Best Service recently released Ethno World 4 Professional, a Kontakt Player 2 based virtual instrument collection of more than 200 ethnic instruments and 14,000 samples developed by German composer Marcel Barsotti. EastWest, exclusive U.S. distributor of Best Service products, introduced Ethno World 4 Professional at NAMM 2008.

Having composed music for film and television, as well as popular and classical artists, Barsotti brings users professionally recorded sounds that easily fit into their daily projects. With 10 Gigabytes of samples including bowed instruments, stringed instruments, woodwind and brass, key instruments, bell-type instruments, metal-type instruments, world drums, world percussion, gongs and bowls, Ethno World 4 allows composers to integrate sounds from all over the world without having to leave their workstation.

Some samples new to the fourth edition of this collection include: saron, Tibetan bells, saz, kantele, Irish flutes, military cassa, angklung, Egyptian fiddle, erhu, gaohu, scale changer harmonium, bouzouki, santoor, hulusi, dung dkar horns, cajon, balafon, Western fiddle, and monochord. The collection also features the popular Dilruba and Esraj Indian string instruments. For the first time in the Ethno World line, the collection will now offer voice samples of a Mongolian choir, overtone singing, and individual female and male voices.

Ethno World 4 packs the power and variety of larger orchestra collections at an aggressive price point. For example, with the Morin Khuur string ensemble from Mongolia, one can create a whole string arrangement with up to 14 key switches.

Using Ethno World 4 and the Kontakt Elastic Audio Engine "Time Machine 2," composers can transpose all instruments and playing styles into any key. Using this same function, all of the collection's drum and percussion loops can be played in all tempos and each individual loop can be programmed in all parameters. For added customization, Kontakt's Sample Start Offset allows users to select the point when a phrase starts playing. For added authenticity for solo woodwinds, a Legato Modus is now available. With the Humanize Modus each note can be given a slightly altered timbre. This micro-tuning provides the greatest diversity of ethnic tunings and tone scales.

Ethno World 4 Professional retails for €389 / $499.95.