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  4. Question to understand requirements of MIR

  • Question to understand requirements of MIR

    A
    A

    Hallo,

    I'm curious about MIR- the requirements are steep indeed, and the learning curve just to have the right hardware is... STEEP. A few questions:

    2) If I have a multi-computer configuration, will MIR run on slave or host? And what effect will it have on the number of VI instances I can run?

    3) I have 2008 4-core Mac Pro, 2.66 GHz, 32 GB of RAM... and a new 8-core Mac Pro (Nehalem), 2.66 GHz, 32 GB of RAM. Both machines are running Vista-64. Which computer should I use as VI slave?

    4) Will I be able to access ALL of my RAM on the slave machine? I'm hoping to run as many VI's as possible (of course).

    5) I'm concerned that MIR requires its own audio interface. My setup only requires one audio interface at the moment, and all audio runs back to my sequencer where I mix everything. Is it possible to elaborate on how MIR would be implemented in a two computer setup?
  • cmC
    VSL Team
    cmC

    1) it is not so much a question of high-end, but more of proper openGL support (zoom-in / zoom-out, other activities in the GUI rely on it) - most directX9 cards also have good openGL support, but with directX10 you're on the safe side (and the GUI will need less CPU) .... almost every PCIe video card is (eg. ATI 1950)

     

    2) MIR is an application, so it can either run on the host or on the slave (needs just MIDI) - the intended setup is, that you don't need any additional VI/VE when running MIR, though you can if you like .... note: MIR outputs final audio mix stereo or 5.1 or 7.1 or ...

    how many *instances of VI* (= instruments on the stage) you can run will depend on the performance of the used computer ...

     

    3) you can use both as VI slave - however we strongly recommend to use the nehalem for MIR (nehalem = i7 or XEON 55xx), older processors might work up to a certain number of instruments on stage but are in fact out of the specs ...

     

    4) yes ... the operating system will need ~1GB, the impulses can take up to 4GB, everything else (physical memory) can be used by MIR instruments.

    note: 32 GB RAM on a MAC PRO nehalem means 8 x 4 GB means according to the triple memory bus design the upmost 8 GB can only be accessed as single channel memory and therefore might be accessible too slow in certain cases .... a serious mis-design of the current nehalem MacPros unfortunately (but don't worry too much - 19 GB RAM for sample headers should be sufficient for almost every arrangement ...)

     

    5) yes, MIR requires a somehow modern ASIO capable audio interface - you could route audio back to your *recording host* via ADAT though.

    please note: MIR is designed as integrated multi-impulse response reverbiation & mixing engine, it is not a *reverb* in the classical sense, mixing is already done within MIR by placing and tuning the instruments on the *stage*

     

    hth, christian

    and remember: only a CRAY can run an endless loop in just three seconds.
  • A
    A

    Thanks so much for the detailed response, Christian. The questions never end [^o)] Hope you could withstand a few more questions...

    1) To beat the DirectX question into the ground... So running DirectX 9 is possible, just not recommended. I don't think I have the hardware for DirectX 10, nor do I want to pay for a video card that supports it.

    2) When you say "MIR is an Application", I wonder if you can clarify for me- Does it run from within Vienna Ensemble? Does it run as a standalone application? If standalone, how does it interface with everything else?

    3) It's great that I could run MIR from either my slave or host computer. Which is recommended? Have you found one to be beneficial over the other?

    4) It's too bad about the Mac Pro's (Nehalem) design flaw, limiting my RAM usage to 24GB... I believe my older Mac Pro runs DDR2 667MHz RAM. Would I see a huge performance drop if I used the older Mac Pro for VI? And, could I load more instruments with the older Mac Pro (32 GB of DDR2 667 RAM) than I could with the newer one (32 GB of DDR3 1066 RAM), given the design flaw of the Nehalem machine.

    5) I hope, at some point, to hear an A/B comparison between a "with MIR" mix and "without MIR". It'd be REALLY cool if you could show us how MIR compares to a more traditional sort of reverb as well, such as Altiverb.
  • A
    A

    --BUMP-- Christian, pls check out these last questions! thx,

    Alex
  • cmC
    VSL Team
    cmC

    1) it really depends on your specific model - eg. we have some ATI fireMV cards here (directX9 only, but working good, even the PCI model), but you can get directX10 cards for 50 bucks ...

    2) mir is a stand-alone application, expects to receive MIDI and outputs audio

    3) the host running on the same computer will need some CPU - if you have a slower CPU it will be better to run MIR on a seperate computer of course.

    4) neither DDR2 nor the older XEONS (5400 or below, 2 MB cache per processor, less calculation units) will allow much more than 20 - 25 instruments on stage ... simply not powerful enough.

    5) you could do it by yourself getting the demo license and experimenting with a few instruments

    hth, christian

    and remember: only a CRAY can run an endless loop in just three seconds.
  • DietzD
    VSL Team
    DietzD
    Alex, if you want to get a better idea of the way MIR "thinks", you can also download its (still preliminary) manual from the User Area:

    -> [URL]http://vsl.co.at/en/68/428/709/239.htm[/URL].

    HTH,
    /Dietz - Vienna Symphonic Library
  • U
    U

     Hi.  I've got a Mac Pro 8 Core w/ 32G RAM running Vista 64.  I would like to run MIR on this machine and use the internal RealTek optical digital output.  However, when I try to set MIR up it isn't seeing any Audio Devices.  Do I need to purchase a dedicated sound card or a piece of software that will make this optical port visible in Vista 64?

    I look forward to your reply.  Thanks.

    Michael
  • DietzD
    VSL Team
    DietzD
    Welcome Michael,

    MIR isn't seeing your soundcard because it relies on professional ASIO-driver structures. But before you buy some professional audio hardware, you should try to install the generic freeware ASIO-driver called ASIO4all. Chances are that the built-in soundcard will work like an ASIO card then; maybe the latencies you will be able to achieve won't be as small as with dedictated ASIO hardware, but at least this driver should get you running. :-)

    HTH,
    /Dietz - Vienna Symphonic Library