Use Cases

Michel Gallone is a producer and engineer whose long career has taken him from his student days in Florida to top-tier studios in London, Paris, and Montreux.

Gallone’s work spans pop, classical, and film scores but he is perhaps best known for his long-standing collaboration with legendary producer Mutt Lange. Together they worked with several pop music icons, including Shania Twain, Céline Dion, Andrea Corr, Bryan Adams, and Britney Spears. Through it all, two things have remained constant for Gallone; the pursuit of audio excellence, and a deep trust in the transparency and precision of the equipment he has used from Merging Technologies since 2001.

“I’ve always been into music and production from a very young age,” Gallone begins. After graduating from Full Sail University in Florida, he moved to France and the UK, cutting his teeth at renowned studios like Nomis in London and Teletota in Paris. He later returned to Switzerland, where his career took a leap forward when he met Robert John "Mutt" Lange.

Michel Gallone

“Working with Mutt was extremely formative” Gallone recalls. “He is extremely precise in his approach to music production. He is meticulous in a way I had never experienced at that point. Mutt always demanded the best and the latest in technical equipment and working with him challenged me every day.”

“I have so many good memories of that time,” Gallone continues. “I remember being so impressed at in the speed in which Britney Spears learned a song, music and lyrics. Mutt sang a song to her once and she learned it instantly, just by listening, she wasn’t yet 18 at the time. Andrea of The Corrs had one of the most beautiful voices I’ve ever heard, and Bryan Adams wasn’t just an extremely talented singer and songwriter, but also a funny and positive guy.”

“When working with Mutt Lange around 2001, we tested Merging’s Pyramix with my colleagues Kevin Churko and Richard Meyer,” Gallone says. “We were extremely impressed by the audio quality of the converters, which were surpassing all other equipment. At that time, we were so used to Pro Tools that a switch to Pyramix was difficult to imagine, especially as the converters weren’t available independently from the software yet.”

Pyramix is a digital audio workstation widely used by professional studios and engineers for music recording and production. When combined with networked audio interfaces, it offers the only end-to-end solution on the market to produce music digitally with an audio format that sounds like analog to the human ear.

“I’ve been using Merging converters for a long time now to record classical music albums for pianists such as Elizabeth Sombart and Philippe Entremont, and I’m consistently impressed by the audio transparency. I’ve also worked as a producer and coordinator on many recordings at Abbey Road Studios and other venues with Elizabeth Sombart and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, with recordings captured by Arne Aksleberg using Merging converters and software exclusively. The sound quality is incredible.”

Although the equipment Gallone uses hasn’t changed much in 25 years, he is always on the lookout for new technology to enhance his work. “I keep up to date with what’s new, but I don’t change things unless something special comes along.” he explains. “When it comes to sound interfaces, I prefer high fidelity and transparency, and in my experience, Merging’s Horus is hard to beat. I believe that vibe and emotion are extremely important when recording music and combining that with high-end kit can really make a difference to the final result.”

Horus is one of the world’s most sonically transparent mic preamps and provides superior audio quality with unrivalled connectivity. It can slot effortlessly into a legacy studio and instantly upgrades the quality and productivity for anyone wanting Analog/AES/MADI interconnectivity in the room.

“I always think about what I, and the people I work with, want to achieve,” Gallone concludes. “Once a record is out, it’s there to stay. We don’t want to have regrets about what we could have done better. So, I take everything into account; musical direction, making the artist comfortable, and using the best technology available. I believe that this combination gets the best results.”

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