New MIR pro manual?

[Sami Boman]

Hi! In the preliminary MIR pro manual there are references to an upcoming final MIR pro manual. Do you have any estimates when could that be released? I'm still a bit confused about many things in MIR pro and I'm hoping that the new manual would reveal all the secrets I haven't been able to understand myself. For example I was wondering the usage of the dry/wet ratio slider of an instrument. First I though the default setting of 0.50 would somehow correspond to a natural live situation, but now I'm beginning to doubt that, because when using, for example, string instruments with that setting the original dry sound is practicaly inaudible. I'm not sure is this the way it would be in real life.

[Dietz]

Hi Sami,

The final MIR Pro manual will be made available after the next major update, which will introduce some long-planned new features like the possibility of a secondary, additional Main Microphone.

The idea behind the Dry / Wet ratio is actually very easy to understand when you think in terms of good old audio engineering ;-) rather than in digital abstractions.

Imagine yourself attending a typical orchestral recording session:  The "wet" component derived from MIR's multi impulse responses can be seen as the signal coming from the main microphone array, like it is used for almost all orchestral recordings. Standing right under this array you would hardly hear any direct signal from most of the instruments - that's why audio engineers started to use so-called "spot microphones" very early. Spot mics are usually set up pretty close to individual instruments or ensembles, because they are not only used for fine-balancing the mix level-wise, but also to add more definition and "grip" to the sound of those instruments.

These spot microphones are represented by the "dry" signal component within MIR. We have one big advantage compared to the "real" recording session: In real life, spot-microphones would have to be delayed one-by-one to match the according direct signals picked up by the main microphone array. The soundwaves will reach it later due to the larger distance, and mixing the undelayed spot mics with the main arryay would lead to blurry phasing artifacts.

Within MIR, we have taken care for that: All remaining direct signal components are already removed from our impulse responses. This means that it is really up to you how much of the direct signal you want to hear. You can take a puristic approach and leave the Dry / Wet-slider at default position, which is roughly what you would hear in reality. Just make sure that "Distance Dependent Scaling" is switched on. But as soon as you get the feeling that you need more "spot mic", just do what every sound engineer would do in that case: Push the fader until you like what you hear! There's no right or wrong, only appropriate or inappropriate solutions.

Finally, the global Dry / Wet Offset fader in the Output panel allows for a quick overall change of this ratio. It affects all Icons on the stage of a MIR Venue.

My favorite bottom line: "If it sounds right, it is right!" ;-)

Hope that helps,