Best Ethnic Liberary?

[Patriarch]

I\'m cosidering getting Rare Instruments since but I find the price a little steap for 3 CD\'s... so I\'m wondering if their are other better/larger Ethnic liberaries... Dont mind if they are are more expensive as long as they are the best... so which is?

I value realism and expressiveness which as far as I can see what Rare Instruments has going for it...

[TLarkin]

You should also check out Ethno World. 5 cd\'s. It really depends on what type of intruments you are specifically looking for as to which library you choose. They all have their strengths. If you\'re looking for more of the ethnic winds, then I would recommend World Winds.

Tim

[dpasdernick]

I too am looking for an Ethno library. I\'ve looked at Rare Instruments and Ethno World 2. EW2 seems to have more instruments. Can any one suggest any other alternatives. I\'m looking for exotic sounds like the dudek (sp?) Thomas J posted here a while back. Nice heavy percussion, and lots of cool articulations for each instrument. (Oh and it has to be $1.50 and be hand delivered by Catherine Zeta-Jones in a toga!)

Darren

[Nick Phoenix]

Right now, I think you have to buy a few different libraries to cover it all, and I guess it will always be the case. Ethno World 2 has alot of good stuff. I would stay away from the first one. Rare Instruments is good, but doesn\'t have many instruments. It has a few gems like duduk, though. World winds is nice, but lacks many articulations. Stormdrum has alot of cool and unusual ethnic drums. Those old northstar ethnic libraries aren\'t bad (Global Instruments 1 and 2), if you can get them really cheap . I like the percussion on Voices of Istanbul, although it needs more velocities. I haven\'t heard Silk Road, but I wasn\'t crazy about the demos, but could be good. There are also some specific libraries with Chinese and Indian sounds, which I don\'t own, but they seemed a little lacking in articulations. Also there are Eric Persing\'s libraries Hoc and HoA which are decent by today\'s standards. And there\'s Culture for really good standard percussion with lots of realism. So i think you have to spend about $4000 and you still won\'t be happy. graemlins/tounge_images/icons/smile.gif

[Patriarch]

k... i\'m primarily not interested in drums since I have Storm Drums.. its more the violins, bagpipes, and other exotic stuff images/icons/smile.gif

[Nick Phoenix]

I would recommend Ethno World 2 and rare Instruments, then.

[rjt]

Where would you get Ethno World 2?

TIA

[Patriarch]

K... just bought Rare Instruments... I guess I\'ll get Ethno World 2 next images/icons/smile.gif

[sri_bubba]

Originally posted by Nick Phoenix:
Right now, I think you have to buy a few different libraries to cover it all, and I guess it will always be the case. Ethno World 2 has alot of good stuff. I would stay away from the first one. Rare Instruments is good, but doesn\'t have many instruments. It has a few gems like duduk, though. World winds is nice, but lacks many articulations. Stormdrum has alot of cool and unusual ethnic drums. Those old northstar ethnic libraries aren\'t bad (Global Instruments 1 and 2), if you can get them really cheap . I like the percussion on Voices of Istanbul, although it needs more velocities. I haven\'t heard Silk Road, but I wasn\'t crazy about the demos, but could be good. There are also some specific libraries with Chinese and Indian sounds, which I don\'t own, but they seemed a little lacking in articulations. Also there are Eric Persing\'s libraries Hoc and HoA which are decent by today\'s standards. And there\'s Culture for really good standard percussion with lots of realism. So i think you have to spend about $4000 and you still won\'t be happy. graemlins/tounge_images/icons/smile.gif <font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">Nick you rolled your own products into an even-handed survey of the ethnic instrument libraries you\'ve either heard or have heard of. That was pretty cool. I really appreciated the way you did that.

BTW I\'ve got RI and the duduk is one of my faves. So are the multiple taiko drums. I \'cheat\' with them sometimes by underscoring the roll \'strike\' on other more Western percussion instruments to add that HUGE bottom end that drives my HR824s right into clipping.

Thanks man,

Jim

[bjean]

Let me add my recommendation for Ethno World 2. I saw a review of it in the March issue of EQ and ordered it the next day. Have rarely been this pleased with a purchase.

The library is well recorded, contains lots of articulations and instruments and the programming is thought out and useful right off the bat. It\'s not the only ethnic library you\'ll need, I agree, but this along with RI covers a lot of bases.

[Briguy]

Hey Nick!, you said to stay away from Ethno world 1, can I ask what you don\'t like about it?. I was considering it but feedback is always nice. Thanks

[Nick Phoenix]

The first ethno world is comprised of a grab bag of stuff mostly or entirely played by one person. It is not very playable and just generally didn\'t inspire me, personally. The second one is completely different.

[Lance_M]

I second the comments on EW1 being a little dated and...well, imo almost somewhat unprofessional.

But Rare rocks... one of my favorites ever. The quality still blows me away despite having owned it for a long, long time. I can\'t comment on EW2, but naturally I\'ve heard good things.

[Briguy]

Well I appreciate the feed back gentlemen.

[Per Lichtman]

So far I\'ve expanded my exotic sound collection with QLRI, VSL Glass and Stones, QL Storm Drum and various soundfont libraries of the net. I\'m thinking about getting an Ethno World library soon. My question is this: Are the instruments on the first library included on the second one? If not, does the uniqueness of the instruments warrant purchasing the library despite the almost unprofessional recording? I know I\'ve already been really spoiled by Nick\'s programming and I had a brief chance to play around with some of the EW 1 Pro Samples so I\'m not expecting a lot of depth or flexibility in instrument control.

[Marcussen]

Got Rare Instruments a few days ago... and i beleive in giving credit where credit is due... its a very good liberary.. first rate programming!

I should be scoring a cartoon pilot where both the far east and european instrumenst will come very handy...

Steap price, but a really good liberary...

Good job

[thesoundsmith]

Don\'t get EthnoWorld2! I\'m using it for my upcoming world fusion CD and don\'t want any competition!!!

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

It\'s got some very playable instruments and usable phrases for a lot of the instruments. I would have liked more articulations, but editing the phrases into short chunks and pitch-shifting can add a lot...

Dasher

[Neole]

Anyone know how\'s Heart of Asia? I like Heart of Africa.

[KingIdiot]

HoA, is a little dated, by todays standards, but the quality is quite nice, and there is still some useful stuff. I still like the sound of the erhu, and like tweaking the licks fo making perormances. I think the RI erhu is better overall tho.

Some of the percussion is nice, and I still like the pipa. I\'d get otehr libs first, but if you\'re still searching for more. its not a bad library at all.

About EW1. Some of the percussion is actually nice. but overall I wasn\'t too happy with it. More velocities were needed, especially for the strings adn woodwinds. I\'ve reprogrammed some, and I\'m going to go back and do more at some point down the road (when its not needed). I think I\'ll be able to do some great stuff with it.