Looks amazing, especially for the price; $69 bucks for 300 banks worth of ethnic instruments? Computer Music (or was it Music Technology?) did a brief review of it and raved about the sound quality, but I trust the opinions of people in here more.

So, anyone tried it yet?

I purchased etnosphere about 3 days ago so I have not really had too musch time to mess around with. But what I will say is if you are looking for some qaulity instrument with an ethnic flavour then you will struggle to find better at the price. So far I am impressed with guitar patches and the tuned percussion (always like a quality glock or vibra). Anyway, for the price and don't think you will be disapointed.

I've had it for a while and I haven't really used it too much. I wrote up a detailed review and sent it to them, but they never responded. There are some glitches in some of the samples. Actually, I think I'll post that review here right now...

I added a general review. I also have a very detailed list of instruments and my review of them. Would anyone be interested in me posting those?

pough, I would definitely be interested in your instrument reviews. I am on the fence at the moment, so any input would be appreciated. Thanks...

Same here. The MP3's sound sweet, but I really wish there was a demo. I don't blame them though, since someone would immediately crack it. Please post your review.
Thanks.
-doudei

I have it and it is pretty good.

The MP3s a mainly made from the included loops, which are noe syncable

I like it much better then Swar synth, but am not finding either that usable.

World winds, Dan Dean, and Trilogy have layouts that are really musical and I wish the Ethnosphere had followed that path

Then again, for the price it is sweet

Okay, here are my notes... I'll do a post for each section. Keep in mind this is NOT a professional review. Others' opinions may differ greatly and certain "issues" may be more of an issue with me than with the instrument.

BTW, when I say "samples jump" what I mean is that it's very obvious that one sample is switching to a different sample from one note to the next. Some people might not mind this, and it might not be an isue in practise, but to me it sounds jarring.

STRINGS

Broad Buzouki
Samples jump E2/F2 and G#2/A2

Mellow Buzouki
Samples jump G2/G#2 and B2/C3 (minor) and F3/F#3 (major)

Koto
Whoa. C2,C#2,D2 are correct and then B3+ are correct - everything is off by at least a semitone

Shamisen
E3-A3 are very different from all the rest

Oud
F#1-G#1 sound quite a bit different from the rest of the samples

Pedal Steel
All good

Santur 1
All good

Santur 2
Mostly good - a little bit awkward from E4 to F4

Rich Mandolion
Buzz on samples from A3 to C4. Awkward transition from G#2 to A#2

Soft Mandolin
A2 to A#2 is awkward

Brz Str Mandolin
Fine

Banjo
Very good!

PLUCKED

Plucked Dulcimer
A2 to A#2 awkward, otherwise quite good

Rpt Dulcimer
C#3 to D3 changes a little too much

Soft Dulcimer
Some slight transitions

Hard Dulcimer
okay

Ethnic Harp
Excellent

Celtic Harp
Excellent

Dark Harp
Samples on G2 to C3 sound different

Bowed Psaltry
Other than me reading it as "Bowed Pastry" (my fonts are too small!) it's okay

Picked Psaltry
Has some slight off sounds that actually add character

Zither
A few bad transitions, notably B1 to C2 and F#2 to G2 (whoa)

Saz 1-7
All fine except for E3 to F3 on Saz 7

AC GUITARS

Big Spanish Guitar
Good

Lite Spanish Guitar
Okay, not perfect transitions but nice sound

Portuguese Gtr 1
Good

Portuguese Gtr 1
Not bad

Flamenco Guitar
Pretty good

Clean Ac Gtr
F#2 to G2 is a bad transition G#3 to A3 as well. G2 to G#3 sound duller than the rest

Dark Ac Gtr
C3 to C4 you can hear the harmonics building (and jumping in the case of F#3 to G3)

12 Strings Guitar
A number of slightly awkward transitions, but not terrible and not surprising considering the instrument

Steel Guitar
Okay

Guitar Chords
Not so good. Seems kinda random.

WIND

Bagpipe
Samples sound quite different from A3 to A#3, othewise not bad for bagpipes

Bagpipe Chan
Same transition point, but not as bad

Quena
Very good. The Blackadder theme song sounded fantastic with this one!

Shanai
I have no idea what this is, but it doesn't sound like the most useful instrument. The transitions are fine, though.

Shakuachi 1
It's hard to say. I think that this might be just a single sample. It sounds decent though and I doubt that it would be used for more than one or two notes anyways. This is fine for that, but not good for anything more.

Shakuachi 2
Same as above.

Pan Flute Hard
Not bad. D2 and below has a lot more percussive blowing sound than the higher notes. This gets more pronounced as the notes descend, because it seems to be the same sample. Simple solution? Don't play that low. The trouble with so many instruments is that they really have a limited range that's valid.

Pan Flute Slow
Same as above, but as you go lower, the notes seem to disappear - the low volume lead-in lasts longer!

Digeridoos
Pretty cool. Sounds like a digeridoo.

Ney Flute
Notes from A#3 and up either have a goofy loop point or else they're just very different from all the lower notes. The note gets sounded twice. Notes from F2 to about B2 have a very slow attack, which is different from the surrounding notes.

