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Ethno Trailer

The following QuickTime movie highlights the features in Ethno2. Click the image below to activate and play it.

Download movie (5.4 MB)

Demo Movies

Composed and performed live by Jordan Rudess, keyboardist for Dream Theater
Preset: India Fantasy
Right Click to Download QuickTime movie (10.3 MB)

In all of these videos, Jordan employs Ethno's built-in mixing features to enhance the mix. For example, at the beginning of this video, notice that the percussion instruments sit wide left and right, while the vocal phrase is just to the right of center. As Jordan brings in more instruments, they blend coherently more towards the center of the mix. By the time everything is in full swing, good balance and spread is maintained overall. All of this is achieved using Ethno's built-in pan, volume, EQ and synth engine features. You can also employ multiple separate outputs to further manage Ethno's multiple instruments within the mixing environment of your host software or hardware mixer.

View more videos showcasing the MOTU Ethno Instrument presets.


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Ethno Instrument 2 — Universal world/ethnic instrument


Keyboard KeyBuy Award

"Ethno 2 should be at the top of your list. With a Key Buy award, it's sure at the top of ours."
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Mix Certified Hit

Mix Certified Hit
Winter NAMM 2010
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"Ethno 2 is fantastic by the way, had a little play today, it sounds really vibrant and organic!"
-Rik Simpson
Coldplay Producer

Authentic tuning

Utmost care was taken to capture — in the finest authentic detail — the unique character of each instrument.

Many world instruments have truly unique tonality or tuning — much different than the Western 12-tone chromatic scale. Therefore, many of the Ethno Instrument's presets are provided in two forms: the original ("-o") tuning, which preserves each note of the instrument exactly as it would be played by the musician, and conventional western chromatic tuning, which saves you the pain-staking effort of having to remap or tune each note.

Play the two Sanza preset samples below to hear an example of original ("-o") tuning and conventional tuning. These examples have been made using Digital Performer's MIDI Keys window to play the notes of a C major scale (white keys), so that you can see how the sanza notes are mapped to the keyboard for each tuning:

Original "-o" tuning


Western tuning


Microtuning and non-western scales

Ethno 2's "-o" presets are only the beginning. Ethno 2 provides extensive microtonal scales from all over the world, which can be applied to any instrument preset.

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