How is the sample quality/performability?

Moderator: James Steele

User avatar
Mr. Quimper
Posts: 751
Joined: Tue Jul 18, 2006 6:24 pm
Primary DAW OS: MacOS

How is the sample quality/performability?

Post by Mr. Quimper »

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.
User avatar
monkey man
Posts: 13918
Joined: Fri Apr 22, 2005 10:01 pm
Primary DAW OS: MacOS
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Post by monkey man »

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

Mac 2012 12C Cheese Grater, OSX 10.13.6
MOTU DP8.07, MachFive 3.2.1, MIDI Express XT, 24I/O
Novation, Yamaha & Roland Synths, Guitar & Bass, Kemper Rack

Pretend I've placed your favourite quote here
carrythebanner
Posts: 1028
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 10:01 pm
Primary DAW OS: MacOS
Location: North America

Post by carrythebanner »

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/e ... loops.html
"I don't see any method at all, sir."
User avatar
Mr. Quimper
Posts: 751
Joined: Tue Jul 18, 2006 6:24 pm
Primary DAW OS: MacOS

Post by Mr. Quimper »

Yes, but that doesn't answer the question. How are the instruments. :D
danieltogiki
Posts: 6
Joined: Sat Jul 22, 2006 4:22 am
Primary DAW OS: Unspecified

Post by danieltogiki »

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
User avatar
monkey man
Posts: 13918
Joined: Fri Apr 22, 2005 10:01 pm
Primary DAW OS: MacOS
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Post by monkey man »

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:

Mac 2012 12C Cheese Grater, OSX 10.13.6
MOTU DP8.07, MachFive 3.2.1, MIDI Express XT, 24I/O
Novation, Yamaha & Roland Synths, Guitar & Bass, Kemper Rack

Pretend I've placed your favourite quote here
robbarone
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Jul 26, 2006 1:32 pm
Primary DAW OS: MacOS
Location: Trumbull, CT

Ethno User

Post by robbarone »

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
User avatar
monkey man
Posts: 13918
Joined: Fri Apr 22, 2005 10:01 pm
Primary DAW OS: MacOS
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Re: Ethno User

Post by monkey man »

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:

Mac 2012 12C Cheese Grater, OSX 10.13.6
MOTU DP8.07, MachFive 3.2.1, MIDI Express XT, 24I/O
Novation, Yamaha & Roland Synths, Guitar & Bass, Kemper Rack

Pretend I've placed your favourite quote here
User avatar
qsource
Posts: 15
Joined: Sun Jul 16, 2006 11:35 am
Primary DAW OS: MacOS
Contact:

Post by qsource »

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
--==<<>>==--
Ethno, Ivory, Stylus RMX, Trilogy, Atmosphere,
Kontakt2, Absynth3, KLCDE
hosted in ProTools 7.1 on Mac OSX
http://muz4now.com/
User avatar
monkey man
Posts: 13918
Joined: Fri Apr 22, 2005 10:01 pm
Primary DAW OS: MacOS
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Post by monkey man »

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 :D

Mac 2012 12C Cheese Grater, OSX 10.13.6
MOTU DP8.07, MachFive 3.2.1, MIDI Express XT, 24I/O
Novation, Yamaha & Roland Synths, Guitar & Bass, Kemper Rack

Pretend I've placed your favourite quote here
GordonR
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Jul 24, 2006 1:35 pm
Primary DAW OS: Unspecified

Post by GordonR »

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...
User avatar
qsource
Posts: 15
Joined: Sun Jul 16, 2006 11:35 am
Primary DAW OS: MacOS
Contact:

Post by qsource »

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)
--==<<>>==--
Ethno, Ivory, Stylus RMX, Trilogy, Atmosphere,
Kontakt2, Absynth3, KLCDE
hosted in ProTools 7.1 on Mac OSX
http://muz4now.com/
User avatar
monkey man
Posts: 13918
Joined: Fri Apr 22, 2005 10:01 pm
Primary DAW OS: MacOS
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Post by monkey man »

Deleted. Redundant suggestion. Typical of a monkey.
Last edited by monkey man on Thu Aug 03, 2006 4:30 am, edited 1 time in total.

Mac 2012 12C Cheese Grater, OSX 10.13.6
MOTU DP8.07, MachFive 3.2.1, MIDI Express XT, 24I/O
Novation, Yamaha & Roland Synths, Guitar & Bass, Kemper Rack

Pretend I've placed your favourite quote here
carrythebanner
Posts: 1028
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 10:01 pm
Primary DAW OS: MacOS
Location: North America

Post by carrythebanner »

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.
"I don't see any method at all, sir."
User avatar
tikibars
Posts: 39
Joined: Wed Mar 09, 2005 10:01 pm
Primary DAW OS: MacOS
Location: Chicago
Contact:

Post by tikibars »

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?
Post Reply