MOTUnation.com

I figure this is the best place for this question. Recently, I purchased Symphobia and Kontakt 3 to do movie scoring and they work GREAT. I am really really happy with the traditional orchestration I can do with these two things (although I REALLY want to add True Strike next to get some better drums).

That said, the people I am working for were VERY impressed with what I delivered and I am talking them into getting me a world sample library for doing some oriental work for a film the are currently in production with. I of course am very familiar with the existence of ethno but I am going to be COMPLETELY honest here, I am NOT that happy with Mach5.2 after now using Kontakt 3. I am sure Mach5 is great for some people but for me, the modulation capabilities and just modular nature of Kontakt is really how I work. I can throw stuff together VERY easily in Kontakt and when I need to tweak it, it is so simple its not even funny.

Given I am sure Ethno is on similar technology, I am just nervous of going down that path. I like very much being able to tweak sounds VERY deeply for a piece I am writing.

My question to you oh great motu brain trust is what do you recommend. I'd like a good general library of world sounds that isn't going to break the bank, but give me something with enough dynamic style and range that it will always be a good go to library for finding stuff. Is there a good package for Kontakt? Is Ethno that good? Is something else really good?

In any case, thank you VERY much for your thoughts!

Hey G:

Since you were talking about "oriental", you might want to check out Silk from EW.

Ethno is 8GB. I think that's relatively small for a library not likely destined for expansion sounds. Silk is 25GB. It cost more, but not 3x more.

I'm not sure what's out there for Kontakt at the moment. But I would prefer getting a Kontakt-compatible library if there is a worthy one. It just seems more flexible.

The old RA runs in Kontakt, but of course it's all Play format now. Supposedly you can still microtune the Play version, which is essential for an "ethnic" library.

I personally have the hardest time wrapping my head around Kontakt, MachFive 2 is far easier for me. But K3's microtune script is killer.

Wassup!

I hadn't looked at Silk yet, I also saw; RA and Ethno World 4. I got a recommendation for RA so far (and for Silk from you). Any work with RA? I think Silk and RA use the Play engine while Ethno World 4 can use Kontakt. From what I have read so far, I'd compare Ethno World 4 to something where you've got to put a lot of work into the arrangements, but that you get a very diverse palette of sounds whereas with RA, you get less different instruments, but the arrangements in the patches have a lot more diversity in them (like round robin samples and such). There are always so many choices!!!!



If you want to hear something I recently scored, I put two score samples (in case you were interested in Symphobia) Head over to asylumstudioproductions.com and I think it is the third article where I have two MP3 samples that I put up!

Well I've had Mach5 for years now, and I alway felt for me it wasn't flexible enough. The effects are KILLER in it, hands down, but the LFOs and such, or all the parameters really, just never really got what I want with no amount of tweaking. As I have to tweak A LOT for symphonic stuff. Mostly the envelopes, but still, when I do want to create some awesome modulations and such, the way the modulations are applied in Kontakt, it makes sense to me.

Now granted, I use a LOT of NI instruments, and especially Reaktor, so the concept of modular working with a synth makes sense to me. Heck, even Zebra is modular, and so, I find more freedom in a lot of these synths unless the modulations matrixes are done very well (and some of them are!!!)

I am not opposed to using Play at all, I'd just *prefer* to stay in one sampler just to reduce the number of things *I* have to remember!

Rick

EthnoWorld seems to be mostly loop-based, with less attention to detail in the single hit samples.

RA is way better in PLAY than Kontakt -- especially the most recent update. They've done a better job of round robins, legato, and other features that make all the difference in musicality and utility.

Silk looks to be great, but I'll wait for the price to come down or a two-for-one. Also, it is a bit duplicative of other specialised libraries, but does add some stuff that's hard to find except in Windows-only libraries.

My recommendation is for Sitar Nation from Impact Soundworks. By far the most detailed of any ethnic library I've ever owned. Primarily sitar, tablas, and a couple of related instruments. Seems related to SWAR, so I hope more is on the way.