it sounds and, perhaps more importantly, will be instantly tipped off if it sounds wrong. Sampling such an instrument would be nothing short of a logistical nightmare. Orange Tree Samples has undertaken such a nightmare and somehow managed to turn playing the resulting product into a dream. The Evolution Dry Relic is perhaps the best-sampled guitar on the market today. What has perhaps allowed Orange Tree to create such a magnificent product is that this is far from their first time trying. A scroll through their product page tells you they have been in the business of sampling guitar, and guitar-like instruments for some time. They have indeed gotten very good at it.

Want to hear it in action? Check out the SLR Quick Look video

Those who have read my reviews before may be aware that bad UI design is a huge pet peeve of mine. Orange Tree has a consistent, clean, and functional UI across all of their products. It’s intuitive to use and easy to look at and understand what’s going on. The front page of the instrument greets you with a list of articulations. This is the bread and butter of the instrument. The list is vast and detailed including your basic sustain samples and continuing to palm mutes, harmonics, slides, hammer-ons, power chords, etc. By switching between these, you can absolutely create a very convincing guitar performance.

Once you’ve crafted your performance, you can head over to the tone panel where you’re given access to FX such as distortion, tremolo, wah, reverb, EQ, compression, chorus, flanger, delay, and amp modeling. Through a combination of these FX, you can go a long way towards crafting a unique sound. It’s worth noting that, for those who don’t love to tinker with FX, the instrument includes a collection of snapshots each with a unique feel. These are great either as they come, or as a jumping-off point for your own custom presets.

Carefully playing in midi may be the way forward for some but if you’re looking for a more hands-off approach while still achieving impressively realistic results, look no further than their strumming and chord voicing engines. Guitar can be a confusing instrument in the sense that there are only 6 strings and even then, not all 6 note voicings are physically playable. It can be troubling for a piano player to open a guitar library and play a lush pianistic chord and have it sound strange and not idiomatic on guitar. This is because a piano voicing likely won’t work or be playable on a guitar. If this piano player describes you, the chord engine they’ve created has you covered. It allows you to simply play a chord voicing and have it be translated into one that is guitaristic and playable, in real time. The strumming engine is similarly helpful as you can program very intricate and realistic strumming patterns that, once set up, allow you to play held note chord progressions and be treated with beautiful realistic sounding chord strumming.

If you’re in the market for a beautiful, customizable, endlessly programmable, realistic acoustic guitar library then look no further than the Evolution Dry Relic from Orange Tree Samples.

Facts

The Evolution Dry Relic by Orange Tree Samples weighs in at 6 GB, compressed down from 11.4 GB of 24 bit samples. It features a large collection of articulations including sustains, palm mute, harmonics, slides, legato performances and more. These articulations can be changed using a variety of methods including key switching or note velocity. Each articulation features 3 dynamic layers with 2 round-robins. The instrument’s UI is divided into the performance panel, the strum engine, the chord engine, tone, and set up. These allow full control over the performance and the sound of the instrument. It also features an adjustable pick position, made possible using a combination of sampling and physical modeling. The library requires Kontakt version 5.7.3 and is fully compatible with the free Kontakt Player.

Evolution Dry Relic normally sells for $179.00 from Orange Tree Samples

Demos of Evolution Dry Relic by Orange Tree Samples

Videos of Evolution Dry Relic by Orange Tree Samples

Contributor Shaun Chasin reviews Evolution Dry Relic by Orange Tree Samples
“This is the best-sampled guitar I’ve ever played. Orange Tree Samples have taken a massive leap forward in terms of sampled guitar quality and realism with the release of Evolution Dry Relic.”