I'm not sure what you mean by "individual microphone capsules". Are we really talking about the Main and Secondary Microphones in MIR, or the so-called MIR Icon that's used to represent a signal source on a stage ...? :-/

MIR Pro's output will always depend on the chosen Output Format. This can be set up in the Output Format Editor window. It is the combined result of the (virtual) Main and Secondary Microphone capsules and the Matrix settings used to distribute them amongst the actual "physical" outputs. So as soon as you would assign _one_ capsule to _one_ output channel in the Matrix, you could make seperate tracks for them.

If you need a 5.1 (or 7.1 or Quadro) output format from MIR Pro, simply instantiate your first MIR Pro plug-in in that format. In some hosts like Cubase and Nuendo the respective track would have to be in that format already, in other hosts like ProTools and Logic you are free to change the number of the plug-in's output channel by selecting the desired plug-in format. I can't tell you which approach Reaper adheres to, sorry to say so.

In any case - the "force output channels" preference isn't a tool for daily work, but a purely technical option to circumvent restrictions imposed by certain DAWs.

HTH,

I am (I think) talking about Output Format. The only Output Format I ever have been able to achieve is basic 2-channel -- Left and Right. I've spent some hours reading docs and trying to get a more complex Output Format, but without success, so I had assumed that feature is available only through VE Pro (which I don't have).

But now, after learning of "Force output channels", I'm hoping it is actually possible for me to get an Output Format more complex than stereo.

@Another User said:

In any case - the "force output channels" preference isn't a tool for daily work, but a purely technical option to circumvent restrictions imposed by certain DAWs.

I don't want to use it for daily work. I just want to use it as a technical option to circumvent restrictions imposed by certain DAWs. I'll wait for it to be documented.

I think I understand what you're after now. :-)

All you need is to take a closer look at the "Matrix" tab of the Output Fromat Editor. Here you can assign any capsule to any output with different levels and polarity. IOW: You can create five capsules and assign them to the two stereo outputs, for example.

... as a matter of fact, that's how you do it for all setups that use a Secondary Microphone. The same is true for all Main Mic-presets that use more than two capsules, e.g. the Triple-8-arrays.

HTH,

PS: The Matrix is shown on p. 24 of MIR Pro's Manual. Just be aware that you have to type-in values - you can't just click'n'drag like you would expect in case of other parameter entry fields of MIR Pro.

@Another User said:

Here you can assign any capsule to any output with different levels and polarity. IOW: You can create five capsules and assign them to the two stereo outputs, for example.

But if I want to create five capsules and assign them to three outputs? If I want to create five capsules and assign them to five outputs?

Reaper is ready to receive any number of outputs MIR decides to send it. The hard part is getting MIR to send the number of outputs I want it to send. The "Matrix" tab doesn't allow me to set the number of outputs -- the Matrix tab tells me it's sending two outputs ("OutputL" and "OutputR") and that's the end of it.

Now I've resorted to experimenting with the undocumented "Force output channels" setting, and as a result, MIR no longer opens in my DAW. This is just going downhill, so I'll give up and use a different product for room-simulation.

PS: I've just seen that you edited the bottom line of your message. Sorry that I bothered you with more information.

@Another User said:

Wait a minute - in your previous message you wrote that you work in stereo only, but now you want to open three or five outputs ...? I can't follow your train of thoughts. 8-/

I didn't say I work only in stereo; I said I produce for stereo:

"I'm producing for stereo, not surround".

What comes out of my DAW is stereo. That is different from what comes into my DAW.

Imagine someone using a real mid/side microphone. The microphone outputs one mid-channel, and one side-channel. That enters the DAW as one mid-channel and one side-channel. But that is not what the final listeners hears, because it's not what eventually comes out of the DAW. In the DAW, you mix the mid/side channels with your faders, and then you transform the mid/side system into a Left/Right system, and then you render that Left/Right system to a WAV file, and when the person at the end listens to your music, he doesn't hear Mid coming out of one speaker and Side coming out of the other speaker. He hears Left/Right stereo, because you used your DAW correctly to process the information from the mid/side microphone.

