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Merging Technologies returns to AES New York

New owners, new workflow enhancements, same innovation and quality

Puidoux: October 2022 - The New York AES Convention sees Merging combined with new partners, Neumann.Berlin on booth 329 and on our US distributor’s stand 344, both on level 3. Despite a lot of change since the last visit to the Big Apple, the company’s focus has been on improving workflows for immersive audio formats such as Dolby Atmos and forging new partnerships with other manufacturers.

As an integral part of the Merging mixing and mastering solution for Atmos for Music, MERGING+ANUBIS combined with Hapi MKII and Pyramix 14 offers one of the most powerful and flexible solutions available. An extra bonus for Anubis was the addition of SoundID Reference from Sonarworks but hitherto this was only available in stereo. MERGING+ANUBIS is again the first interface and monitoring controller on the market to be able to seamlessly import any multichannel SoundID Reference preset and run it onto any speaker set, making it the perfect solution for Dolby Atmos up to 9.1.6. When building a Dolby Atmos room, special attention is required to get the speakers to align in level, time and frequency response. Thanks to the very powerful and flexible ZMAN core board at the heart of MERGING+ANUBIS, getting to this level of performance required only minimal changes to unleash the necessary DSP power.

Aside from the SoundID Reference multichannel addition, everyone will benefit from this new architecture in the following ways:

• EQ resources have been upgraded from 80 bands to 336 bands, making it easy to calibrate the most challenging Dolby Atmos room.
• Use Anubis as a crossover for a multi way system, making the most out of EQ on “patch outputs”.
• Many more Sonarworks SoundID Reference headphones’ calibration can now be run by Anubis, simultaneously boosting to new heights Anubis's already advanced headphone cue capabilities. Already super-fast, the headphones calibration is now even faster. At 48kHz, the added latency is below 0.35ms while at 192kHz it is below 0.1ms!

In another key enhancement that presages more developments to come, we can proudly announce the release of the first Eventide plug-in for MERGING+ANUBIS. The Eventide Blackhole® offers an enhanced alternative reverb to the supplied reverb program. This plug-in will be available from the Merging Webshop.

The Eventide Blackhole is a classic Eventide reverb effect capable of producing huge spaces and out-of-this-world soundscapes. Most reverbs are earth-bound and constrained by the physics of the real world. The Eventide Blackhole reverb breaks the rules by allowing you to create virtual spaces that could never exist in reality (or at least the one we inhabit). At large sizes, its soft attack and lingering, harmonic tails allow it to really shine on guitars, strings, and ambient pads. At small sizes, those very same qualities can add an angelic sheen to vocals or turn a simple drum track into an otherworldly rhythm section. The Blackhole user interface is designed with an emphasis on control and playability. Specifically, the knobs are easily adjusted with an up-and-down motion of the finger, and all controls produce a smooth change in the audio, allowing you to shape the effect as you desire without any glitches. Included with Blackhole is a set of 18 Anubis Snapshots presets but the program is designed to give you extensive control, allowing you to craft your own signature sounds.

The announcement prior to NAB Las Vegas that Merging was the first third party manufacturer to join the Lawo HOME platform was welcome news for many broadcasters and now there is another significant workflow enhancement to announce. Lawo has implemented Merging’s OASIS open protocol. This allows Merging’s DAW, Pyramix and show controller, Ovation to be directly remote controlled by Lawo’s MC² range of consoles. Faders, pans, EQ and Dynamics and transport functions are amongst the elements that are fully integrated.

On the Lawo console, switching between the Pyramix and Ovation applications is directly implemented, and the dedicated displays follow your choice. Dolby Atmos ADM playback with moving elements, is now a rapidly increasing requirement which perfectly fits the Pyramix and Ovation programs. Once the Dolby Atmos ADM is imported into Pyramix with all its automation, all mixer and/or panner movements will be reproduced on the Lawo console. An imported ADM into Pyramix will instantly become a Cue in Ovation, ready to be launched during an On-Air production.

Representing Merging at the event will be Head of Software, Dominique Brulhart and Global Sales Manager, Rune Jacobsen. Rune had this to say: “This will be my first AES with Merging and the first on the Neumann.Berlin stand. Although the last few years have been incredibly challenging and remain so, the creativity inherent in Merging’s products impresses as always and the new partnership promises to be extremely powerful.”

Sonarworks Multichannel with Anubis

Eventide Blackhole reverb on Anubis