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  • Mir and Vienna Ensemble

    I just got Mir Pro and Vienna Ensemble. Currently I am using only one computer. Mir seems to work fine without Vienna Ensemble. I inserted a separate instance of Mir in each track's audio output.

    Is there any advantage to using Mir Pro with Vienna Ensemble as opposed to using Mir Pro without Vienna Ensemble on a single computer?

    Win 7 (64 bit)
    16 GB ram
    Dual Xeon
    Sonar X1

  • There's some pros and cons for each setup.

    The most relevants for me are...

    Mir inside VEP:

    -MIR can recognize wich instrument is loaded inside VIP and apply the related instrument profile, instrument name and natural volume. (VSL instruments exclusively);

    -Simple way to save a complete instruments and positioning  setup.

    but

    -Can't use multiple VEP instance (and multiple computer) without running multiple MIR venue instances.

    -If you need to automate MIR you'll have to create an automation setup in VEP.

    Mir as plugin:

    -More easy to input audio material inside MIR. With VEP you need the audio input plugin wich add some latency. MIR Plugin is as simple as any audio plugin.

    -Better for multiple instances or multiple computers setup as long as you use the VEP multi-outs. And you dont need to use VEP anyway.

    -Can save presets or track presets the way it works in you favorite DAW.

    -Direct acces to automation parameter with MIR Plugin.

    -Depending on your DAW, it may be easier to work with single instruments (VIP) than with Multi-instruments (VEP). i.e freezing or bouncing a single track.

    -I don't see any cons so far...Maybe the CPU usage is better in VEP but can't confirm this.


  • Thanks for the elaborate answer, Fred!

    Some other points to consider (or to detail Fred's explanations, respectively):

    - Used in VE Pro, MIR Pro can automatically guess the proper Instrument Profiles for any Vienna Instrument (even all selected ones). MIR Pro plug-in lacks this option as it has no means to communicate with an instrument directly.

    - Within VE Pro, you can open the GUI of any virtual instrument (not just Vienna Instruments!) by double-clicking the MIR Icon on a Venue's stage - something that's not possible with the plug-in version of MIR Pro for obvious reasons.

    - Furthermore, VE Pro's framework allows for saving and loading of any kind of existing data, be it single channels, so-called Channel Sets, or even the (partial or complete) merging of projects (a.k.a. VI Frames).

    - With MIR Pro plug-in, you can't easily open a different Venue side-by-side to an already opened one (... which is against a puristic way of working with MIR Pro anyway, but you never know ... ;-) ...). In case of VE Pro, you can simply open a second instance and load a different Venue (or maybe the same Venue with just a different Main Microphone setup chosen).

    - With VE Pro, it is quite easy to change an existing project's channel format (e.g. from Stereo to 5.1 surround). This can be quite challenging in case of MIR Pro plug-in, beacuse its first instance determins the setup for the whole active project within your DAW.

    - Finally, it's advisable to use MIR Pro plug-in version when you plan for using lots of audio inputs (opposed to virtual instruments hosted by VE Pro). Modern DAWs have sophisticated ways of data handling which can sometimes get in the way of VE Pro's Audio Input plug-in. You will probably see better performance in that case with MIR Pro used in your host directly.

    Kind regards,


    /Dietz - Vienna Symphonic Library
  • Thank you both for responding.

    I'm just getting started and have lots of questions. I need to read the manual(s) thoroughly before I ask any more questions.