Meet the creator behind Opaline–our newest Creative Soundpack. Styled as a ‘hazy guitar trio’, this colorful library offers users a new, creative approach to playing sampled guitar.

Hardly surprising then, that Opaline’s creator began his career in music as a guitar player. In the above video, Frederik Theyssen (head of the CSP series) breaks down exactly how the guitar performance mechanic in Opaline works. 

The left hand is responsible for playing chords, with three velocity-sensitive layers, each offering a harmonic variant on a root chord. 

The right hand is used to play ‘motions’, a series of melodic motifs intended to complement and augment the foundation chords from the left hand. Just like the chords, these ‘motions’ are velocity-sensitive, so you have a number of options for creative expression: Just start playing and see where it takes you. 

You probably noticed that these chords are all set up to play in a specified key. So what if you want to play in a different key? Simply open the performance tab in SINE and adjust the key slider as desired. Then the chords will be in your chosen key, with a new root note.

So why did we opt for this approach?

The focus is on usability and performance. We wanted to make something that was inherently playable to encourage experimentation—by playing around with these chords and motions, you’ll discover new ideas that will hopefully lead to those invaluable little sparks of inspiration. And combined with Opaline’s trumpet and vocals, you can get a taste of a live-band. All without the stress of booking a rehearsal space, band members arriving late, and constant tuning breaks.

Opaline also comes with a detailed trumpet (offering inch-perfect legato runs) and a number of meticulously sampled falsetto vocal articulations. It’s a library that treads new ground for Orchestral Tools, and we’re incredibly proud of the final product. 

The indie and lo-fi beat associations are immediate and entirely intended. 

The vocal performances draw influence from some of our favorite indie-folk tracks, think Vancouver Sleep Clinic, or a namesake track from Novo Amor.

Opaline’s processed trumpet patches share a kindred spirit with the iconic horn performances on Bon Iver’s ‘For Emma, Forever Ago’ while some of its close-mic articulations feel closer to sounds featured throughout Beirut’s discography.

It’s harder to pin down just one reference point for Opaline’s versatile guitar sounds.  The ‘chords + motions sliced’ patch would feel right at home in some of Tom Misch's best hip-hop flavored productions. Meanwhile, the clean sounds found in the standard articulations, ideal for re-amping, recall the best work of The Durutti Column.