REVIEW: SEQUIS by ORCHESTRAL TOOLS

3 min readDec 11, 2021

SEQUIS is a powerful new expressive instrument from Orchestral Tools in collaboration with Native Instruments. I spent a several days with this instrument before giving you my honest review.

OVERVIEW

MAIN LAYER PERFORMANCE PAGE

Sequencer Edit Page

FX CONTROLS for each Layer

REVIEW

It was a year ago when I purchased Orchestral Tools ARKHIS. This previous collaboration with Native Instruments was an outstanding underscoring toolkit. SEQUIS is a continuation of their partnership that introduces acoustic samples in a four-layer 16 step sequencer engine. The result is a creative blend of melody and rhythm expertly produced. If you own or don’t own ARKHIS, I can tell you first hand I paired these libraries together, and they complement each other very well.

SEQUIS comes with over 400 presets separated into 11 categories. These include, Basslines (bass & sub-bass), Bowed (cellos, violas, ensembles), Echoes ( variety of sounds & styles), Effects ( fills, risers, impacts, & special effects), Flutes ( standard flutes, bass flutes, & contrabass flutes), Keys & Mallets ( pianos, marimba mallets), Percussion ( cajóns, tabla, wooden blocks, shakers, & hi-hats), Plucked ( steel & nylon guitars, banjo, & dobro), Textures ( atmospheric orchestral colors), and Vocals ( variations of voice that include, chanting, whispers, & sequenced arpeggios). SEQUIS incorporates a number of articulations including, trills, flutters, echoes, ghost notes, string falls, staccatos, and ricochets.

The GUI is clean and intuitive, making it simple to get around. The Main Layer page gives you access to the presets, four ring layers, modwheel, polynote, tempo, edit access, play, and loop mode. You can also load the factory snapshots from the drop-down menu in the top header of the library.

The Edit page is where you can change each layer of instruments and design your own sequences by drawing them in. Each instrument layer corresponds from the lowest to the highest. For instance, the first ring connects to the bottom instrument on the edit page. Each ring illuminates as you bring in the next instrument layer until you reach the top instrument layer tethered to the fourth outer ring. Slowly adjusting the modwheel introduces each layer in the modwheel setting. Polynote mode brings each instrument layer in as you play each note. I found having these two options is extremely useful in the creative process.

SEQUIS is Free Kontakt Player compatible and is 4.13 GB in size. This library is not only excellent for scoring modern cinematic productions, but can also be used in many other types of music that could benefit from some organic rhythmic artistry.

Orchestral Tools with Native Instruments released a spectacular follow-up to ARKHIS and is simply an aesthetic instrument that you need to play to know what I am saying.

There are so many comprehensive presets to get you started with a wide range of complexity. From exhilarating to dark and everything in between, SEQUIS allows you to tap into a bountiful amount of sonic stimuli that will motivate you to complete that next blockbuster track.

5 OUT OF 5 STARS!