Some technical aspects of Ethno2

Some months ago I promised a report on Ethno2 when I would receive it, here it is.
I am not a synth specialist and my elements of comparison are very small, so I will limit this report to my first experiences and impressions, if they can be useful to potential candidates of the AEH microtonal demos competition.

Microtonal implementation : selection among the original tunings is very easy, and can be done either through the geographic menu or through the scale systems menu ; bringing the cursor on the tuning name pops up its Scala description.
Scala compatibility works perfectly, by drag and drop of Scala files in the TUNING MENU, in the main window itself. I tried with Scala files written in cents or in ratios and both operate instantaneously, even while playing (you may need the help of a third person though, if you want to play with both hands !).
Owners of LMSO may check on Carlo Serafini's blog or ask him about other ways he found to retune Ethno2.
At the moment the user tunings procedure, that will let you store and access to all your personal tunings, does no work - this bug has been fixed but I have not been precised when the update will be available.
Loading scl files adapts automatically the keyboard mapping to corresponding sets of 5 to 12 tones, plus also 24 tones). Other options would need to copy Scala kbm files in the "UserMapping" folder to have them appear in the "User mappings" menu, but it does not seem to work either at present.
The master tuning is proposed with 1 cent precision over a comfortable range of 4 octaves.
One regret : pitch bend range adjustment only offers gross values, by semitones... while an additional fine tuning, at least by cents like the master tuning, would have made it much more useful - so, watch out and use your ears when you bent...
Plug-in mode works wonderfully, and allows several instances of Ethno instruments to play together.
Recording in audio form can also be done simultaneously by sending instrument (MIDI) tracks to mixing tracks.

The sounds are not as many as I expected, but are of a good quality.
Lots of nice drums, percussions, balafons, senzas, jaw harps, gongs, strings of all kinds, flutes, bagpipes, accordeons, etc.,
but many common intruments are missing like : clarinet (only present in loops), trumpets, horns, ocarinas, gimbri, hurdy-gurdy, dan-bau, cheng, duduk, zummara, tielenka, fujara, etc...
Ocarina was one of my requests for tuning tests, the other was a sawteeth type of sound, but it did not happened to be included.
I am quite deceived by the voices, presented as authentic, but quite far I think from being representative of the areas they refer to.
And the main problem, to my taste, is the way many of the sounds are sampled, with modulations that make their use problematic,
while there is no way to import external samples or to make yours (MOTU answers : if you need a sampler get MachFive - but I'm not certain that MachFive has microtonal issues, may be it will).
At least all samples seem very much in tune together, and there are still enough good ones to make lots of music.
Polyphony, retrigging and portamento are adjustable in several ways.
Programmable key-switch options allow to change sounds and settings while playing.
Time-stretching of loops and phrases seems to be of perfect quality.
The interface is simple and gives access to all functions and effects from a single window.

In conclusion, if certainly a powerful world music toy (I pass on all the facilities it proposes at that level), Ethno2 is also much more, and my impression is that with the help of its creative tuning and plug-in functions, it should be a fun and efficient tool for microtonal music. Good if kids can hear some now... So come on you music makers, let's do it !

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Jacques

On Wed Apr 14, 2010 Torsten Anders wrote :

> I understood that the instrument is sample-based, that that it
> offers controllers like key-switches to select certain expressions,
> and that the flexibility in selecting and layering samples is even
> greater in the Expert Mode. The website also mentions continuous MIDI
> controllers, but there are no further details. Could you please list
> the parameters that can be continuously controlled by MIDI controllers
> (i.e. beyond switching/layering samples). I assume there is amplitude,
> pitch bend, some filter settings, but what other parameters are
> available in this regard?
>
> Thank you!
>
> Best wishes,
> Torsten

The manual mentions "as a few examples" of continuous control and automation : volume, global tuning range (from 420 hz to 460 hz), reverb settings, pan, expression, mute, solo, rate and depth for tremolo and vibrato, attack. It mentions also in alternative a "MIDI modulation" function that changes values of parameters without changing the preset original setting itself ; examples given are volume, pan, filter cutoff, loop speed, sample start, crossfades between two parts.
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Jacques