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Hello,
Sorry to ask maybe a very beginner question. I work mainly in stereo. What are the difference between HOA Capsules and HOA DnMx microphones? Can these microphones be used in stereo mixes?
BTW I bought MIR 24 few years ago but end up selling it. I always regretted it so I bought MIR 3D 24 a few weeks ago and I'm happy I did :)
Great to have you back in "MIR land"! ;-)
The most obvious benefit from HOA comes when working in surround or 3D, but even in stereo HOA-based decoding will give you more perceived "openness", "air" and "depth". ... I know that these terms are very subjective, but it are the words that many people (including myself) use to describe the effect. You might also experience less "phasy-ness" in the reverb tails when moving the head while listening to your mix.
Keep in mind that MIR 3D will sound more or less like legacy MIR Pro as long as you stick to the tried-and-tested mic-capsule based, legacy Output Formats. Only the new presets I've created in form of down-mixes from full spherical decoding will give you a valid impression of its sonic possibilities.
The HOA capsule-based presets offer a more conventional approach to MIR's concept, similar to the one introduced with its original 1st order decoding. But due to the fact that the resemblance of virtual higher order "capsules" with actual real-world microphones is not very close anymore this is only possible by "mixing" Ambisonic orders. You will gain better definition for the dry signal, but lose a bit of "openness" in the reverb. (... However, I counter-acted this phenomenon in the spherical decodings by mixing in a bit of 1st-order capsules for the dry signal only.)
Enjoy MIR 3D!
Thank you for that explanation Dietz! That really helps set some basic expectations and understanding of what is newly available and the significance of the types of microphones.
(It might be helpful to have that sort of info in a Microphones 101 learning area on the MIR product page or some knowledgebase page. Though for all I know maybe it already is.)
It is also very welcome to see two new MIR Pro 3D youtube videos today that help guide me around and make me more comfortable with what's going on. (And the steep discount on dearVR makes it interesting to consider!)
Thank you Dietz! I'm trying to get my head around these new possibilities :)
I'm using Logic Pro. I just bought DearVR Monitor (because I've read good reviews about it) and thanks for the great discount!
So if I mix my music inside MIR 3D for example 5.1.4 and monitor it through DearVR can I export it to audio by using only stereo 2ch? So I could have Ambisonics version and stereo version? Will I need some plugin to do that conversion?
So if I mix my music inside MIR 3D for example 5.1.4 and monitor it through DearVR can I export it to audio by using only stereo 2ch? So I could have Ambisonics version and stereo version? Will I need some plugin to do that conversion?
Yes, you can mix in 5.1.4 and export a binaural (i.e. headphones-only!) stereo version of your 3D mix.
And yes, you can also have a raw Ambisonics mix from MIR 3D (up to 3rd Order), but then you will miss out on all the nifty tricks MIR's own decoder has up its sleeves. You will need an external Ambisonics decoder then before the signal gets binauralized.
HTH,
Thanks Dietz!
Sorry I didn't explain my question correctly. What I mean is when I mix my music inside MIR 3D and monitor it through DearVR and I'm happy about that Ambisonics mix (headphones) is there a way to translate that ambisonics mix to conventional stereo to be used with normal speakers (not headphones)?
Or is it better/easier to just change the main microphone inside MIR 3D?
I sometimes have paid projects where I write music and I'm thinking I would like to write/mix in ambisonics, but usually they need the finished music in conventional 2ch stereo.
I think we have some terminological confusion to work out there. :-D
MIR 3D works indeed in 3rd Order Ambisonics. However, you can't _listen_ to Ambisonics itself*) because it's a "meta-format" that is output-agnostic: You have to decide in what format you want to output your mix: stereo, planar surround, or one of the many 3D formats.
These 3D formats, in turn, can either be of the "one channel is for one speaker" variety, or they again require special encoding and playback engines, as they may also contain some metadata that needs to be interpreted correctly. Dolby Atmos is the most prominent example for the latter (due to sheer marketing power, I guess), but this is _not_ what MIR 3D will give you: We stick to the much more comfortable and musically meaningful speaker-related output formats.
Once you have set up the format of your choice (e.g. 5.1.4), you can now "virtualize" these speakers by means of psycho-acoustic trickery that makes your ears believe to hear signals from the back and/or the top: This is what you will need the binauralizer for. Its stereo output can be printed and delivered like every other stereo mix, but you shouldn't play it on speakers. You will need the plain, linear 5.1.4 mix for monitoring without headphones.
*) .. well - of course you _could_ listen to raw Ambisonics, it just doesn't make much sense in terms of positioning and spatialisation. ;-)
HTH,
I think we have some terminological confusion to work out there. 😄
Yes I'm sorry. I think what I mean is that when I mix things in Binaural way so to speak and it sound good in headphones, I then want to export just a normal stereo version to be listened in loudspeakers (without binaural/ambisonics), what should I take into consideration?
Will I just change things inside MIR 3D? Main microphone etc or is there a way to translate that binaural to normal stereo to be listened to loudspeakers? Like the are plugins for mono to stereo conversion etc.
My native language is Finnish but terminology is new and I really have to learn more about binaural and ambisonics 😊
You can either switch to a stereo format directly in MIR 3D. You don't even need to change the actual channel count of the tracks, if you don't want to. Alternatively you can do a downmix from 3D to stereo in your host. Most modern DAWs offer basic built-in tools for the task, but there are many ways to achieve this (... I for one use Vienna Suite Pro's Matrix Mixer pretty often for individually set-up downmixes).
