After many years of research and development, the Vienna Symphonic Library team has announced the release of Vienna MIR, the first ever whole-space mixing and reverberation solution based on Multi-Impulse Response convolution. The download product is a stand-alone application for Windows Vista / Windows 7 64-bit systems that runs with Vienna Instruments exclusively in its first incarnation.

Vienna MIR has an MSRP of €795 but if you order it through August 31, 2009, you will receive a free MIR RoomPack as soon as it becomes available. The package will include multi-impulse responses of three ORF sound stages and will be offered as a download product for €295 later in the Fall.

A Whole New Concept
In traditional production, the mixing console is a barrier between the music creator and the music environment. A skilled engineer can combine tracks and add reverb to create sonic results that are somewhere between real and surreal. But that's not the most musical way to work.

Rather than mixing from the outside in, a Vienna MIR project starts with each individual instrument or ensemble, taking into account how sound emanates from its body, in what direction, and in relation to its position in the hall. The MIR Control Icon is a quick and easy way to move and rotate instruments freely on the concert stage, and to change their volume and stereo width – not with two-dimensional faders and pan pots, but within a fluid three-dimensional environment. Vienna MIR combines directional and reflectional information from every instrument, assembling all of the acoustic interactions into an accurate and satisfying recreation of musicians playing their instruments in place and in space.

VSL says that its software developers have taken the concept of convolution reverberation to the absolute authentic extreme. Vienna MIR includes a total of over 11,000 impulse responses from four halls and from the foyer of the famous Vienna Konzerthaus, rendering space as the unifying presence that merges every single instrument into one authentic sound experience.

Features:

• Includes 5 halls of the Vienna Konzerthaus with a total of over 11,000 impulse responses. More acoustic spaces will soon be offered as additional download products.
• Graphic user interface depicting 3D renderings of the selected room (venue maps) with scroll wheel zooming.
• Intuitive multi-parameter Control Icon for quick interaction with instruments and visual feedback – and direct access to the connected Vienna Instrument.
• Microphone Position Offset allowing for movement of virtual microphones in the room.
• GUI options such as Instrument Grouping, Hide Icon, Instrument Focus.
• Room EQ and Master EQ.
• Pre-listening feature before selecting a room.
• Character Presets (such as 'Air', 'Silk', 'Bite', 'Distant', 'Warm') for quick timbral changes, available for most Vienna Instruments.
• Adjustable Room Tone (natural noise floor).

Since the software is a mixing host, it is required that the user's Vienna Instruments Collections as well as Vienna MIR are installed on the very same computer. This demands a lot of CPU power and RAM. Therefore Vienna's developers are providing detailed recommendations on the required system specifications.

For smaller projects, e.g., for users of the Vienna Special Editions:

• PC Intel Quad-Core i7-920 or better, with Vista/Windows 7 64-bit.
• 12 GB RAM.

For larger projects:

• PC Dual Intel Quad Core XEON 5520 or better, with Vista/Windows 7 64-bit.
• 24 GB RAM.

Further system requirements for all setups:

• ViennaKey (Vienna Symphonic Library protection device or other USB eLicenser).
• eLicenser License Control Center 5.4.18.2.
• DirectX 10-capable video card with support for OpenGL 2.1.
• Audio device with ASIO 2.9 compatible drivers for 64-bit systems (needs multi-client-capability if sequencer runs on the same computer).
• 4 GB free disk space for default RoomPack (5 Halls of the Vienna Konzerthaus).

IMPORTANT: Vienna MIR does not support AMD processors and Windows XP64.