Ethno Instrument

quadrupolesmurf · Post by **quadrupolesmurf** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 4:59 pm

David Polich wrote:That said, the sound "quality", fidelity, detail is not something that is faked on the demos. It does have that high-quality and detail right out of the box

Are the samples/loops 24-bit?

Shooshie · Post by **Shooshie** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 8:10 pm

magicd wrote:Ethno allows you to drag and drop loops from the plug-in into tracks in the sequencer. You have the option to drag audio and/or MIDI loops.

Ethno offers a "slice" mode for loops. When a loop is put into slice mode, it's individual beats are separated and assigned to different MIDI notes. If you then drag a MIDI loop into the sequencer, the MIDI loop can then trigger the slices. This means you can further edit the MIDI data to change the loop patterns

Slicing is how Ethno can do drastic tempo changes without altering pitch or tone of the loop beats.

Because you can drag a MIDI loop out of Ethno, that means you can use that MIDI data to trigger other beat slices. Perhaps you like the pattern in a Tabla loop but want to trigger African drums with that pattern.

Audio loops dragged into the sequencer come over as a single soundbite. Of course you can use beat-based edit resolution and the scissor tool in DP if you want to separate out indiviual beat elements from the loop.

If you choose to sync the Ethno loop to your sequence tempo, the dragged audio loop is conformed to your sequence tempo.

Lots of creative possibilities in there.

Magic Dave

That does indeed sound cool, Dave. I've got no need at the moment for Ethno, though it would be fun to play with, but what are the chances we'll see something like that for MSI? For that matter, what are the chances that we'll see MSI filled out with more samples and FULL RANGES of the instruments that are already there? It really sucks to be limited to about 90% of the range of the oboe, trumpet, and some of the other instruments as well. I'd sure like to see that fixed; then MSI would be a fantastic bargain.

Shooshie

David Polich · Post by **David Polich** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 8:33 pm

quadrupolesmurf wrote:
David Polich wrote:That said, the sound "quality", fidelity, detail is not something that is faked on the demos. It does have that high-quality and detail right out of the box
Are the samples/loops 24-bit?

I don't know. Probably 16-bit. They sound great , well-recorded. I think it's how well samples are recorded rather than the final bit depth that matters anyway.

funkyfreddy · Post by **funkyfreddy** » Sun Jun 11, 2006 6:15 pm

I got the Ethno working and I'm really enjoying it, have only skimmed the surface of its possibilities so far. Lot's of nice percussion and stuff from the Mideast, India, etc. There's isn't as many Asian instruments (Japan, China, Pacific Rim) as I would have hoped for, but for the price this is a great collection of instruments and loops. I've already have 2 new melodies and grooves that have just come from playing around some.

So far the Ethno seems very user friendly to me and not very CPU intensive, which is good since I'm still using a G4 Dual 800. I haven't tried the drag and drop features yet, hope to get in deep with the Ethno later this week as I've set aside a few days as official "remix days"..... will report back later once I've played with it some more. Thanks again to Josh at MOTU tech support for sending me a replacement disc so quickly. Josh called me at my studio within minutes of receiving my e-mail and sent me a new disc overnight! How's that for customer service? Thanks, Fred

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Mon Jun 12, 2006 12:35 am

Hey Freddy:

Good going, dude. Always nice to read about a victory at the end of the day. Great first report. Do keep us posted. I'm a day away from EI, so perhaps James will start an dedicated EI thread so that members can trade notes.

Cheers!

toodamnhip · Post by **toodamnhip** » Mon Jun 12, 2006 1:43 am

Sounds like ethno Instr is taking a page out of the stylus rmx system in it's utilization of MIDI driven loops..the subsequent adjustability....am I correct?

Also..I am kind of amazed at the install problems people have had with ethni and DP 5. I think Shooshie onto something...It is really dumb to mar a new release with sch sillyness..and it does seem a bit old school nowadays to have to do anything but double click an installer icon...

