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  • MIR experiment with viola player

    I tried an experiment recording 8 tracks of a viola player playing the exact same part to see if I could use MIR to distribute the 8 separate parts across the stage, all in different locations, to hopefully avoid or lessen the typical phasing you'd get when trying such a thing. Now, unless something else is going on, or maybe my ears are deceiving me, I hear very little if any phasing (there may be a little, as the player is using the same instrument). Since I'm not using samples and the performances are varied, this is helping, but is MIR also helping here? Seems to be the case, with MIR putting each player in a different physical location on the stage, therefore avoiding phasing. Anyone from VSL that can answer this one?


  •  Hi Gary,

    my personal solution for such tasks, epecially when placing  instruments close together on a stage, is simply to rotate the seating positions of each player icon more extensively to different directions than real players would be placed.

    best

    Herb


  • Thanks Herb, just tried that and it works very well. So I take it that with your reply you are confirming that MIR can be used alleviate these types of phasing issues where no other solutions have really ever been possible. True? 


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    @garylionelli said:

    I tried an experiment recording 8 tracks of a viola player playing the exact same part to see if I could use MIR to distribute the 8 separate parts across the stage, all in different locations, to hopefully avoid or lessen the typical phasing you'd get when trying such a thing. Now, unless something else is going on, or maybe my ears are deceiving me, I hear very little if any phasing (there may be a little, as the player is using the same instrument). Since I'm not using samples and the performances are varied, this is helping, but is MIR also helping here? Seems to be the case, with MIR putting each player in a different physical location on the stage, therefore avoiding phasing. Anyone from VSL that can answer this one?

    Would you consider posting your example so that we can hear the effect that you're getting? I think that it would be interesting.

    DG


  •  That's correct. It of course depends on character of instruments how well this works. I checked this with some sampled instrument doing the hard way. Absolute the same performance and patches on two intruments. For trombones it works very well, french horns are harder to do. Violas I didn't test it so far.

    By the way, using the left right positioning of first and second violins on left and right side on a stage (I think it's a common placement for US orchestras) you can easely perform unsiono lines with same sample sections/articulation without applying any other workarounds. This works even better if you choose different instrument character presets for 1st and 2nd violins, which also helps to mimic different players with different sounding instruments.

    best

    Herb


  • Thanks Herb. I'll continue to experiment more. DG, I could, but would want to get it better first, thx.


  • Herb - one last question please, I think I remember you writing somewhere about creating 2nd violins with Dimension Strings using MIR. Are the techniques you just described the way to go about it, or is that not really possible? Thx.


  • My usual template is using the left/right positions for Violins 1 and 2.

    Dimension Violins are also distributed to Violins 1 and 2, in detail: player 1,3,5,7 to Violins 1, and player 2,4,6,8 to Violins 2.

    Further I have four sections of chamber strings place on the stage. 2 sections for Violins 1 on the left, used when performing divisi passages, here dimension violins 1 and 3 are linked to the first chamber section and dimension violins 5 and 7 to the second section.

    Same procedere with the other two sections of chamber strings and with dimension violins 2,4,6,8 for Violins 2 on the right side.

    The advantage of this template, you can use the same big section for violins 1 and violins 2 (it depends on style of the piece if I use orchestral strings or appassionatas). The dimension violins distributed with different players to the two sections offer differences in character and sound. For example first violins play a phrase, and 2nd violins will repeat exactly the same phrase aftwerwards,  it will sound different soundwise but also a different in playing style because of the other 4 dimension violins on top of it.

    Further dimension violins glue the sound of chamber and orchestral/apassionatas perfectly together. If you switch the first violins from performing in unsiono to divsi, it's a switch from orchestral to chamber strings. As common denominator stay the dimension violins, therefor this switch sounds absolutely believable.

    Working that way, you just have to prepare your template precisely, especially levelling the volumes of all different sections.

    By the way, we are working on big MIR setup templates where exactly these things will be available.  It will take a few more weeks, because I also do a major library updates for all of our instruments, which I want to see in this  "Perfect Template".

    best

    Herb


  • herb... thank you very much for your tips... and... vsl: thank you very much for all your enhancements on our librarys.... grey