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World/Ethnic VSTs?

I know this is a trance forum, but I suspect that many of you produce other styles as well (e.g., chillout/ambient, tribal house, etc.), so I figured I ask for opinions. I've been considering buying one of the following for over a year now:

- MOTU Ethno
- EWQL RA
- Ethno World 4

Does anybody have any experience with any of these and can you share your thoughts on their usability for EDM/IDM/etc.? I've read countless reviews of each, but they're always from guys writing world, new age, or cinematic music; whereas I'm more interested in incorporating them into my downtempo stuff (Delerium-esque) and/or even my housier-sounding tracks. I'll admit that I'm leaning toward MOTU Ethno and away from the others because I really dislike EWQL as a company (no resale of its products, even when they don't work as advertised [e.g., PLAY engine]), but I could be convinced.

Also, I have Kontakt 3, so I'd be interested in any other world/ethnic libraries that you care to recommend, but the three that I'm considering seem to be the most diverse libraries/instruments on the market.

For a long time I have wanted a big sample library filled with exotic drum and instrument sounds a la Future Sound Of London. Ethno looks nice but is so expensive. Maybe an idea for Christmas.

quote:

Originally posted by MrJiveBoJingles Ethno looks nice but is so expensive.

It is, but it's the least expensive of those three! Another point in its favor. Fortunately, I just sold some stuff and I have a GC coupon, so it will cost me next to nothing out of pocket. FWIW it does require iLok, in case that's an issue for you should you decide to get it.

I'd love to buy the MOTU Ethno. These MP3 samples sound fantastic:

http://www.motu.com/products/softwa...3-examples.html

This product is next on my wish list

Apparently it ships with the iLok pre-authorized, so that should be no problem as I have a few USB ports left.

You know, screw it, I am going to buy this. I think it will be worth it for all these new sounds. I'll have to quit buying new music for a while to make up for this, though.

quote:

Originally posted by MrJiveBoJingles Apparently it ships with the iLok pre-authorized,..

Yeah, that's one thing I really like about MOTU. I bought BPM a while ago (since sold it) and was expecting to authorize it on an iLok that I already had - I was pretty surprised to open the box and find the pre-authorized dongle!

quote:

Originally posted by MrJiveBoJingles Apparently it ships with the iLok pre-authorized, so that should be no problem as I have a few USB ports left. You know, screw it, I am going to buy this. I think it will be worth it for all these new sounds. I'll have to quit buying new music for a while to make up for this, though.

Let us know how it is before we take the leap

I ordered it through Sweetwater and chose free shipping. No idea how long that normally takes.

quote:

Originally posted by MrJiveBoJingles I ordered it through Sweetwater and chose free shipping. No idea how long that normally takes.

They ship UPS, which is pretty slow IME and IIRC they specify 7-10 days, but I usually get it within 5-6 days, depending on which day it ships.

I'm about 90% positive that I'm going to head over to GC on my lunch break and pick it up as well. Hmmmm....if all three of us have it....collab!!!

ethno world sounds freakin awesome

quote:

Originally posted by cryophonik Hmmmm....if all three of us have it....collab!!!

That would be awesome I'll have enough for it next week. Can't wait to try it out.

This makes me want it even more:

http://www.motu.com/products/softwa...os/video03.html

quote:

Originally posted by cryophonik They ship UPS, which is pretty slow IME and IIRC they specify 7-10 days, but I usually get it within 5-6 days, depending on which day it ships. I'm about 90% positive that I'm going to head over to GC on my lunch break and pick it up as well. Hmmmm....if all three of us have it....collab!!!

post some samples if u dont mind and give us the run down - i may grab this too

Re: World/Ethnic VSTs?

quote:

Originally posted by cryophonik I know this is a trance forum, but I suspect that many of you produce other styles as well (e.g., chillout/ambient, tribal house, etc.), so I figured I ask for opinions. I've been considering buying one of the following for over a year now: - MOTU Ethno - EWQL RA - Ethno World 4 Does anybody have any experience with any of these and can you share your thoughts on their usability for EDM/IDM/etc.? I've read countless reviews of each, but they're always from guys writing world, new age, or cinematic music; whereas I'm more interested in incorporating them into my downtempo stuff (Delerium-esque) and/or even my housier-sounding tracks. I'll admit that I'm leaning toward MOTU Ethno and away from the others because I really dislike EWQL as a company (no resale of its products, even when they don't work as advertised [e.g., PLAY engine]), but I could be convinced. Also, I have Kontakt 3, so I'd be interested in any other world/ethnic libraries that you care to recommend, but the three that I'm considering seem to be the most diverse libraries/instruments on the market.

Don't you have a Roland xv-5050?
And i see that u have Kontakt 3!
Cryo save your time and your money playboy!

