Ethno Instrument

TechSupport · Post by **TechSupport** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 3:01 pm

... here's the order for install:

Create a folder on your sounds drive with a name like "Ethno Sounds".
Insert the soundbank DVD in your drive, drag the .dat and .ufs file to that folder.
Eject the DVD.
Insert the installer CD, run the installer.

These are the install instructions as found in the manual. You don't need to follow the other steps of manually creating the alias/shortcut files, as the installer does that for you as long as you've copied over both the Ethno.dat and Ethno.ufs files from the DVD prior to running the installer on the CD.

You can follow the other steps if you ever need to do this manually (if for example, you move your Ethno.dat & Ethno.ufs files to another hard drive and need to make new alias/shortcut files to point to the new location), but you don't need to during the initial installation.

David Polich · Post by **David Polich** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 4:11 pm

I just installed Ethno without any problems whatsoever. Andy, I hope you get your problem straightened out. It sounds indeed like it is system specific.

iMAS · Post by **iMAS** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 5:36 pm

Soooooooooo.....how does it sound already ?!?!?

funkyfreddy · Post by **funkyfreddy** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 6:20 pm

Both MOTU and Sweetwater were quick in getting back to me and MOTU is sending me a new disc tomorrow! I'll report back once I get a chance to play around with it a bit. I've recorded quite a bit of world music in my studio and worked with quite a selection of talented musicians from the Middle East and Greece, so I'm anxiously waiting to hear what it sounds like!

Thanks to Josh at MOTU and Sweetwater for calling me so quickly!

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 6:23 pm

Josh and Brad are amazing, so much so that I have to say thanks myself!

funkyfreddy · Post by **funkyfreddy** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 6:37 pm

Ooops! Double post, how did I manage to do that?

David Polich · Post by **David Polich** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 9:46 pm

iMAS wrote:Soooooooooo.....how does it sound already ?!?!?

If you want to know whether it sounds as good as the demos - yes, it does.

But let me qualify that -

The demos were put together by hot-shot programmers. Don't expect to load up one instrument or one loop and press one key and get something as multi-layered and exciting as the demos. Remember, the demos are MULTI-TRACKED. They are produced to show how good Ethno Instrument "can" sound, by people who understand and know the instruments, and who have extenisve MIDI and audio and composing skills.

That said, the sound "quality", fidelity, detail is not something that is faked on the demos. It does have that high-quality and detail right out of the box.

Everything is very flexible, you can edit lots and lots of parameters, including all the settings for the convolution reverbs. I can't recommend Ethno enough.

AndyMurdock · Post by **AndyMurdock** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 10:22 pm

Fixed and installed,
Thanks to the MOTU Tech support, who were really on top of things. It was a bad directory on my install drive and it took Disc Warrior to find and fix it.

Andy

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 11:30 pm

AndyMurdock wrote:Fixed and installed,
Thanks to the MOTU Tech support, who were really on top of things. It was a bad directory on my install drive and it took Disc Warrior to find and fix it.

Andy

Bravo, Andy. Congrats!!

Looking forward to further reports on how it fits into your workflow and compliments your arsenal.

AndyMurdock · Post by **AndyMurdock** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 11:33 pm

I think with a little work... this one will flow right up my arsenal.
Andy

TOD · Post by **TOD** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 8:27 am

David Polich wrote:
iMAS wrote:Soooooooooo.....how does it sound already ?!?!?
If you want to know whether it sounds as good as the demos - yes, it does.

But let me qualify that -

The demos were put together by hot-shot programmers. Don't expect to load up one instrument or one loop and press one key and get something as multi-layered and exciting as the demos. Remember, the demos are MULTI-TRACKED. They are produced to show how good Ethno Instrument "can" sound, by people who understand and know the instruments, and who have extenisve MIDI and audio and composing skills.

That said, the sound "quality", fidelity, detail is not something that is faked on the demos. It does have that high-quality and detail right out of the box.

Everything is very flexible, you can edit lots and lots of parameters, including all the settings for the convolution reverbs. I can't recommend Ethno enough.

I echo your impressions and the drag and drop feature is awesome!

David Polich · Post by **David Polich** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 9:43 am

One more positive aspect of Ethno - if you decide you want to move the .dat and .ufs files to another drive, just copy the files to the drive you choose, then go to the Library/Application Support/MOTU/Ethno folder, click on "Get Info" for the .dat and .ufs aliases, and click on "Select New Original" in the Get Info box. Navigate to where copied files are and select "choose" for each one. Then just delete the original files from the drive where you first put them.

When you next open Ethno, it will find the moved .dat and .ufs files, no problem. With other products, I've had bad experiences moving data files once they were installed. Hats off to MOTU on this one.

Shooshie · Post by **Shooshie** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 10:49 am

TOD wrote:I echo your impressions and the drag and drop feature is awesome!

Can you elaborate on the D&D? How is it implemented? Or maybe I should say, what's it for?

Shooshie

magicd · Post by **magicd** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 11:18 am

Ethno allows you to drag and drop loops from the plug-in into tracks in the sequencer. You have the option to drag audio and/or MIDI loops.

Ethno offers a "slice" mode for loops. When a loop is put into slice mode, it's individual beats are separated and assigned to different MIDI notes. If you then drag a MIDI loop into the sequencer, the MIDI loop can then trigger the slices. This means you can further edit the MIDI data to change the loop patterns

Slicing is how Ethno can do drastic tempo changes without altering pitch or tone of the loop beats.

Because you can drag a MIDI loop out of Ethno, that means you can use that MIDI data to trigger other beat slices. Perhaps you like the pattern in a Tabla loop but want to trigger African drums with that pattern.

Audio loops dragged into the sequencer come over as a single soundbite. Of course you can use beat-based edit resolution and the scissor tool in DP if you want to separate out indiviual beat elements from the loop.

If you choose to sync the Ethno loop to your sequence tempo, the dragged audio loop is conformed to your sequence tempo.

Lots of creative possibilities in there.

Magic Dave

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 4:48 pm

Well now, doesn't that sound cooler'n heck?

What luck-- I've got an orchestral/African project coming up in August.

Magic Dave, you just sold yourself another copy of EI!! Thanks!