[NAMM] MOTU Ethno Instrument 2

The Version 2 upgrade more than doubles the size of Ethno’s included sound library of instruments, loops and phrases, the company says. New features have also been added, including preset searching, microtonal scales, time stretching, and more.

New sounds abound in Version 2 from Asia, Africa, Europe, the Balkans, the British Isles, Latin America, Australia, and other locations around the globe. Featured sounds include taiko drums, large African drums, thirty new instruments from India, hundreds of urban India loops (in they style of Slumdog Millionaire), Balkanish voices, Arabic voices, Persian voices, a  new collection of gongs and bells, extended cymbalum, and more.

Other Version 2 feature highlights include:

• Enhanced effects processing — includes new modeled analog EQ, CPU-optimized convolution reverb and eight new analog modeled filters (rez, comb, analog and more).

• Keyswitch presets — dozens of new, richly-layered keyswitch (KS) presets in all categories for ultra-expressive performance.

• Version 1 compatibility — Ethno 2's new sound library is compatible with Version 1, so music programmed with Version 1 presets can be loaded and played with Version 2.

• Latest-generation UVI Engine — provides state-of-the-art virtual instrument performance, 64-bit native operation and robust compatibility with the latest Mac OS X and Windows operating systems, plus the latest DAW hosts.

Pricing & Availability
Ethno Instrument Version 2 will ship in Q1 of 2010. Price is $395. An upgrade path will be offered for Ethno Version 1 users.