MOTUnation.com

Sorry if this has been covered already, I did a few searches and didn't find anything...

I am a DP user considering Ethno just because it sounds so cool, but I usually compose my sketches using Garageband. I have found articles on using other MOTU instruments with GB, but nothing about Ethno. Will Ethno work with GB or will I need to dump it and do my early work in DP?

Thanks.

Using Ethno in GarageBand should work just like any other MOTU Audio Unit instrument.

Thanks for your quick reply. I think that I'll purchase a copy and give it a try.

In the meantime, if there is anybody out there who has connected Ethno and GB, I'd be interested in hearing about any hurdles encountered, or even just general impressions about using Ethno with GB.

Also, I saw this in the requirements for Ethno on the MOTU site-

An audio sequencer software package that hosts MAS, AU, VST, or RTAS/HTDM instrument plug-ins. As MSI has 34 outputs (stereo main outs + 16 stereo aux outputs), the host needs to support instruments with greater than 32 outputs. Alternately, Ethno Instrument can be used as a standalone application.

GB, of course, supports AUs, but I have no idea if it supports instruments with greater than 32 outputs- how might I find this out? (A google search didn't turn up much)

One thing I didn't think of before:
GarageBand only lets you send one MIDI channel to a virtual instrument (any VI, from MOTU or otherwise). This means that multi-timbral VIs like Ethno that can load up 64 parts will be sort of limited in GarageBand. Instead of using multiple presets within a single instance of Ethno, you'll need to create a separate instance of Ethno for each preset you want to use.

Hardly ever use GB, so had never tried my Ethno in it; but just did, out of interest, and GB seems quite happy with it. But as carrythebanner said, GB doesn't allow for multiple MIDI inputs to one VI instance, and your reference to multiple outputs really amounts to the same thing; Ethno doesn't require a host that caters for multiple streams from a VI to just run, you simply won't be able to make use of Ethno's ability to render up to 17 stereo/34 mono separate parts from one single Ethno instance.

Ethno's very CPU efficient, however - just playing around, I'm finding I can run several instances of Ethno within GB without losing too much CPU bandwidth (always a big issue for me, juggling many (mostly NI) VIs in my DP projects - really looking forward to DP6's pre-rendering !), AS LONG AS you're NOT using Ethno's built in convolution reverb, which can grab a heck of a lot of CPU.

Also, GB doesn't seem to allow for direct drag-'n-dropping Ethno's AIFF loops into an audio track (something I find myself doing frequently in DP), but that's not a big deal, dragging the loop out of Ethno to desktop, and from there to GB, seems to work fine.

Be aware that the inherent quality of Ethno's samples (16 bit, 44k) is far from being the best you can find; but they're all clean, the library's well organised, carries a good variety, is easy to access, Ethno's very stable and of course interfaces great with DP.

I've found it to be a very useful tool.