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  • Percussion Patches - Wet

    Are the wet percussion samples intended for someone who does not have MIR? I have MIR Pro, and I"m trying to figure out if the wet sample bring any advantage over placing the dry samples on my MIR stage.


    W 10 i5-9600K 64 GB Synch - Woods, Brass, Perc I, Str Pro, Elt Str, Dua Str & Sordino, Prime Studio - Woods, Perc, Solo Str, Ch Str, Orch Str, App Str, Harps, Choir St Dim - Brass, Strings VE Pro, MIR Pro 3D, Vienna Suite Pro Cubase 14, St One 6, Dorico 5
  • The pre-processed percussion instruments were indeed an meant to be used as "ready-mades", back in the days when MIR was still science fiction. :-) I used lots of sought-after analoge equipment during their production. MIR Pro / MIRx will give you different colours, therefore.

    Kind regards,


    /Dietz - Vienna Symphonic Library
  • Thanks, Dietz.


    W 10 i5-9600K 64 GB Synch - Woods, Brass, Perc I, Str Pro, Elt Str, Dua Str & Sordino, Prime Studio - Woods, Perc, Solo Str, Ch Str, Orch Str, App Str, Harps, Choir St Dim - Brass, Strings VE Pro, MIR Pro 3D, Vienna Suite Pro Cubase 14, St One 6, Dorico 5
  • Dietz, 

    I remember those days of MIR science fiction!  Now we are living in the future.  It is very futuristic, I must say.

    I regularly use the "processed percussion dry" timpani.  The reason is, there seem to be EQ tweaks at velocity layers that are indispensable, especially in the louder dynamics. Was that part of what you were working on back in the days of Sci-Fi?  The loud "processed" timpani  become very rude and savage in ff, which is essential.  Though I have not A/B'd them with the basic non-processed timpani recently.


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    Glad to hear that you like it! I really tried to capture the "good" distortion from the analogue gear and tape saturation (... simulated tape, though, to avoid unwanted noise).

    The reverb you get for these processed samples is derived from impulse responses we caputured during the early development stage of legacy Vienna MIR. They were applied "by hand", one by one, because a fully functional MIR engine didn't exist yet, back then. 8-P

    ... the Vienna Instruments' Library Manual for percussion instruments covers all of this on p.11: 

    @Another User said:

    80 Processed Percussion 

    The processed percussions are a mixdown-ready set of selected samples from the Vienna Symphonic Library. Our goal was to achieve authentic acoustic depth and imaging from these instruments – as if they were recorded while being played in the back of the stage in a world-class orchestral hall, carefully treated by experienced engineers.

    World class analog and digital equipment was used throughout: Dynamic processors from API, Manley, Urei, SPL and SSL, equalizers and filters from Massenburg, Avalon, Tube-Tec and Calrec, routed and mixed through the large-scale Neve VR console at Tonstudio Hafner near Vienna. The digital audio workstation which handled the complex routing was Steinberg's Nuendo 3, equipped with RME digital cards and Lake People AD/DA converters, Algorithmix equalizers and others, as well as additional custom designed software for impulse response processing.

    The virtual stage on which you now can put these pre-processed instruments is the sought-after Great Hall of the Vienna Konzerthaus. The microphone is placed in a position which is supposed to be one of the ideal listening positions in this auditory – a seat in the 7th row, approximately. The positioning cues for each instrument plus the resulting reverb are derived from selected impulse responses from the Vienna Symphonic Library's "MIR" project. [...]

    Although pre-processed, these instruments still offer a considerable amount of artistic freedom: The relation between the direct ("dry") signal and the resulting reflections and reverb may be chosen with a turn of the modulation wheel. However, you should be aware that "full wet" means the absence of any direct signal, something that is not very likely to happen in nature. Nevertheless, in this way you will be able to bring an instrument closer to the listener if your arrangement asks for it.

    Also, you’ll still be able to choose the side on which an instrument is seated: just swap the sides of the left and right channels within your mixing application. Although not true to nature anymore, the result will be convincing and mix perfectly with the other pre-processed percussion instruments. 


    /Dietz - Vienna Symphonic Library
  • Wow, that is interesting.  That particular timpani set is the only one I have used that gets that near-grunge level of sound at the top of the dynamics.