New to MOTU Products...A Quick Question.

The-Shadow · Post by **The-Shadow** » Thu Sep 28, 2006 8:03 pm

How's it going everyone?

I'm new to the boards and I'm glad to be here. I come from a hardware background using mostly MPCs and samplers. I heard a demo of the Ethno Instrument at a local music store and knew I had to pick it up.

So I did that and it's great. I like the realistic sounds, it was one of the features that sold me on it.

I do have a question in terms of virtual instruments. I am running one of the new iMacs with the Core 2 Duo inside. The memory has been maxed out and it's running the Ethno beautifully. I'm now wondering about the Symphonic Instrument.

Is it possible to run both the Ethno and Symphonic Instruments simultaneously on one machine? Is anyone out there doing exactly that? I will be checking out the MOTU website to evaluate the SI demos. What are your feelings on the SI?

Look forward to hearing from you all on the subject.

Take care.

KarlSutton · Post by **KarlSutton** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 6:43 am

do a search abotu MSI, there is a lot of discussion - mostly unhappy folks. I bought it & thought it was quite a step up from my orchestra card in my 1080, that was my comparison at the time. I recently read an article in either EM or Keyboard comparing all of the orchestral VI's, that might be a worthwhile read for you before you buy anything. As for running more than one VI on your iMac, as long as they are universal-binaray apps I would think you could run several on that machine. good luck!

mhschmieder · Post by **mhschmieder** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 3:40 pm

Interestingly, Future Music UK has a compararative article this month as well. They mention MSI's unique "Tutti" feature as a strength, but conclude it is not the best buy overall.

For me it was a good buy, because I bought it primarily for its excellent historical instruments (unique to this library) and orchestral percussion. I haven't really used the strings or winds yet, as they require a lot of work and I'm too lazy or too busy (take your pick).

As I consider realistic replication of orchestra a tall order, I don't consider any of the current offerings (including Vienna) to be the final solution. And considering the prices, "good enough" will do for now. And MSI is "good enough" if you're willing to work with it a bit.

Future Music gives its highest marks to Vienna followed by East West, and then trailing these two are the Miroslav Vituous and Garritan (which has many flaws that they didn't seem to be aware of). They gave low marks to all the others, for various reasons (stability, easy of use, versatility).

My recollection is that the EM (or was it Keyboard? -- mine arrived the same day this time so I got them confused) review came to similar conclusions, except for highly recommending MSI as great value for its price range (Future Music UK customers do not see the same price relationships between products as we do over here, so keep that in mind -- MOTU stuff is more expensive there, as is E-Mu).

radiotimes · Post by **radiotimes** » Sat Sep 30, 2006 6:54 am

I use both MSI and Ethno at the same time no problem.

I have a G5 Dual 2.3Ghz 4GB Ram set up using Logic Pro 7 and they work great but as with all plug ins there are some sounds more CPU intensive than others.

I use MSI as a "Filler" and not for Orchestral composing alone and if handled correctly and DSP'd it performs OK. Some instruments are better than others. I also use Vienna libraries and to be honest by the time the mix is completed I can hardly tell the difference between the high end and the low end products and more importantly neither can my clients!! I think if its orchestral work you're looking to do then the higher end products start to shine and do sound better. As with many plug ins they all have their good and bad points which is why many people purchase various products to get the right sounds. I've got over 15 different product libraries of drum sounds alone and still use them all in my projects.

Ethno compared to other ethnic libraries is very good. The sounds with no tweaking are excellent and when mixed and matched can produce some really interesting pieces.

Both products for the price offer great value but if you want better you have to pay a much higher price in many cases and often the percieved end mix doesn't seem to warrant that expenditure.

The-Shadow · Post by **The-Shadow** » Sat Sep 30, 2006 9:43 am

I write mostly hip-hop and RnB tracks. Other than my huge collection of breaks and drum hits I've collected over the years, I don't have any "libraries" to speak of. With hip-hop in the state of popularity that it is in, sample clearance is becoming expensive. Gone are the days when artists would "let you have" the sample, provided you give them the credit. They want credit and royalty, which I know they're totally entitled to. I just can't afford to pay them.

Whenever I needed ethnic or orchestral phrases, I would just sample them from records. I would like to be able to compose my own phrases and use them in my compositions instead, gradually move away from sampling. As far as the quality of the sound, I've heard the difference between the Vienna libraries and products like Garritan (haven't had the chance to hear the MSI demos yet), and they're light years apart. However, Garritan would be fine for what I'm doing. Most of the high fidelity of libraries like the Vienna would be lost in the final product as most hip-hop tracks are drum oriented.

radiotimes, I'm glad to hear that both can be run on a system simultaneously. I'm already using the Ethno Instrument and I like the interface. I think I will seriously consider the Symphonic Instrument perhaps head to my local music store again and see if they can demo it for me.

Thanks for your opinions everyone.

mhschmieder, does Future Music UK have a website I can read that article at? When I do a google search for it, I end up at a site trying to sell me UK magazine subscriptions.

mhschmieder · Post by **mhschmieder** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 6:08 pm

Not sure if Future Music UK has a website, but most magazines do these days. Maybe I can check the print edition when I get home. The US edition tends to mix-and-match articles from several months along with their own. It confuses me too much so I stick to the UK edition, even though it's expensive. I probably buy it every two or three iessues on average.

MusicTech is a similar magazine and it's easy to confuse them in the store. Neither one is nearly as deep as Sound-On-Sound, but as they're less spread out in their focus, they sometimes to give more attention to things like shootouts between ethnic or orchestral libraries.

waterstrum · Post by **waterstrum** » Mon Dec 11, 2006 1:02 am

I'm also using both on the same machine with no problems.

MSI is a very cool thing and I'm glad I bought it.
It is not a high end wonderful do it all orchestra.
I think the funky/bad aspects give it more character.
It is not the HiFi answer for an orchestrator.
It is a unique animal and I like the sounds.

Don't buy MSI if you are seeking detailed orchestral sonic perfection.

stephentayler · Post by **stephentayler** » Mon Dec 11, 2006 1:47 am

I also use MSI and Ethno simultaneously in DP. You don't say which program you use, but I like the integration of MOTU's software.

I don't do pure orchestrations, so I find MSI a really useful part of my pallette, and am very happy with it. For strings I nearly always create hybrids using MSI, Sampletank and Atmosphere anyway.

The built in convolution reverbs are a great bonus, but do tax the CPU

Best of luck

BTW, welcome to Unicornation!!

Stephen