Wow, I dindn't expect this question so early.
To be honest, we didn't think a lot about this issue.

I don't think that "MIR" could be completely free, but our PRO and later SYMPHONIC Cube users will of course have a major price benefit.

best wishes
Herb

In anticipation of Giga 3.0, the Giga systems Truespec is building now are a P4 2.4GHz with an 800FSB using the new DDR 400 RAM memory. Please consider for your development that the majority of Giga users are still on PIIIs.

Nick,

First, at Truespec, we don't do cheap motherboard/cpu combos. Our stuff is mission critical and so we build systems with the best parts with the highest reliability. So wwhat a motherboard costs at Fry's is a meaningless discussion for us.

Second, you cannot "just" swap out the motherboard on a P3 and make it a P4. Everything has changed, from the motherboard to the processor to the RAM, and the kind of RAM depending on the motherboard/cpu selected, and now, even the kind of RAM. The BIOS has changed, and the IRQ concept under XP has changed some from 98SE. So the bottom line, is that to upgrade, the customer can keep his case and maybe his power supply. And depending on how old the system is he's upgrading, he may even have to buy brand new hard drives.

Third, maybe you and a few others who are more technically driven like building systems, but most don't, especially those writing and producing full time, like our customers. . So if you're going to create an R&D marketing plan for a totally new product, you had better decide TODAY how backwards compatible it's going to be. There are pros in LA making money with Gigastudio on PIIs.

Fourth, did you see the AMD study results I posted at Northern Sounds? The study clearly found that people WORLDWIDE were HOLDING BACK on technology purchases because of language issues. It was too complicated and not simply stated enough so they could understand it enough to make a purchase.

If people are holding back because of language/comprehension issues, do you think they're going to suddenly run out to Fry's and update their computer by themselves?

Even with synths, the number 1 concern is that the customer will spend too much time learning the equipment and not making music. This is a universal concern.

Now we have MIR coming. Here are three features as listed in the release:

a. Highly specialized impulses in up to seven direction, horizontally and vertically

b. several hundred user applicable impulse-responses for each room, according to instrument and position

c. intuitive graphic Interface

Read these three sentences in light of the fact that most people use the presets on a reverb unit because they don't understand how to program reverb, nor have they spent the hundreds of hours required over time to develop an ear for programming reverb.

In Synthland, we now we have physical modeling. Let's see, that means we have FM, analog, additive synthesis, and physical modeling.

Are you getting it yet? Technology has gone WAY beyond the purchasers, and they're not buying the way they could be if things were simpler.

Just because someone owns GS doesn't mean they're a computer maven or geekhead who loves to build systems. And yet, the first person to be "attacked" by the Mavens are those who don't want to build their own system. On Northern Sounds, one of our esteemed colleagues said that a person who wasn't willing to build their own computer was lazy!

Well! Let's really beat down potential customers! So not only are they lazy (in the Opinion of the Mavens) but according to 99% of all retail music stores, they're also MIDI Idiots!

Read the subscriber stats for EM. Male, 25-54, working professionals, buying VSL to fulfill their music creation desires, limited free time. If they have Giga on an older machine, you expect them to run down to Fry's and start upgrading because it's so cheap? You want they should take away from their music and run to a 2000 page Windows book when they'd be better off putting their nose into a Ravel score?

FIfth, when I make such suggestions it's certainly not to help me sell more computer systems, because I can't make and sell a PIII-600!

Is it possible to build a new system using windows 2000, and obtain a motherboard that will hold four gigs of RAM?

Cut to the chase, King, and just call everyone a MIDI Idiot since they're not like you, because that's the attitude that keeps people out of this market regardless of who they get their computers from.

i got the asus p4c800 running w2k and 400 dual ddr - i'll upgrade
to XP and max out the ram at 4 gigs and enable hypertreading
when 3.0 arrives. BTW also there are super micro xeon boards that run up to 12 gigs!! i hope 3.o allows us to go RAM crazy. right now i can only get 7- to 12 perfromance instruments with a gig.

mh

Hi all,

Dietz mentioned the use of some dedicated hardware. Could the TC Powercore be a potential host for the MIR engine or, perhaps an option in the same way that TC have a native VST version of their surround reverb and a version for the powercore. This would allow the 'native' version to do lower quality 'preview' + high quality off-line rendering, but powercore allow full quality realtime use.

The study said they were reluctant to buy, not because they COULDN'T learn it, but because the language is intimidating and they DIDN'T want to put their time into learning that aspect of technology. People want a need-to-know approach so they can focus their time on MUSIC, not the box, not physical modeling, not 2000 page Windows books, not programmiing, but making MUSIC.

for me it sounds unreasonable wasting breath on PIIs, although i've also still two running, but if one of them will fail someday, it probably would be more expensive to buy a new one instead a new system - similar thing with PIII imho, not to mention EDO-RAMs (they cost you a fortune ourdays).
remember not so many years ago a unit as big as a desk full of electronic was needed for a simple color-correction, ourdays it's done in software or by more or less sophisticated PCI-cards. the hard- and software showed up significant improvements over the years.
every 18 months the number of transistors per square-mm doubles, so does the speed of processors. when the cycletime of a PIII went from 500 to 1000 MHz this has been significant, but you don't need to think about it considering the step from 2 GHz to 4 as we notice now.
you simply can't run specific tasks on outdated hardware, independent how good it worked and still works for other jobs. next year we will discuss 5 and more GHz, multiple processors on a chip and the fairly long neglected crossbar-design - so imho thinking too much on backward-compatibility is honourable, but a handicap for groundbreaking new technologies.
just my two bits, christian

Will it only work with VSL? How about other libraries that were also recorded in stereo and not panned to position?


MIR will work with all samples which don't have too much ambience.
Of course we will optimize the setups for our sounds.
It's a great advantage to "tell" the hall engine how the samples are recorded to get best results. So we won't miss this option.

But as Dietz mentioned, there will be an interface which allows to adjust the parameters.

The important thing for me is, that our customers will get an intuitive and a perfect out of the box sounding solution for VSL sounds:

Composing
selecting your favourite concert hall,
place your instruments in this hall,
select the output format (mono - stereo - surround)
Press the "Do it" button.

Done.

best wishes
Herb