Re: Re: World/Ethnic VSTs?

quote:

Originally posted by atxbigballer1 Don't you have a Roland xv-5050? And i see that u have Kontakt 3! Cryo save your time and your money playboy!

Actually, I sold my XV-5050 early this year with the intention of buying EWQL RA, but then indecision set in. I even held on to my Roland World expansion for a while just in case, but then decided to let it go and get one of these instruments instead. Kontakt 3 is great, but the factory content doesn't include enough of the world/ethnic samples that I'm after.

I already ordered Ethno. The samples are mine! All mine!

Doru Malaia - 230 Ethnic Drums & Percussions (6400 one-shot wav samples)

if you can still find it somewhere

Re: Re: Re: World/Ethnic VSTs?

quote:

Originally posted by cryophonik Actually, I sold my XV-5050 early this year with the intention of buying EWQL RA, but then indecision set in. I even held on to my Roland World expansion for a while just in case, but then decided to let it go and get one of these instruments instead. Kontakt 3 is great, but the factory content doesn't include enough of the world/ethnic samples that I'm after.

Yo cryo, how much did u sell your xv-5050 for?
Also do u miss the xv-5050 for world/ethnic sounds?

Re: Re: Re: Re: World/Ethnic VSTs?

quote:

Originally posted by atxbigballer1 Yo cryo, how much did u sell your xv-5050 for? Also do u miss the xv-5050 for world/ethnic sounds?

I sold the XV-5050 for $350, then I sold my two expansions (Orchestral and World) for about $170 each IIRC. The 5050 doesn't have a lot of good world/ethnic sounds in the factory patches, but the World expansion (SRX-09) does. Still, I think that Kontakt gives me a lot more flexibility for bread-n-butter sounds (e.g., pianos, orchestral sounds) than the 5050 does and something like Ethno gives me more flexibility than the SRX-09 does for world/ethnic sounds. Plus, Kontakt is pretty much infititely expandable.

I'm in the process of installing Ethno right now and will report back (with some demos) after I've spent some time with it.

Nice, will be waiting to hear those. Will probably make me impatient to get my copy of course.

quote:

Originally posted by MrJiveBoJingles I ordered it through Sweetwater and chose free shipping.

I'm not sure what your options are at this point, but I actually got Ethno very cheap at Guitar Center. I went in with a 10% off anything coupon, but when the sales guy went to ring me up, he said "actually, I think we can do better than that." Then, he left for a moment, came back and told me that it was "on sale" for $223 ($244 w/tax)! Their website shows it at $279, so it was possibly either an in-store special, or maybe they just gave me a deal because I buy from them pretty regularly (the sales guy definitely knows who I am). At any rate, it may be worth checking if you have a GC near you and maybe you could cancel your Sweetwater order, get a price match, etc.

The nearest Guitar Center is over an hour away. I checked the store locating tool when I first moved and was disappointed. I had one about fifteen minutes from my apartment in the last place I lived.

I bought MOTU Ethno Instrument a few years ago and I love it.

I use it in lots of my tracks, even if it's just one sound. It's good stuff.

Plenty of fun things you can do to adjust the effects and eq of the instrument (although I never use the in-the-box EQs/Reverbs, I have other plug-ins for that).

I also like the search interface, very easy to find an instrument you want.

The only con is that the VST loads a little slow (by my standards) but it's no worse than any other big plug-in (Omnisphere and Altiverb come to mind).

Thanks for the input wrzonance! Yeah, the convolution reverb and some of the effects (esp. the filter) can give your CPU a noticeable hit, but it's not too bad - I like the fact that you have those options available in stand-alone mode.

This thing is pretty cool. The instruments sound great and there are a ton of them. I like the way that keyswitching is implemented on this instrument - it has a lot of options, which makes it very playable. The loops/phrases are also cool, but I'm thinking that I'm going to have to export many of them and run them through ReCycle and/or Melodyne in order to customize them. Still, they're a lot of fun to play around with. Here's a quick and simple demo that I made using 5 parts and keyswitching between the vocal phrases:

http://www.cryophonik.com/files/ethno_example01.mp3

(Ethno only + its convolution reverb - no other instruments or effects used)

quote:

Originally posted by cryophonik http://www.cryophonik.com/files/ethno_example01.mp3 (Ethno only + its convolution reverb - no other instruments or effects used)

Very nice! I think I will go ahead and pick this up. I've been drooling over the demo sounds.

Cryo,

The neatest part about Ethno and its loops is the ability to drag and drop a loop from the VSTi window into one of your audio tracks in your main sequencing window. That way you don't have to bounce out loops in Ethno and you can start hacking away at them right in your DAW (I use Cubase 5).



---Adam

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