This is but one of many examples how a DAW can output something different from what enters it.

Or imagine a person recording a real Decca tree. The center capsule comes into the DAW on one track, and L/R capsules come into the DAW on 1 or 2 different tracks. Maybe outriggers come in on 4th and 5th tracks. But you can use this to make a stereo CD, because in your DAW you can mix the inputs down to L/R stereo.

And people have been mixing classical music like that since the 50's. It is a very normal thing, to bring lots of inputs input in a DAW or mixing console, then mix them down to stereo, and then output a final stereo product.

You should download Example 1, too, to see exactly what you trying to teach me.

@Dietz said:

You should download Example 1, too, to see exactly what you trying to teach me.

I downloaded it, and but it's the opposite of what I'm talking about. It shows 2 channels going into the DAW, while I'm writing a long thread about more than 2 channels going into the DAW.

I guess you are having some fun here, telling me everything except how to get MIR to send more than 2 channels to my DAW. I'll leave you to that; goodbye.

Actually it's showing 5 microphone capsules going into 2 channels, which is something you are trying to achieve, aren't you?

... but I won't bother you again with information, sorry. 

@tek0010 said:

[...] I guess you are having some fun here, [...]

Errrrrr .... do you really believe that I sat down a quarter past midnight to create two screenshots especially for you - just to make _fun_ of you ...? 

@Dietz said:

Actually it's showing 5 microphone capsules going into 2 channels, which is something you are trying to achieve, aren't you?

It's showing 5 microphone I cannot mix dynamically with automation in my DAW; so it's not what I'm trying to achieve. It's what I've known all along how to do.

If that's how I wanted to keep doing it, I wouldn't be asking about "Force output channels" now.

When I talk about mixing capsules in my DAW, I don't mean mixing capsules in MIR. MIR is not my DAW. MIR is one thing, and my DAW is a different thing. Not equivalent.

Right now, in my DAW, I have the center capsule on one fader, and I have the side capsules on another fader. This is not MIR though, it is something else; because someone else answered my question.

And what I'm doing in my DAW---mixing the balance between center capsule and side capsules---is not revolutionary. It's a very basic thing people have been doing since the 1950's.

*sigh*

Yes, you said that before. It's done since the 1950ies, I do it since the 1980ies, and MIR Pro does it since 2011. 

For some reason I don't understand you don't want to see any of the solutions I offered you in this thread already (and in many others before), so I rest my case.

Have a great day.

@Dietz said:

*sigh*

Yes, you said that before. It's done since the 1950ies, I do it since the 1980ies, and MIR Pro does it since 2011. 

For some reason I don't understand you don't want to see any of the solutions I offered you in this thread already (and in many others before), so I rest my case.

Have a great day.

The "solutions" you offer are:

1) Output 2 channels to my DAW, which isn't really a solution.

2) Output 5 channels to my DAW, but you don't tell me how to do it. You don't know about Reaper, and the most you're willing to say about "Force output channels" is, you didn't mean it for daily use, just for special cases. As if that's a "solution"?

Here is what a real solution sounds like, not in English or German. Just a VSL flute starts off with no center capsule, then the center capsule fades in, and then the center capsule fades back out:

[url]https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5ZYXb_HdIQhXzdQLVVPa3NsNGc[/url]

Not MIR, because you don't say how to do it in MIR.

I "don't say" ... :-D ... ok, it seems as I wrote two pages for you exclusively, without saying anything.

Please understand that it's not my job to explain users the handling of their DAWs. So let's start from the opposite end, once again: How would _you_ set up a surround session in Reaper? 

If you would do so, you could use _any_ downmixing device (i.e.: multi-channel to stereo) of your choice for the dynamic mixture of up to eight individual MIR Pro output channels. Is this really so hard to understand? ... must be a language thing.

@Another User said:

Please understand that it's not my job to explain users the handling of their DAWs.

Okay; and you please understand that my job is to use whichever tool does the task best for my clients, and when MIR isn't that tool, that means less revenue for VSL, and that means they have less resources to pay you for your job.

Whose job is it to document "Force output channels"?