How is the sample quality/performability?

by **Mr. Quimper** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 8:15 pm

Hi, I'm a student MIDI composer thinking of picking up the Ethno, but I'd like to clear up some questions I have before diving in.

First off, I hate loops. I've never used them, and have no need of them. What interest me are performable software instruments with a good deal of control and expressiveness to them. That said, how do the instrument aspects of the Ethno fare? MOTU's sample songs are somewhat useless to me since they are a combination of loops & instruments, when I'm really only interested in the instruments.

I guess my big question is, if I'm looking for truly expressive ethnic software instruments, would the Ethno be a good choice or should I save up for the Quantum Leap RA instead?

Thanks in advance.

by **monkey man** » Sat Jul 22, 2006 9:15 am

I'm allergic to loops. I've never used one.
I too await a fellow Unicorner's insight...

by **carrythebanner** » Sat Jul 22, 2006 10:21 am

Some (but not all) of the loops can be loaded into a sliced mode, where you can trigger each slice with a different note. So even if you're not into using the loops as-is, they still provide another bank of sounds to pick through/rearrange.

http://www.motu.com/products/software/ethno/sliceloops.html

by **Mr. Quimper** » Sat Jul 22, 2006 7:25 pm

Yes, but that doesn't answer the question. How are the instruments.

by **danieltogiki** » Sun Jul 23, 2006 4:03 am

i bought the ethno and symphonic instrument for the same reason that you would buy them for. although, as you can read in the topic i posted yesterday, i can't use them as vst's in my host program yet, i am very satisfied with their function as instruments. i am just starting to know the software, but so far i am very happy with the expressiveness and handling as an instrument. the software responds very well to velocity and other MIDI variables, apart from the fact that it is very cpu exhausting.

greetz Daniel Togiki

by **monkey man** » Sun Jul 23, 2006 5:14 am

danieltogiki wrote:...so far i am very happy with the expressiveness and handling as an instrument. the software responds very well to velocity and other MIDI variables, apart from the fact that it is very cpu exhausting.
greetz Daniel Togiki

Aha! Now we're getting somewhere...
Thanks danieltogiki! :wink:

by **robbarone** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 10:53 pm

I purchased both Ethno & MSI and I find them to be excellent and very easy to use. The convolution reverb is excellent. You may find that for larger spaces you will need to change the buffer size. Overall I am very happy with both Ethno & MSI MOTU really did a nice job with the sound quality.

Rob Barone
Mac Pro AV & Consulting
Macproav@mac.com

by **monkey man** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 10:58 pm

robbarone wrote:I purchased both Ethno & MSI and I find them to be excellent and very easy to use. The convolution reverb is excellent. You may find that for larger spaces you will need to change the buffer size. Overall I am very happy with both Ethno & MSI MOTU really did a nice job with the sound quality.
Rob Barone
Mac Pro AV & Consulting
Macproav@mac.com

Thanks, Rob; that's what we want to hear! :wink:

by **qsource** » Sun Jul 30, 2006 10:28 am

Ethno Instrument instruments are playable and highly realistic (given sampling technology, etc.). What I really like about the sampled instruments is that they are not "cleaned up" like so many samplers do. e.g., if the key/note had a buzz on the sampled instrument, they left it in. Nice touch IMO.

By default, the instruments are also limited to their real range. You can override this if you like, but I like leaving this as-is.

YMMV since I could not stand MSI. In fact, Ethno surprised me that much more given how poor I though the MSI samples were.

Best wishes for making music,
Stan

by **monkey man** » Sun Jul 30, 2006 10:38 am

qsource wrote:Ethno Instrument instruments are playable and highly realistic (given sampling technology, etc.). What I really like about the sampled instruments is that they are not "cleaned up" like so many samplers do. e.g., if the key/note had a buzz on the sampled instrument, they left it in. Nice touch IMO.
By default, the instruments are also limited to their real range. You can override this if you like, but I like leaving this as-is.
YMMV since I could not stand MSI. In fact, Ethno surprised me that much more given how poor I though the MSI samples were.
Best wishes for making music,
Stan

Yaaay!
Another one!

Thank you, qsource

by **GordonR** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 8:55 am

qsource wrote:By default, the instruments are also limited to their real range. You can override this if you like, but I like leaving this as-is.
Stan

How do you override the range? I could not find the function for this...

by **qsource** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 10:46 am

Sorry, GordonR. Since I don't override the ranges, I don't know offhand. I'll see if I can figure it out.

Stan (aka QSource)

by **monkey man** » Wed Aug 02, 2006 8:18 am

Deleted. Redundant suggestion. Typical of a monkey.

by **carrythebanner** » Wed Aug 02, 2006 12:05 pm

GordonR wrote:
qsource wrote:By default, the instruments are also limited to their real range. You can override this if you like, but I like leaving this as-is. Stan

How do you override the range? I could not find the function for this...

Use the controls in the Pitch section. The orange-ish buttons provide audio transposition up to +/- 24 semitones (2 octaves). I find it's easiest to use these if you slap a transpose plug-in on the MIDI track that's feeding Ethno, so the keys you play correspond to the proper pitch (i.e., if you transpose down 7 semis in Ethno, transpose up 7 semis in the MIDI transpose plug-in).

Also, you can use the Pitch Bend for another +/- 24 semis, which means you when combined with the above you can get up to 4 octaves out of the defined ranges.

by **tikibars** » Sun Sep 23, 2007 1:55 pm

carrythebanner wrote:
GordonR wrote:
qsource wrote:By default, the instruments are also limited to their real range. You can override this if you like, but I like leaving this as-is. Stan

How do you override the range? I could not find the function for this...

Use the controls in the Pitch section. The orange-ish buttons provide audio transposition up to +/- 24 semitones (2 octaves). I find it's easiest to use these if you slap a transpose plug-in on the MIDI track that's feeding Ethno, so the keys you play correspond to the proper pitch (i.e., if you transpose down 7 semis in Ethno, transpose up 7 semis in the MIDI transpose plug-in).

This doesn't really work out well if you have Ethno as part of a device group in DP.

I understand MOTU's logic in limiting the range of each sound to the instrument's natural range, but it would be REALLY nice if it functioned a bit more like every other sample playback device out there, and let users EASILY stretch note ranges above or below the natural range. There have been a few times where I needed a sound to go just a bit higher or lower than the provided range...
All of the suggestions above are work-arounds to what should be a standard feature.

After all, we have controls for filters and envelopes, so if MOTU feels like they can give us these sound mutation features, why not transposition out of the original instrument's natural range as well?