Hi all. I'm a MIDI composer and have been using an XG for about a decade as my workhorse synth, but now want to add a soft synth to my set up. I do specialised productions which require realistic acoustic and so-called 'ethnic' sounds, some of which get replaced with 'real' instruments when recording & some of which do not. My most used sounds are hand drums & percussion, balafon, fiddle & kalimba as far as 'ethnic'; and drumkits, acoustic bass and strings far as 'conventional'. What do you suggest? I've heard E-mu planet earth & was v impressed, but am also considering motu Ethno, halion player & IK sampletank . Do any of these outdo XG for my needs, or would they not be much of an improvement? Thanks in advance.

Welcome!

I used to use an XG for a while. I think you'll find most soft-ROMplers a step up these days.

I'd suggest a software sampler, such as Native Instruments' Kontakt, which comes with a large library, but will also allow you to load other samples (including Akai CDs) if nothing in your library suits you - a 'sampler' is a more flexible option than a synth with a fixed soundset.

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An Eagle for an Emperor, A Kestrel for a Knave.

Hi Quietstorm,
I’m afraid I can’t compare the XG with anything...but I bought Vir2s World Impact: Global Percussion for those “ethnic” sounds. It uses NI’s Kontakt and I’m loving It. There are some good audio examples on the Vir2 site. There’s also a deal going on at the IK Multimedia site for six sound libraries for the price of one which include some acoustic multi samples. As you’ve mentioned SampleTank I’m sure you’ve seen them. I don’t think the percussion sounds are as good as Vir2s Global Percussion but still very useable and for €39.99 it’s an easy way to check out some of the expansion options for SampleTank... and you get SampleTank 2.5 XT for free.

With regards to Sampletank the's a rather good group buy going on right now. Currently sits at Sampletank + 6 libary extensions for around $49.99.

More on it in the readers offers section.

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ScanProAudio & 3XS Audio Systems
ScanProAudio Blog

Thanks The Elf

If I was to go with something like Kontakt, are there any sample cd's/dvd's in particular you would recommend for my 'ethnic'/acoustic needs? The amount of them available is daunting and I'm concerned about quality. I've read good things about quantum leaps Ra and stormdrum. Are you familiar with these? By the way, I compose from scratch and am not interested in prefabricated loops.

Quote Quietstorm:

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My most used sounds are hand drums & percussion, balafon, fiddle & kalimba as far as 'ethnic'; and drumkits, acoustic bass and strings far as 'conventional'.

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Tonehammer have a Kalimba kit which costs $29, and the clips online sound excellent. You'd need the full version of Kontakt to use that kit, and with Kontakt there are some ethnic instruments there as well, including balafon, fiddle and kalimba.

Motu Ethno comes with a 21gb library of sounds which is a considerable which suggests it may have a lot of options!

All of the instruments banks have been sampled, I imagine very, very carefully and would be an excellent means to capture the sounds of such instruments. If there is a suitable shop eg Digital Village, I would recommend demoing some to find out which ones suit your ears in particular.

Here is the link for the Tonehammer Kalimbas
http://www.tonehammer.com/?p=1204

Tonehammer btw, make some of the best samples out there. I have a few of their instruments and consider them to be outstanding.

Gosh! Thanks guys, all of you! This thread suddenly livened up. Will check out all of the above. Cheers

I don't use loops much either. I also do much of my own sampling with my collection of drums and percussion, so I don't use many library disks either.

But Kontakt has a HUGE library that I don't doubt will contain most of what you need. For anything else I'd consult the likes of sample specialists, such as Hollowsun or Zukan through these very forums.

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An Eagle for an Emperor, A Kestrel for a Knave.

Elf, thanks for your last post, will check them out, and much love to mydrumming, pete kaine & caveman82.

Nice stuff here http://www.soniccouture.com/en/

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http://anotherfineday.bandcamp.com/ http://anotherfineday.co.uk http://apollomusic.co.uk

Hey tomafd, thats interesting, just saw soniccoutures mentioned on the tonehammer link caveman82 posted

Something else which may or may not be of interest is that a lot of 'Ethnic' instruments have tuning conventions which sit outside the Piano tuning, for example in Arabic music half semi tones are a very common occurence.

Kontakt I know for certain is able to address the 1/4 tones (is that the right term) with their Scripts structure. I think the Motu Ethno instrument addresses the same issue in their same own way.

