VE Pro, MIR Pro and Logic Pro

[Martinz]

Once upon a time I was a Cubase guy. I can really see how flexible and great VE Pro must be with Cubase.

A few years ago I switched to Logic Pro, which is great in many ways. But when I use VSL I never use the Vienna Ensemble. I really dislike the "multi-timbral" function in Logic! …and then there are track limits… and Logic cannot use several CPU cores on one instrument (at least last time I checked). Just too many things that stops my work flow. 

That's why I only use one Vienna Instruments Pro and an Altiverb 6 instance per track/instrument as standard. Very flexible and CPU effective.

I may be pretty interested in MIR Pro, but first I need to know how it will work in Logic. Do I have to use the VE Pro with "multi-timbral" tracks in Logic, or can I use it like Altiverb 6 (without burning my CPU)? Or will there be a function in VI Pro to send audio to MIR Pro (as standalone) and back to VI Pro?

Maybe I should switch back to Cubase…

[Dietz]

Thanks for your interest in MIR Pro, Martinz!

You will be able (or should I say: You will have to! ;-) ...) use MIR Pro like a stand-alone application, but it will be integrated in Logic nontheless. Using the VE Pro 5 Server Interface, you will open an instrument inside Logic that does nothing than connecting the DAW with VE Pro (and MIR Pro) audio- and MIDI-wise.

But you might also use MIR Pro completely seperated from the DAW, much like Vienna MIR users do it right now: You will connect VE Pro / MIR Pro (in stand-alone mode) using virtual MIDI connections and audio loop-back supplied by the drivers of your audio card (or simply a digital connection from the outputs to the input of your audio interface).

BTW - you won't use MIR like Altiverb anyway, as the underlying concepts are very different. Altiverb adheres to the conventional "reverb box" concept, based on the scheme of AUX-sends coming from a (virtual) mixing console. MIR _is_ the mixing console. :-)

HTH,

[Martinz]

Thanks for your reply, Dietz!

I still don't get if I will have to use the multi-trimbral function in Logic or not. Will VE Pro Server Interface "detect" my VI Pro instance in a Logic channel strip?

Will there be a video tutorial for Logic and Cubase? Would love to see the difference :)

Allright, so I do get that VE Pro/MIR Pro will be the mixing console, with the ability to add 3:rd part plugins and so on. That seems great! It's just a pity that Logics multi-timbral function sucks. I switched to Logic most because I believed it would be most stable with the same developer for hardware, system os and music program. I had Cubase SX2 which had many bugs. Logic is great in many ways, but for VE there are many workarounds that have to be made.

I may consider to go back to Cubase… seems like a lot have changed and I miss many functions like multi instrument midi/audio tracks and the ability to have more than one MIDI CC automation visible.

//Felix

[mpower88]

Why would you want multi timbral with MIR Pro anyway? Just load it as a standard stereo, or 5.1 if using 5.1  The instance that gets loaded is merely a bridge to facilitate audio and midi routing to and from the VE Pro / MIR Pro instance. All you would do is create a midi track whose output goes to the VEP instance you want (which generates the audio and sends that audio down the bridge to the stereo / 5.1 return). All mixing - EQ, (and of course) reverb (since why would you buy MIR just to route it back to your host and add altiverb!) volume and panning (placement) of individual instruments is done inside VEP / MIR.

Current version of Cubase 64bit on a mac (6.0.4) with OS 10.6.8 works like a charm with VEP (both 64bit and 32bit simultaneously), VIP & Suite (up to 10 instances of VEP in Cubase, each running up to 20 individual VIP instances, each with at least one eq) (at low latency of course they won't run all at once, you have to freeze / unload some instances of VEP but the layout is there in Cubase). I rarely use the multi timbral mode in Cubase anyway - all the mixing is done in VEP, keeps it neat and tidy, low CPU inside Cubase. The greatest thing about Cubase is that you can freeze an instrument and check the "unload from memory" box - then you can go ahead and save the VEP instance, and unload it from VEP - freeing up memory and CPU, and all you have in Cubase is a simple stereo pair. OTOH, if you wanted to retain flexibility, you could load everything multi-timbral, and freeze preserving individual tracks - and still check the unload instrument box, but be able to add eq and mix levels inside Cubase without loading the instance back into memory to work inside VEP. For most people with limited RAM and resources this is a God-send. I can't believe Logic forces you to preserve the instance in memory - arcane!!!