Sounds like the need to make folders is leading to trouble...

I hope MOTU really focuses on intallers and disk quality in future releases

TOD · Post by **TOD** » Mon Jun 12, 2006 8:22 am

with respect to D&D...it was tricky to figure out how to get MIDI into my sequence. Ethno defaults to audio. you have to press the Map button to turn the drag icon into notes versus audio. Then you can than drag MIDI and edit all you want.

Hope that helps.

TOD

jgest · Post by **jgest** » Mon Jun 12, 2006 8:25 am

has anybody used ethno with abelton onn a macbook/pro?

can you give me some performance stats?

thank you.

dix · Post by **dix** » Mon Jun 12, 2006 10:49 am

magicd wrote:Ethno offers a "slice" mode for loops. When a loop is put into slice mode, it's individual beats are separated and assigned to different MIDI notes. If you then drag a MIDI loop into the sequencer, the MIDI loop can then trigger the slices. This means you can further edit the MIDI data to change the loop patterns
Magic Dave

Is EI any smarter than other slicer-VIs such as RMX? For example does it know what channel the loop should trigger when you drag it to the SE and automatically set the MIDI channel?. RMX always puts the MIDI at bar one on a some default MIDI channel - does for me anyway. Sort of a PIA.

TOD · Post by **TOD** » Mon Jun 12, 2006 2:34 pm

dix wrote:
magicd wrote:Ethno offers a "slice" mode for loops. When a loop is put into slice mode, it's individual beats are separated and assigned to different MIDI notes. If you then drag a MIDI loop into the sequencer, the MIDI loop can then trigger the slices. This means you can further edit the MIDI data to change the loop patterns
Magic Dave
Is EI any smarter than other slicer-VIs such as RMX? For example does it know what channel the loop should trigger when you drag it to the SE and automatically set the MIDI channel?. RMX always puts the MIDI at bar one on a some default MIDI channel - does for me anyway. Sort of a PIA.

Same way as RMX as far as I can tell

mhschmieder · Post by **mhschmieder** » Mon Jun 12, 2006 4:03 pm

Well, mine just arrived a few minutes ago here at work, so I won't be able to install it for a few more hours after I get home. I am fairly anxious at this point, as the discs look pretty well destroyed.

Advice to MOTU: Please wrap the DVD case in plastic. This should cst no more than three cents. It will spare the DVD's from bouncing around during transit.

My DVD's were both outside the slipcase and HEAVILY scratched over the entire disc. It will be a miracle if they install properly.

iMAS · Post by **iMAS** » Mon Jun 12, 2006 4:50 pm

mhschmieder wrote: Advice to MOTU: Please wrap the DVD case in plastic. This should cst no more than three cents. It will spare the DVD's from bouncing around during transit.

My DVD's were both outside the slipcase and HEAVILY scratched over the entire disc. It will be a miracle if they install properly.

toodamnhip · Post by **toodamnhip** » Mon Jun 12, 2006 7:12 pm

mhschmieder wrote:Well, mine just arrived a few minutes ago here at work, so I won't be able to install it for a few more hours after I get home. I am fairly anxious at this point, as the discs look pretty well destroyed.

Advice to MOTU: Please wrap the DVD case in plastic. This should cst no more than three cents. It will spare the DVD's from bouncing around during transit.

My DVD's were both outside the slipcase and HEAVILY scratched over the entire disc. It will be a miracle if they install properly.

I have taken flack for questioning MOTU as lacking in professional sensibilities, even going so far as to have people argue with me about what the word professional means, and whether I know what I am doing...

I think stupid issues like dvd's bouncing around in cases, consistant install problems through various products, and a variety of other dumb, "no brainers"... show there is a screw lose at MOTU...

The "let's be professional in all aspects of how we operate and design our product"....That's the screw that comes loose...

There are some wonderful professional aspects too...but glaring stupidites are..."Glaring stupidities"....