As for Soniccouture, they produce some of the finest Kontakt goodies around (with tonehammer). The Bowed Piano is phenomenal, and the Balinese Gamelan from the demos sound excellent too. I am unsure what your DAW of choice is, if it is Ableton then you are able to buy the Soniccouture instrument packs for Ableton.
http://www.ableton.com/shop/categories/partner_products?tag=exotic

There is a demo version of sorts of Kontakt, and I would highly recommend giving it go if possible http://www.native-instruments.com/#/en/products/producer/kontakt-player/]h ttp://www.native-instruments.com/#/en/products/producer/kontakt-player/

If you do choose to purchase Kontakt, it's street price is only a little less than Komplete, which is the multipack of synths and effects from it's maker Native Instruments. I personally think it's too good a deal to miss, as in Komplete in addition to Kontakt there are some excellent synths in addition to Reaktor, which is a modular synth/fx studio thing. http://www.dv247.com/computer-music-software/native-instruments-komplete-6 --67107

Thanks again caveman. Just so happens that Ableton is my daw of choice, am in the midst of mastering Live 7 which I've had for a while.Soniccouture stuff is very interesting, will definitely audition. Seems like kontakt is the way to go. As things stand I'm being swayed toward quantum leap Ra and maybe the tonehammer kalimba- am I going blind is the th kalimba really only $29??!!

Ethno World 4 has some great sounds.

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jan09/articles/ethnoworld4.htm

Those Tonehammer guys have some seriously good ethnic libraries in their collection at surprisingly low prices

SonicCouture likewise, while for more traditional instruments you might to like at the Cinematique range.

All available in Konntakt format.


Martin

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YewTreeMagic

I had a planet earth and it sonded superb. It's available as a library for Emu soft synths/samplers:

http://www.emu.com/products/product.asp?category=526&subcategory=527&a mp;product=11330

Not used it myself but it claims to contain all the samples from the planet earth......

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Jonny

Quote Quietstorm:

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Thanks again caveman. Just so happens that Ableton is my daw of choice, am in the midst of mastering Live 7 which I've had for a while.Soniccouture stuff is very interesting, will definitely audition. Seems like kontakt is the way to go. As things stand I'm being swayed toward quantum leap Ra and maybe the tonehammer kalimba- am I going blind is the th kalimba really only $29??!!

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There is a possibility that the Ableton Live packs may only be supported by Ableton 8.1.0+, so if you are happy with Ableton V7, then maybe go for the Kontakt route...

Quote fatbenelton:

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I had a planet earth and it sonded superb. It's available as a library for Emu soft synths/samplers:

http://www.emu.com/products/product.asp?category=526&subcategory=527&produ ct=11330

Not used it myself but it claims to contain all the samples from the planet earth......

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Emu’s Planet Earth sample library is indeed good Jonny - it’s just a shame that the Emu soft samplers take so much CPU with all their excellent features


Martin

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YewTreeMagic

Hmm - not tried them but I understand cakewalk's instrument (Dimension Pro?) can ingest the proteus 'sound packs' including the planet earth. Might be more efficient CPU wise....

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Jonny

I'm not much into ethnic/acoustic sounds myself, but Logic Studio's Sculpture certainly is capable of such sounds. However, if you're working on Windows, Logic is not an option...

Logic studio Standard instruments

I will vouch for how hard the EMU soft synths hit computer resources. I have the Proteus VSTi. And the Proteus World sounds are definitely worth auditioning. But there is an alternative... buy an old, second hand, Emu sampler or Proteus World. The ESI series samplers go VERY cheap, my brother got one for £30 and it was loaded with the full Proteus 2000 sound banks. And The Proteus modules aren't a lot more either.

OK, they aren't soft synths. But they still sound good and they don't eat CPU resources or RAM.

And I can definitely recommend the Korg Virtual Vintage VSTi's. They are very efficient on CPU, sound fantastic, and are an absolute joy to use. The analogue version with the MS20, MonoPoly and Polysix would always come in useful and have some interesting ethnic style sounds. But the digital version would be ideal for your purposes. The M1 model has all of the M1 and T1 factory sounds and factory expansion cards, and you get a Wavestation that is everything the original hardware should have been.

Andy

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When the going gets weird, the Weird turn Pro.

If you want the Proteus sounds Digital Sound Factory package them for Kontakt or Dimension Pro.

http://www.digitalsoundfactory.com/e-mu-proteus/e-mu-planet-earth-cakewalk -dimension/product_info.php/cPath/69/products_id/268

I don't think anyone has already mentioned this but I think its one of the classiest in its class.

Native Instruments North India Discovery Series library for Kore.



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SoundCloud

There is an interesting looking Appalachian Mountain Dulcimer from Indiginus.

http://indiginus.com/

If their stuff is as good as the demo track it's worth checking out.

Quote Glyn Barnes:

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There is an interesting looking Appalachian Mountain Dulcimer from Indiginus.

http://indiginus.com/

If their stuff is as good as the demo track it's worth checking out.

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Oh Glyn, Thanx for the link. I simply loved it. And going to own it soon. For its nominal price, its a neat plug.

I recommend this to all who have taste for ethnic sounds.

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SoundCloud

Indignus do have some bargains in their product range

Well recorded too!


Martin

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YewTreeMagic