Geoffrey Taucer Posted February 27, 2007 Share Posted February 27, 2007 I'm thinking about buying an ethnic library, and right now the two main ones I'm looking at are Ethno World and QL RA. How do the two compare? Also, with ethno world, I can't tell if it comes with it's own sampler or if I'd have to buy kontakt/kompakt/whatever to use it; it doesn't seem to specify on that page. Anybody know? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Instrumental Light Posted February 27, 2007 Share Posted February 27, 2007 Kompakt is a software sampler. from the information, it looks like a music system, like Garageband, Fruity Loops etc. its also recomended by the band Linkin Park. it seems that Ethno World is similar to a jam pack, like you need a Garageband or Logic to use it but the jam pack has the library of loops. so yeah, you will probably need the system to use it, if you're lucky, you might be able to use it with A system. for more information go to: www.native-instruments.com, or use google and type in Kompakt, thats where i got the information. As for comparing, i dont have a clue. glad to be of any help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avaris Posted February 27, 2007 Share Posted February 27, 2007 Even it'll cost ya a lil more after listening to the demo's i'd def go for the Quantum Leap RA. Now I really really wanna buy it...hmmm a 2nd job could only hurt me, but it might be worth it. Ethno World 5gb of samples QL RA 14gb of samples. Also I'd read more about the sample players included. FYI Kontakt2 is about 100x times better than Kompakt. Also for Quantum Leap the 'PLAY' sampler engine sounds like a damn good deal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tgfoo Posted February 27, 2007 Share Posted February 27, 2007 Both Ethno World and RA come with a Kompakt player. I don't own either, but from what I've heard of them, Ethno World has a larger selection of instruments than RA, but RA's instruments are more complete (i.e. more articulations, better sample quality, more round robin/repetition parches). So it comes down to the age old argument of quality vs. quantity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zircon Posted February 27, 2007 Share Posted February 27, 2007 Well, Ra does have ~80-90 instruments total, so that's nothing to sneeze at. I think EW3 might be designed to be more immediately playable and mixable, whereas Ra goes for maximum realism and sticks closely to the playing abilities of the instrument. I could be wrong. I do know Ra rules though as I own it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoffrey Taucer Posted February 27, 2007 Author Share Posted February 27, 2007 I can't find a list of instruments for EW3. I'm leaning towards RA, but it does suck that it doesn't have a dulcimer or an accordion. Though perhaps I could get RA and then eventually get Gypsy to compliment it, but that's more $$ I don't currently have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dannthr Posted March 1, 2007 Share Posted March 1, 2007 That and Gypsy is going to be badass I'm working on the sound track for a Medieval Combat HL2 mod and RA has been infinitely useful. There are so many old "folk" oriented instruments from all around europe that has just... made it the most used library next to Gold XP. I prefer Kontakt 2 to what I've read about Play, but I still wait to see how it performs. I'm a bit of a nut and like to program patch changes by hand and really control the performance as close as I can. But I do like CERTAIN scripting like legato scripts or stuff that can add some slurs depending the interval, etc. RA doesn't really have any loops. It has a Hurdy Gurdy set of loops and some wind instrument I think, I basically hate loops. So RA is great for that. However, it has been noted on the Game Audio Forum that RA utilizes some pitch shifting, but I think that's largely due to the fact that several of the instruments are literally limited to what pitches they can actually pull off. Why Kontakt 2? I typically work with more than 40 instruments at a time, so I need something like Kontakt 2 which can load 64 instruments spread across 4 MIDI ports. It can also apply pretty decent effects right into the mix so I can usually mix my RA instruments which have no sample tails and mix them to fit with my SO Gold XP instruments which are recorded in a concert hall. Here's an example: This piece was created within a few weeks of acquiring RA and SO Gold XP, and it is largely improvisational. http://www.dannthr.com/samples/sketches/shakuhachi_sketch.mp3 I used SO Gold XP's Steinway B and RA's Shakuhachi Keyswitch and was able to throw this down from start to finish in like 10 minutes. I recorded the MIDI data for the piano, then the MIDI data for the shakuhachi keyswitch, and then soaked them in Kontakt 2's reverb respectively. While it's not necessarily possible for a shakuhachi player to play that (I forgot to leave breathing room during my improv), it turned out well I think. My experience with RA, like many other sample libraries, is that they're better when disguised or hidden with other instruments, but there are times when you can play them almost naked and RA has plenty of patches that you can do that with. So I recommend RA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djpretzel Posted March 2, 2007 Share Posted March 2, 2007 Either's a good choice. Ra wins on quality, EW3 on quantity/variety, but it's not one-sided in either direction. I'd select Ra. Used it a lot on my Tales of Phantasia mix, FYI. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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