I am looking forward to the MIR product, but I have one very important question that I have not seen addressed yet.
Will the MIR convolution library be open (like Emagic Sound Designer, Pristine Space etc) or closed and proprietary (like Sony and Altiverb)?
It is of critical importance to me that I can use convolution libraries supplied with one reverb with the convolution engine from a different reverb. E.g. Today I can load the Sound Designer libraries into Altiverb and IR-1. Unfortunately, I cannot load Altiverb libraries into anything else, so we are phasing out our use of Altiverb. Although Altiverb has a nice library, it has limited features and Audio Ease have been slow to update it. If they had made their library open we would have kept the product as part of our suite, but Audio Ease seem determined to shoot themselves in the foot.
Likewise I will not spend $900 for the Sony DRES777 libraries because they cannot be used on any other platform. In fact, the closed nature of the Sony system was one of the reasons we will drop that over time.
I use a wide range of convolution reverbs in my work and I can't afford to invest in closed libraries such as Altiverb because it limits my choice of platforms and locks me in to one reverb engine.
I know VSL supports open standards for sample libraries such as Giga, EXS24 etc so I am optimistic that MIR will follow the same philosophy. I have utmost respect for the technical skills of VSL but please do not lock us in to just the VSL developed reverb engine but allow us to choose the best possible convolution reverb engine from all the alternatives out there on every platform, and ensure MIR works with them.
If MIR is a closed system, it's very unlikely that I would purchase it, just like I wouldn't purchase Opus 1 if it only came in one sample format and VSL didn't allow us to use it with the sampler engine of our choice.
I'd like to know this so I can either budget for MIR for our mixing rooms later in the year - or look at alternatives if it is going to be a closed system.
Will the MIR convolution library be open (like Emagic Sound Designer, Pristine Space etc) or closed and proprietary (like Sony and Altiverb)?
It is of critical importance to me that I can use convolution libraries supplied with one reverb with the convolution engine from a different reverb. E.g. Today I can load the Sound Designer libraries into Altiverb and IR-1. Unfortunately, I cannot load Altiverb libraries into anything else, so we are phasing out our use of Altiverb. Although Altiverb has a nice library, it has limited features and Audio Ease have been slow to update it. If they had made their library open we would have kept the product as part of our suite, but Audio Ease seem determined to shoot themselves in the foot.
Likewise I will not spend $900 for the Sony DRES777 libraries because they cannot be used on any other platform. In fact, the closed nature of the Sony system was one of the reasons we will drop that over time.
I use a wide range of convolution reverbs in my work and I can't afford to invest in closed libraries such as Altiverb because it limits my choice of platforms and locks me in to one reverb engine.
I know VSL supports open standards for sample libraries such as Giga, EXS24 etc so I am optimistic that MIR will follow the same philosophy. I have utmost respect for the technical skills of VSL but please do not lock us in to just the VSL developed reverb engine but allow us to choose the best possible convolution reverb engine from all the alternatives out there on every platform, and ensure MIR works with them.
If MIR is a closed system, it's very unlikely that I would purchase it, just like I wouldn't purchase Opus 1 if it only came in one sample format and VSL didn't allow us to use it with the sampler engine of our choice.
I'd like to know this so I can either budget for MIR for our mixing rooms later in the year - or look at alternatives if it is going to be a closed system.
