Hi, when I load an instrument preset I notice that when I go into the Character EQ section for that instrument it already has some settings as 'Custom' but when I load another preset, e.g. Pure, the 'Custom' setting disappears from the drop-down selection - depending on the group of instruments they have different selections in the drop-down...What does the initial 'Custom' setting represent, and if I want to revert to that at a later stage what is the name of that 'Custom' setting?....Thanks!
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Character EQ 'custom' settings
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It depends. 😊 I think I have to explain this feature from a historical perspective for better understanding.
Vienna MIR original idea was to provide a selection of ideal spaces for (now legacy) Vienna Instruments - exclusively. In these early days between 2009 and 2012, no 3rd-party instruments or plain audio signals could be routed into MIR's audio engine. This clear focus on a defined set of input signals gave me the chance to create specific timbres for each and every Vienna Instrument available. They were part of MIR's so-called Instrument Profiles that were assigned automatically as soon as MIR detected a Vienna Instrument on one of its inputs.
These timbre changes were called "Character" rather than just "Pre EQ" (or something along those lines) because I tried to stay away from surgical corrections. The "broad brushstrokes" were what had in mind, and I tried to offer similar options in all cases, for all instruments - at least five Characters in addition to the unprocessed "Pure" setting. These settings were neither directly visible nor editable in legacy Vienna MIR and MIR Pro, back then.
Here you can see the typical offerings for these Characters (... that's a screenshot from legacy Vienna MIR's manual):
The original settings are still selectable in MIR 3D from the Character's pull-down menu when you assign an Instrument Profile, but nowadays, MIR 3D offers the possibility to change, save and recall your own settings. In addition, there are now literally thousands (!) of hand-crafted, much more specific settings for individual "Roles" of instruments in the context of a chosen position in a selected Venue - the so-called "Vienna Standards" (based on a legacy development called "MIRx") in MIR 3D's Preset Management (F7).
All of these settings will be called "Custom" as soon as they differ from the five or six original, much more general Characters of "old" Vienna MIR. The same is true when you created your own settings, either incidentally or deliberately. Just open the Character EQ's man view by clicking the "e" button and try yourself! 😊
Kind regards,
/Dietz - Vienna Symphonic Library -
You're welcome! 😊 Short answer: Yes.
Slightly longer answer, to avoid misunderstandings: The Instrument Profile is not the same as a "Role". The Profile just tells the Icon "how to behave" regarding Directivity, Natural Volume and the like. It also defines the set of (fixed) Characters I created for this Profile. OTOH, the Role tells the Icon about its specific settings in relation to the chosen Venue (based on the already assigned Profile, of course). An Icon can rely on the same Instrument Profile in many different Venues, but Roles saved in these Venues will be valid only in the same hall they were created in.
To give a silly analogy: Profile says, "You are a red car with four doors and a Diesel engine". Role says, "Hey, red car, you are in Vienna now, please stop in front of Vienna Konzerthaus, open the Windows, but leave the doors closed". Different Role would be: "Hey, I see you are still a red car with four doors, but now you're in London and drive on the left side of the street, with the lights on. Oh, yes, open the Windows like you did in Vienna.". 8-D
(Sidenote: The potentially confusing part is that the Instrument Profile is of course also saved with the Role, but it is meant to serve as a fixed premise and should only be changed if you know exactly what you want to achieve.)
If your Custom Character was one you applied with a Preset Role you loaded (or a Role you created yourself), then this will be indeed the way to go. However, if you want to get back a Custom setting you created yourself, but didn't save before (either as part of the project in your DAW, or as a Role in a MIR Venue Preset), then it might be lost - depending on the possibilities of the host's Undo/Redo-implementation.
HTH!
/Dietz - Vienna Symphonic Library -
Excellent, thanks, all makes sense to me now! What an incredible piece of software. My reverb set-up before I bought MIR was just a send to a reverb fx where I adjusted the panning and send amount depending on the instrument - MIR has been a real game changer for me as it not only creates an incredibly realistic sense of position and space but also tends to my eq duties!