Can I get an amen brotha?...

mhschmieder · Post by **mhschmieder** » Tue Jun 13, 2006 1:10 am

No "amen" from this corner. After all, they sent a replacement disc right away to another poster (was it tooXXXhip?). Yes, they should use cases that secure the DVD's more securely. So should Winter&Winter (publishers of my favourite artist of the past decade, Uri Caine). But they stand by their product and replace faulty discs. Believe it or not, not everyone does.

In spite of all the scratches and scuff marks from the disc having traveled outside the case and up against the scratchy foam that separates the manual from the iLok, I was able to install and use Ethno Instrument tonight. It did take too tries with the data DVD, as the Ethno.dat file was not found the first time. But I doubt I'll bother asking MOTU for a replacement, as I backup my external hard drive anyway, so I have the data in two places whether or not the DVD ever loads properly again or not.

As for the sounds, they blew me away, and are immediately usable (unlike MSI, which requires many of the same tricks as one should expect when realising a score via a notation program, with all the sample-switching that that entails). Ethno Instrument works great with existing recorded MIDI tracks that were entered via keyboard.

I was shocked to find no kalimba and no shehnai, but I have other sources for those so no big deal. As for kodo drum, I may not have looked hard enough.

I only had time to render one composition tonight as I lost four hours over a snafu with upgrading my G4 iMac user memory from 128MB to 512MB (the blasted microscopically thin plastic rails that secure the SDRAM in place broke off, even though I used next to no force at all, and I had to carefully superglue them with the tiniest amount of glue possible in hopes of securing the SDRAM in place with no spillage and no shorting of contacts). Can we talk about Apple "professionalism" for a minute now?

.

At any rate, I decided to augement the existing tracks with doubling instead, as there were no direct mappings of the bizarre collection of instruments I had used for this particular composition (which was recorded using a Yamaha Motif ES, the best currently available workstation for standard ROMpler based ethnic instruments).

The koto is the best I've ever heard, and the various bagpipes and bombards are worth the price of admission alone. In fact, regardless of how good RA is or whether I eventually need it to complement this set, I feel that I got well over $1000 worth of quality samples from my modest $279 investment.

I haven't been using MSI much yet for anything other than orchestral percussion (at which it excels, and for which I use it almost daily, so it did earn its investment regardless), simply because I have not yet developed the discipline or patience to split my string tracks based on attack vs. release/etc. Once I start using notation programs (I am just now about to evaluate the Notion demo disc, which also arrived today), I am hoping to get into the sort of habits that prpfessional MIDI orchestrators use.

Ethno Instrument, on the other hand, will be used regularly, on existing tracks and for upcoming work. I have a flamenco/arabic fusion project that I will be recording later in the month. It's a project that I subbed for last year on bass, and the guitarist and I were in a previous project together whose music I am currently remixing and adding to, and we are both very excited about being able to lend both projects a more authentic air with some of these exotic instruments (live players are hard to find).

odysseysounds · Post by **odysseysounds** » Tue Jun 13, 2006 8:21 am

I purchased Ethno Instrument off the shelf from Guitar Center yesterday in La Mesa (San Diego), CA. There was no mention on the box that it was Universal Binary. There was simply a sticker that said "Version 1.0".

The Soundbank DVD and Installer installed perfectly on both a Powerbook *and* an Intel Imac; it was indeed the new UB version. This fact was noted on the Read Me file on the installer. Furthermore, there was no need to create any alias files to place them in the Ethno folder, as others have mentioned. The installer did what its supposed to do and created and installed the alias files in the right places. Ilok installation and use was smooth and painless.

I'm sorry to hear that others had problems with Ethno, but my experience was flawless.

The program itself is awesome, like a hybrid of MachFive, SwarPlug, and Stylus RMX, which are mainstays in my rig (altho they're going to be lonesome for a while....). At $279 its a bargain and an inspiration.

Blake Wilson