quote:

Originally posted by wrzonance 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. ---Adam

Good point, Adam. I saw that on one of the videos, but haven't tried it yet. I see that you can also drag/drop from the stand-alone version, which just now got me wondering - can you drag loops from the stand-alone version directly into something like ReCycle or a a WAV editor like Sound Forge, Wavelab, etc.? I'm at work right now so I can't try it until this evening, but that would be incredible! If I could batch process those loops in ReCyle and port them into Stylus RMX, they'd be completely editable.

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OHHH Snap. Yeah I am in the office right now too...

I'll defiantly have to try dragging and dropping into ReCycle when I get home tonight.

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Before anybody buys this, I will point out a few issues that I've already encountered with Ethno. Maybe Adam can confirm these and/or mention any others, workarounds, etc. None of these are major issues at all IMO and certainly not showstoppers, but you may just want to be aware. Overall, this thing is very cool and I'm glad I bought it (I can't wait to get home and use it some more!)

- installation is sorta quirky. For some reason, after it installs, it asks you if you'd like to install another copy of it. Choose "no".

- The installation process goes like this: you drag the 4-GB .dat file to any location on your computer, then drag the other 4-GB loop/phrase data file to any location (I put them in the same folder)- both are found on the DVD-ROM. Copying each of these files took about 7-8 minutes each. Then, you install the application from the CD-ROM. During installation, Ethno will automatically locate the two 4GB data files. In my case, it took about 10 minutes because they were on a separate drive (I have 6 drives totaling 2.5TB). This isn't really a bug, but I'm just mentioning it because the manual doesn't explain it very clearly and IME most apps like this just ask you where you placed the data files. Also, the installation doesn't ask you where to place the VST .dll - instead, it finds the available folder(s) that it thinks you'll want to use, and you select which one you want. Not bad, just kinda odd and can be confusing for a moment.

- if you are using Vista, you need to download the appropriate update from MOTU. I tried to install the app from the disk (version 1.0) several times and would get the message that it installed successfully, but I'd get an error and crash log when I tried to open it. I finally just downloaded the 1.01 update for Vista-32 and it installed and opened with no problems.

- occasionally, some of the sub-menus in the browser don't display. It's easily remedied by selecting a different item (e.g., directly above or below), then re-selecting the item that is missing items in its sub-field and they appear again.

- apparently, MOTU's support for this instrument is non-existent; it hasn't had an update in years (current version is 1.01 from 2007).

- and, I haven't encountered this bug yet, but apparently Ethno has a problem with a "disappearing GUI" in Sonar. It's related to Sonar's (buggy) X-Ray feature, which allows you to make plugins semi-transparent so you can see what's going on behind it. I keep X-Ray disabled, so it hasn't been an issue for me yet, but I have read stories of people having issues with Ethno's GUI disappearing (or only partially displaying) even with X-Ray disabled.

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I can confirm everything you've said except the Sonar related issues (as I am a Cubase user).

The first time I installed Ethno I made sure I saved my two data files (roughly 8 gigs, like you said) to my file server (with a gigabit connection).

Every time I must reformat or do other strange things... the installation processes goes much more smoothly since I have the files copied to a network location. Waiting for huge files to copy from DVD is annoying as hell. I also keep a copy of the Ethno 1.01 installer on the network, right along side the two data files.

It is ALSO why I have copies of my Komplete 5 DVDs on my file server. DVDs are an outdated medium imo, the sooner companies like Native Instruments, Spectrasonics, MOTU, etc start shipping their huge sample based instruments on external hard drives, the better (shoot... even a USB stick at 64GB would work perfectly).

---Adam

Also, it is indeed strange that they've had zero support since 2007, but that's MOTU for you... they like to move on to the next thing and don't really pay attention to legacy stuff that may have not made them a lot of money (like Ethno). They focus all their efforts on Digital Performer and the next XXXXX version of their hardware.

Like you said, none of that is a show stopper in my opinion. Ethno was worth the dough.

EDIT: Tonight I am going to do some registry hunting to find out where the Ethno installer adds an entry pointing to your data files, I'll write a batch script that will just copy your vst DLL file and data from X location and add the registry entry to point to your data files. (can't help you with a mac script since I only rarely use my macbook pro for audio production anymore)

---Adam

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Last edited by wrzonance on Oct-21-2009 at 17:41

quote:

Originally posted by wrzonance OHHH Snap. Yeah I am in the office right now too... I'll defiantly have to try dragging and dropping into ReCycle when I get home tonight.

Just tried it and it worked perfectly! Yeehaw!

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quote:

Originally posted by cryophonik Just tried it and it worked perfectly! Yeehaw!

Awesome. I got side-tracked by Futurama movies, mac & cheese, and wine (yes wine, not weed, like you'd assume).

---Adam

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Here's another example (~2 min) of some more screwing around with Ethno, along with Stylus RMX and EWQL Voices of Passion.

http://www.cryophonik.com/files/ethno_02.mp3

The percussion parts are a combination of a loop from the ILIO Ethno Techno expansion for Stylus RMX and some additional percussion loops from Ethno. The bouzouki (guitar-ish sound) and bass are both from Ethno - these are parts that I played (i.e., not factory loops) and, yes, I need to brush up on my Middle Eastern scales. The vocals are various Syrian vocal phrases/articulations from EWQL Voices of Passion. This is fun, but the hard part is getting everything in the same key and in tuned with each other!

I'm going to keep working with this and probably work a short bit of it into the intro and breakdown of a track that I'm working on.

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quote:

Originally posted by cryophonik Here's another example (~2 min) of some more screwing around with Ethno, along with Stylus RMX and EWQL Voices of Passion. http://www.cryophonik.com/files/ethno_02.mp3 The percussion parts are a combination of a loop from the ILIO Ethno Techno expansion for Stylus RMX and some additional percussion loops from Ethno. The bouzouki (guitar-ish sound) and bass are both from Ethno - these are parts that I played (i.e., not factory loops) and, yes, I need to brush up on my Middle Eastern scales. The vocals are various Syrian vocal phrases/articulations from EWQL Voices of Passion. This is fun, but the hard part is getting everything in the same key and in tuned with each other! I'm going to keep working with this and probably work a short bit of it into the intro and breakdown of a track that I'm working on.

Good sounding stuff!

I forgot what I used in this track: http://archives.djfreaq.com/music/W..._ARP_Dash_A.mp3

But it's the guitar-ish sounding synth that pops in at 0:35

---Adam

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quote:

Originally posted by wrzonance Good sounding stuff! I forgot what I used in this track: http://archives.djfreaq.com/music/W..._ARP_Dash_A.mp3 But it's the guitar-ish sounding synth that pops in at 0:35 ---Adam

Thanks Adam! I really like your track - the guitar-ish sound blends nicely with the bell/arp sound and I like the way the track builds into the glitchy part. Very cool.

I'm really liking Ethno and it's definitely one of my best purchases this year.

@MrJBJ - did you get yours yet?

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Yeah, I got it, sounds awesome. These samples are amazingly well-recorded.