Greek Flute
Many of the lower notes seem to have a bit of silence that needs to be trimmed. If you play notes fast, they don't make a sound! Again this sounds like just one sample. It has some vibrato in it eventually, so if you hold down two notes that are far apart, they will get to the vibrato parts at different times.

Bass Recorder
A#2 and B2 are the wrong notes. Close, but not quite there.

Tenor Recorder
Good.

Alto Recorder
Good.

Soprano Rec
Sounds pretty good.

Okarina
.

S. Recorder MC
Sounds fine.

C-Recorder
Sounds fine.

C-Recorder Trill
A few different trills. If you hold it down for a little bit, eventually it changes into some kind of stereo effect. I don't know why, or if it's on purpose, but it does.

C-Rec Tongue
A bit of a tongue effect. The sounds change up a bit, but this would be used sparingly anyways. Hard to judge.

Hi Dyn C-Rec
Multiple samples per note, with higher velocities sounding more like a recorder that is being blown into rather harshly. It sounds pretty good, but it seems to be pitched an octave or so higher than the other recorders.

Renaissance
Not too bad, but it suffers from the same thing that many of the other instruments suffer from: the lower notes have a terribly slow attack.

Bilka Flute
It plays three notes in succession. Which three notes changes, though. Sometimes it's I II III and sometimes I III IV and other times it's minor. Is this a loop or an instrument?

Flat Alphorn
D#3 to E3 is a bit of a jump in terms of sound. There's another, less apparent transition lower down, too. Other than that I kinda like this one. It sounds a bit like very muted trumpets.

Mod Alphorn
Similar to above, but a bit softer. I like it. There are a couple of slightly rough transitions, but no so bad.

Blues Harmonica
This is a harmonica?

Jaaah
A group of people saying, "jaaah." Handy for those times when you need such a thing.

ORCHESTRALS

Oriental Orch. 1
I have no problems with this patch.

Oriental Orch. 2
Pretty good. Similar to 1 but with slower attack and darker tone.

Oriental Orch. 3
Can't tell the difference between this and 2

Oriental Orch. 4
Has some punchy attack the the previous two didn't have.

Cairo
This one sounds really cool, but is just a single sample spread across the keyboard.

Voice Mod 1
Someone warbling the vowels, but the sample is centred on C4 instead of C3. It is a cool sound, though.

Voice Mod 2
Ends rather suddenly

Crickets
I think it's a single cricket sample mapped across the keyboard. Sounds good enough, though. Orchestral? Umm...

Birds
Sounds real anough to freak out my pet parrot! Once again a single sample, but I find it interesting how C1 ends up sounding like other birds and even monkeys.

Sea 1
Has a rough loop point.

Sea 2
A seagull cry slowed down is an amazing thing. Too bad about that loop point, though. Must be really hard to loop the sound of the ocean...

ACCORDIONS

French Musette 1
Nice! Bit of a rough spot between C3 and C#3, but not such a big deal.

French Musette 2
Similar rough spot (C#4-D4) but otherwise a nice patch

Clean Bandoneon
Lovely!

Austrian Acrdn
Suddenly I was listening to those language-learning tapes with the "ethnic" music in the backrounds of the narrations again! "The first thing to realize about learning a language is that it's easier than you think..."

Bavarian Acrdn
F#3 to G3 is a big jump. There is a buzzing sound in every note lower than G3 so that's what makes the difference. Very nice sounding accordion otherwise.

Acrdn Phrases
Some fun phrases. It would be nice to have them outside this interface, though...

TUNED PERC.

Vibraphone
Nice sounding instrument

Xylophone
Not bad at all

Marimba
Good

Glocken Spiel
Fine

Calimbe
Good

Stell Drum 1 (sic)
Cool!

Stell Drum 2 (still sic)
I don't like these so much, but that's more a taste issue, I'm guessing.

Energy Chimes 1
Good
Energy Chimes 2
Good
...5
Funky stereo effect...
...6
Higher notes (C#4+) have a funny little beep at the end of the sample!
...8
This one has a slower attack and a loop, but the loop has a terrible glitch in it
...9
Same with this one
...10
And this one
...

TD Percussion 1
Kinda like church bells
TD Percussion 2...
I have no idea what it is, but I like it!
...15
Is the stereo effect in this one backwards or is it me?
...16 + 17
awful sounds!
...18-20
Cool!

Tone Cup 1
Glitchy loop
...2
Glitchy loop, but I like the extra hammer rattle
...3
Love it!
...4,5
Glitchy loop
...6
Cool!
...7,8
Glitchy loop
...9
Cool!
...10
Slow attack... cool
...11
Slow attack with hammer rattle. Good.
...12
Fine
...13
Same as 12? but with hammer rattle
...14,15
Good
...16,17
Stereo!

Okay, I'm done. I hope this helps people out some. Otherwise, I guess I can just use it as extra posts for my post count!

WOW! Thanks pough! That definitely helped me out. Sounds like it has some quality issues, but the pipes and plucked instruments sound good and they are mostly what I was excited about anyway. Looks like I am plunking down the smackers...

That´s a very interesting and detailed review, thank you very much pough.