some music

[veetguitar]

Hi!

Here is a mix I have done today. It will be used in a hearing book. Since I upgraded to Windows 7 and Mir, I tried to redo this music using the big concert hall. The mix is rather wet for the purpose of my project. Even though it is just my second day with Mir, I am pretty sure that it lives up to what was promised. Not only the panorama is drastically improved compared to Altiverb, also the sound itself is better. Already in the J. Williams Mir demo I noticed that the high frequencies (strings!) are much more shiny.

This all is done without going into the finer points of Mir.  I noticed that it is required to do the processing (fx,eq) before applying the reverb. When you do it afterwards, it is very easy to spoil the imagining. ( I guess that the slightest thing that changes the phase will affect the supersensitive spatial image.)

[URL]http://www.box.net/shared/8x2n1ya8ls[/URL]

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. I am failry new to the game.

[Dietz]

Very nice, especially for a "first attempt after two days"! Congratulations.

If I'm allowed to give you some technical input: I think you can broaden the stereo-width of the strings-sections quite a bit. It is beautiful how easy one can pinpoint them on your virtual stage, but maybe it's already too good to be true. Just take the handles of the Icon's outer ellipse and broaden it.

For some instruments, it also might be advisable to push them to the back a bit not only by chosing a certain position in stage and changing the wet/dry ratio, but also by selecting the "Distant"-Character Preset (provided you have chosen the proper Instrument Profiles when adding it to the orchestra). This could give you an additional sense of depth.

... and don't be afraid to filter both the room and/or the complete mix. To my experience, the results you get from MIR are actually more robust than they seem to be at the first glance. Especially stereo-processing with algorithms like the "Shuffler" from Waves' S1 work perfectly on coincident-sources like MIR is due to the Ambisonic-format it relies on.

HTH,

[veetguitar]

Hallo!

Wow, I really appreciate your detailed feedback and will try those suggestion to improve on what I already have.

I forgot to mention that Mir works much better then what I ecpected with my modest quad core (8gB Ram, no I7, Cubase on same machine) , The graphic card doesnt even meet the specs.   I could get 18 instruments (6,1gB ram for Mir) without glitches.

The only thing that I find annying is that there is no internal midi inbuilt. I tried loopBe but it switches off as soon as there is a bit more midi traffic. And MOL is quite expensive. Hope this will be included in one of the next updates.

[Dietz]

@Another User said:

The only thing that I find annying is that there is no internal midi inbuilt. I tried loopBe but it switches off as soon as there is a bit more midi traffic. And MOL is quite expensive. Hope this will be included in one of the next updates.

What you were seeing is a "feature" of the small, freeware "LoopBe1"-software: It deliberately limits data-throughput to the bandwidth of the original MIDI-specs (around 32kBaud 😛...) . Everything above that mark is treated like an unintentional MIDI-Loop by the software: It simply shuts down the connection.

This "feature" can be switched off with the commercial version LoopBe30, which also offers much more MIDI-ports for less than 20,- US-$. Just get it - it's working fine on my system. - There's a time-limited demo available, too.

HTH,

[veetguitar]

Hallo Dietz!

Even when I cannot use Mir with bigger arrangements in realtime it is more than worth the money. My computer is just 10 months old and the idea to replace is not justified by my current cash flowback.I find mixing down in sections not such a terrible thing. If I wait a little with purchasing a Mir-computer I will safe money on that.

Back to topic:

I remixed the track. The changes are not drastic but very noticeable. Pushing back the brass and the sopranos by applying the "distant" character preset worked nicely.

http://www.box.net/shared/ruileqd2qq

Regarding LoopBe: I tried also the LoopBe 30 demo but got the same "cutting off" messages and then gave up on using it. Maybe I will just give it a second go.

[Dietz]

There is an option in its control panel saing "Enable Shortcut Detection". Make sure that it is un-ticked (i.e. there's no mark in the little white square). At least it solved the problem in my case.

An of course make sure that you _really_don't  establish a MIDI-feedback-loop: The safest way is to set all MIDI-tracks of Cubase to "No Input" after recording.

HTH,

[hbuus]

 Hey veetguitar_273,

I enjoyed listening to both mixes.

It's very interesting to hear what people make with MIR.

Also, I notice you write you can get 18 instruments with your Quad Core.

I have a Quad Core 2,4 GHz myself, and am thinking of getting MIR once I see how it will handle 3rd party VSTi's.

My main library is Sonivox (sorry VSL!), that's why.

Anyway, just wanted to say: nice composition and nice use of MIR.

Very interesting!

Best regards,

Henrik

[veetguitar]

Thanks for your feedback.

I am also waiting for smaller rooms for  other uses than orchestral. Slowly Mir can become a central part of a studio set-up.

[Dietz]

@veetguitar_273 said:

[...] I am also waiting for smaller rooms for  other uses than orchestral. [...]

We are almost done with three venues for the Studio & Soundstage - RoomPack. - Actually we are mostly fighting with one mic-position in one room ("good" is not enough 😉 ...). Keep you fingers crossed, and we will release it in the near future.

[vmusic]

sounds very good. +nice work and nicely orchestrated ;)