Ancient music

musicarteca · Post by **musicarteca** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 1:46 pm

Hi, For a new project I will need ancient instrument sounds of all types (strings, percussion, brass, winds and vocals). I was looking at some libraries to complement what I have, and my initial choices are:

*MOTU Ethno instrument:
http://www.motu.com/products/software/ethno/
Good choice, but it has a stronger focus on world music than ancient instruments.

*ILIO Origins
http://www.ilio.com/ilio/origins/index.html
Excellent choice as far as the type of sounds that I want, but a bit expensive for only 3.5 gigs of sounds.

*Quantum-Leap-RA
http://www.soundsonline.com/Quantum-Lea ... W-163.html
Excellent choice, but in the limit of the price range.

I have MachFive as sample player (v2 soon I hope), or I could use any other library that has it own player. Can anyone comment, or suggest other options?

aafarr2 · Post by **aafarr2** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 5:07 pm

RA is excellent. Just listen to those demos! My friend has RA in his library (I have QL's RARE, the predesscor to RA) and he uses it in almost every project he does. Plus, I will always reccomend Soundsonline, Eastwest, and Quantum Leap for just about anything anyways. They always deliver.

musicarteca · Post by **musicarteca** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 5:13 pm

I totally agree. It is excellent, and the quality of Soundsonline/ Quantum Leap is also guaranteed. I just wish it was less expensive.

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 6:14 pm

Yes, the *sound* quality of EW-Soundsonline is tops. If you are on a MacPro, be careful with the PLAY Engine until more reports come in. If you have Kontakt 2.2 on a MacPro, no prob. If you're on PPC it's a no-brainer.

Alas, the good ones ain't always cheap.

thereaktor · Post by **thereaktor** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 4:57 am

have a listen to those:
http://www.soundbytes.de/?sampling-en
These sample library sound really good. If you're looking for ancient rare acoustic instruments.

cheers

musicarteca · Post by **musicarteca** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 6:25 am

thereaktor wrote:have a listen to those:
http://www.soundbytes.de/?sampling-en
These sample library sound really good. If you're looking for ancient rare acoustic instruments.

cheers

That looks pretty good. Thanks

magicd · Post by **magicd** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 7:53 am

MOTU Symphonic Instrument includes a bank of historic instruments. Included are:
Crumhorns
Harpsichords
Lutes
Recorders
Treble Cornett
Viol De Gambas

There are audio examples and additional information at the MOTU web site.

Magic Dave

musicarteca · Post by **musicarteca** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 10:48 am

magicd wrote:MOTU Symphonic Instrument includes a bank of historic instruments. Included are:
Crumhorns
Harpsichords
Lutes
Recorders
Treble Cornett
Viol De Gambas

There are audio examples and additional information at the MOTU web site.

Magic Dave

Thank you Magic Dave, I have listened to the demos, but I guess that I missed those. I will check again.

stephen1212b · Post by **stephen1212b** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 8:02 pm

Don't forget the alternate tunings that often are crucial to authentic ancient instruments. It's not JUST the sample but how it is pitched and played.

mhschmieder · Post by **mhschmieder** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 8:49 pm

I've had the Sound Bytes libraries on my list for some time, and as far as I can tell, they are still the most comprehensive source for ancient instruments.

You can download a few free sounds to give them a try. I haven't spent much time with the freebies yet, but they seem of reasonable if not excellent quality. I think it would depend on how exposed these instruments would be in your mix.

The ancient instruments included with MSI are amongst the best, and are worth the price of the product alone. But those may not cover all of your bases.

If you are able to work with Windows programs as part of your workflow, E-Mu has a couple of add-on collections that are often blown-out these days for $20, devoted to ancient instruments (one is "Old World Instruments", and I forget the name of the other library but I think it too combines world instruments with historical instruments).

There's a Scandinavian vendor that provides single-instruments libraries for a few instruments in the category of historical insgtruments, but primarily focuses on Scandinavian and Greek/Mediterranean folk instruments. I think it's PrecisionSound but would have to look it up in the other browser as I haven't transferred my bookmarks yet from Firefox to Camino.