16 months later....

http://soniccontrol.tv/2012/03/29/spat-your-new-best-buddy-for-mixing/

I read your review a few days ago, Peter. Interesting read, thanks. Beautiful piece of software with some surprisingly familiar features and approaches.

If I understand you correctly, you have no first-hand experience with MIR Pro, have you? I'm asking because you pointed out the plain positioning options of Spat ("Reverb Off") - which is more or less what MIR offers in Dry Solo mode, or with the reverb length of a Venue reduced to something like 0.2 or 0.3 seconds. Add some algorithmic reverb of your choice, and your're right there (... after all, MIRacle is part of the deal).

... chances area that you could have two New Best Buddies for mixing now. ;-)

Best,

Dietz, the real difference to me is that with MIR the more dry signal you use, the closer the instrument feels, whereas this is not the case with SPAT. One can have a pretty dry signal that still has depth. This is not the same with MIR. BTW this is also the big flaw with multi mic set-ups. There are cases where mix engineers use the "bring it closer" aspect as a feature, but it is a drawback in many cases.

DG

Daryl, that's exactly why I wrote "[...] or with the reverb length of a Venue reduced to something like 0.2 or 0.3 seconds". In this case you can leave the Wet/Dry-ratio at any value you want.

Best,

@Dietz said:

Daryl, that's exactly why I wrote "[...] or with the reverb length of a Venue reduced to something like 0.2 or 0.3 seconds". In this case you can leave the Wet/Dry-ratio at any value you want.

Best,

Yes, this is useful for some instruments, but not for others. I find that the Oboe in particular, can be a problem instrument (as it is is in the real world!) and SPAT works very well to tame it, whereas I find it doesn't work so well in MIR.

DG

(Why did I know in advance that I wouldn't have the last word on that ... ;-)  ...)

@Dietz said:

I read your review a few days ago, Peter. Interesting read, thanks. Beautiful piece of software with some surprisingly familiar features and approaches.

If I understand you correctly, you have no first-hand experience with MIR Pro, have you? I'm asking because you pointed out the plain positioning options of Spat ("Reverb Off") - which is more or less what MIR offers in Dry Solo mode, or with the reverb length of a Venue reduced to something like 0.2 or 0.3 seconds. Add some algorithmic reverb of your choice, and your're right there (... after all, MIRacle is part of the deal).

... chances area that you could have two New Best Buddies for mixing now. 😉

Best,

Correct, I have no experience yet with MIR. I'm working my way through the Vienna Suite and FORTI/SERTI for reviews first. Then I'd like to come back and review MIR Pro. Did you see the indepth reviews we did on Power Pan?

http://soniccontrol.tv/2011/03/08/vienna-suite-power-pan-strings-positions-a-professional-orchestration-review/

http://soniccontrol.tv/2011/08/25/vienna-suite-power-pan-woodwind-positions/

http://soniccontrol.tv/2011/11/30/vienna-suite-powerpan-percussion-placement/

http://soniccontrol.tv/2011/03/19/vienna-suite-power-pan-brass-positions-a-professional-orchestrationtm-review/

@Antoncct said:

Hi everybody ! In the web I found many audio demos of MIR for orchestra but no demos of SPAT. I would like to listen some orchestral pieces made with VSL and SPAT . Someone can tell me where can I find these demos ? Thkx !

You can always d/l the demo and make them yourself. [;)]

DG

Hi Antonnct -

Here's a mockup I did that uses SPAT with many VSL samples (and others). It's not a great piece of music - far from it! - but fun to do - don't take it too seriously.

http://soundcloud.com/grahamhadfield/crazy-ambush

I should say - it's not just VSL samples I've used - I'll use whatever I can get my hands on and I think has the right sound for the situation, and blend them. No purism here. No shame even! :-) From memory, there is some Dimension Brass, woodwinds high and low, orchestral strings (harsh samples), and percussion in there which is definitely VSL. Also using VEPro, VIPro and Vienna Suite, so I think it's ok to share on a VSL forum(?!).

I'm absolutely not going for concert performance authenticity in the mix. This filmic music is an "unreal" mix in an "unreal" space as in my view (and this is subjective) I find music that is clearly in a "real" space often doesn't stick so well to the film and sort of lives in another space to the drama. Just my view. So I prefer to use algorithmic reverbs rather than convolution reverbs for this film stuff. Maybe this is why I have not investigated MIR yet. My impression of MIR is that it is for placing music in "real" spaces first and foremost (though of convolution IR doesn't _have_ to be a real space of course). My impression of SPAT is that it is a glorified panner that does left-right, (up and down ostensibly), distance from the listener, and left-right divergence (spread), without necessarily colouring the sound in a particular space as the reverb is independent of these glorified panning controls. To that point, thinking about it, I have not used any convolution reverb in this mix - only algorithmic - if that's relevant(?). Also - I will work the mix to bring instruments to the foreground and then push them back as needed (primarily just with levels) - which is certainly not concert authentic - unless you get the musicians to move around while playing!

Hope that's of some vague interest. Some might say that SPAT is unnecessary - you could use levels, pan, divergence, eq, reverb send levels, and maybe delays to achieve the same thing. Well, yes maybe - but I don't think I have the time or the skill to use levels, pan, divergence, eq, reverb send levels and maybe delays to achieve the same thing.

By the way - SPAT is only available as a 32 bit plugin right now. They are working on 64 bit. Their marketing blurb is (or was) a bit misleading in that it said it functions in 64 bit - but this is the internal bit depth for its audio processing, not the target platform of the plugin.

Cheers,

Graham

www.grahamhadfield.com

Here in America we have a saying, 'Turnabout is fair play'. My contention is that MIR works wonderfully not only for VSL samples but for other libraries. And MIR is a great tool for Pop genre music. 

Here's a short little something in the TV/Pop context that show a different usage of MIR. The strings have some VSL but are other libraries too. (Note that in this example the strings are meant to be more strident, pop sounding and less orchestral - but that doesn't have to be case generally, it just worked for this piece.) There is some Bricasti plate on the snare and VSL Hybrid Reverb on the bass. 

I have SPAT also (not used here). Currently I find SPAT useful for spatialization and localization of an instrument. I haven't developed any keen appreciation for its reverb. The reverb just seems so tacked-on to the end of the spatialization process. With MIR the reverberant qualities are inherent in the room environment that you choose. There are so many differing creative possibilities with MIR in comparison to SPAT.

What I do like about SPAT is that it's a simple plugin that can be instantiated within my host sequencer. That's handy, because right now MIR is only on my Slave machine and sometimes I have to think twice how I can get any sample that's only on my Master machine bussed over through the Audio Input structure to the proper place on my Slave.  But if what I've heard is true that MIR might also become available in the plugin format, then that will be a logical purchase here. 

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/40008580/Avec%20Les%20Drums3-1.wav

This link will be up for a few days only. 

.