:D

MIR.

Is.

NOT!

Just.

Another.

Reverb.

Ozone? I mean, I'm comparing this to a TC6000, or a 960L. Ozone? 

I have been critical of the sound of convolution reverb, which I still respectfully (very respectfully) think MIR does suffer from at the end of the day, but it does what it promises, it's *realism*. Caveat to that sentence: Just put another reverb on the tail - VSL's hybrid reverb, or one of the above or their stereo brethren should you be working in stereo like me - and voila. You really do have the best of both worlds.

The time saver in MIR, is truly a remarkable breakthrough that can't be spoken about enough. There is so much less work, for such a much better result. (now that it's for mac!) (did I say that before?) hehe :-P

Anyway, MIR is a mix engine for any studio even if they don't use VSL, IMO, and it's here to stay.

MIR Pro comes with the special integrated MIRacle plugin, which is a surround capable algorithmic reverb. No need to use the Vienna Suite Hybrid Reverb for sweetening. You can of course, but MIRacle has been designed for the purpose and is included in the package to begin with.

 1+

Most halls will sound different without audience, no doubt - but the most prestigous venues have taken precautions to minimize the effect. The chairs in Vienna Konzerthaus for example are equipped with upholstery on their lower surface, too, so they will act quite absorptive when folded up.

It isn't even an unanimously accepted "rule" that empty halls sound worse for orchestral recordings. See this recent discussion on Gearslutz, for example: - > http://www.gearslutz.com/board/6843340-post37.html

... food for thought ... ;-)

Actually I have more problem with solo instruments recorded in an empty hall (or a studio for that matter), than an orchestra. I know from personal experience that recording a solo instrument in a hall or an ambient studio sounds nothing like recording it when there are swathes of orchestral musicians polluting the air, even if they are not playing....!

This is one reason that to my ears any sample libraries that have been recorded in an ambient settings have real problems with solo instruments.

DG

An impressive result, congratulations! Did you do EQ-ing on instruments? Which venue did you use?

 Thanks Goran and Errikos!   I did no EQ at all.  It is the Vienna Konzerthaus 7th row.  The only mixing work I did was:

1) place the instruments on the stage

2) change the dry/wet controls in MIR to taste

3) adjust the levels a little here and there

I thought I would mention I did some layering of strings, and wonder how that sounds to others.  It is debatable whether you should do it I guess, but I like to experiment.   It is mainly Appassionata, but on violins and violas I layered in slightlly randomized solo and orchestral, and on cellos I layered the solo. 

Wow that was a cool piece of music.  William, you said you did no EQ'ing or anything eh?  That's impressive.  A very emotional and grand finish by the way.

I know I very much love MIR for what it can do.  To me it was worth the money because of the time it has saved me.  An interesting thing that I like to do is sit at my DAW and import a live recording of string symphonies, load up a venue of MIR and then try to achieve that sound (this means sometimes lots of changes of the venue and the string sections I choose since I own them all).  I will tell you that it is scary how many times I have been able to reproduce it so perfectly, that I have to drive the modwheel (velocity crossfade) up to the maximum just to make my Appassionata Strings and Orchestral strings scream at me to know they are there.  They blend so absolutely perfectly with the real recording, that I am baffled how people come on these forums saying the strings don't sound like real strings.  Either my ears are completely gone at this point or those people are truly brain dead and tone deaf.  It is simply a lie to say these strings don't sound real.  The key understanding I have to try to adjust to is that they don't always sound like "live strings", they sound like "recorded strings".  There is a difference.  It takes much more ability than I posses to create that true live sound.  Beat does it magically with Chamber Strings.  I just don't have the understanding yet to do what he does on those (even with MIR).  It's not the application, it's the dummy who's driving it...

I own all the Symphobias (which I use the least of all), LASS and many others and I can tell you that 8-9 out of 10 times, in every case VSL strings were the ones that matched the recordings to a perfection.  Sometimes, when I find a string section that seems to be "brighter" and my Orchestral Strings are not quite bringing out that added brightness, I layer one section of LASS on them and viola, perfection.  I could probably do this with the Vienna Suite I own but I have to be honest that I am completely lost as to why or how to apply the plug-ins.  I am 90% musician, 9% moron, 1% sound engineer.

Thank God for MIR.  Takes the complication out of my templates, but I am still trying to learn how to create a much more dry experience (while removing the blips in between the notes to create that much closer intimate dry sound but still lush and smooth).

Maestro2be

Hi Dietz,

No, this was done with MIR SE, the latest build, no character presets besides  the "pure"  setting except for on the basses, where I used the "bite" setting to get them a more aggressive