Key new features and workflow enhancements start the new decade for Merging Technologies
Puidoux: January 2020 – The winter NAMM event (16-19 January 2020) will see MERGING+ANUBIS there for the first time on booth #15623 and already nominated for a NAMM TEC Award. Launched in time for AES Dublin, Prolight+Sound and NAB 2019, Anubis arrives in Anaheim on the back of several months of record sales and with several very significant feature enhancements.
Mac users will be delighted to know that a new Virtual Audio Device is available that is compatible with later Mojave 10.14.5/10.14.6 and the new Catalina 10.15.x OS. This ensures that the top performance can be maintained with the enhanced features of the new operating systems. The ability to control the PreAmps remotely from any web browser is also a major convenience for many Anubis users and this is also available on the latest version of firmware.
MERGING+ANUBIS Premium has been DXD compatible for some months but there were some challenges in completing a full DSD workflow. This is now available as a free of charge firmware update and will be particularly useful for the many Grammy® winning Merging customers who have added the convenience of Anubis to their systems. DSD necessarily imposes some restrictions on the fuctionality of Anubis which are the consequence of the 1-bit quantization, Anubis offers a full DSD workflow up to DSD256 including the volume control of all outputs including the headphone monitoring. Input metering can select the SACD headroom scale of +6dB and all usual monitor control features are available. Further enhancements to DSD support are planned in 2020, as this workflow still represents an increasing number of users corresponding with the growth of DSD downloads from sites such as NativeDSD.
The relevance of Anubis to the NAMM attendee is obvious but other products from Merging should not be forgotten. Pyramix 12 is also nominated for TEC Award and offers the only practical DSD workflow available. Pyramix is additionally much favoured by the mastering community and the improvements to authoring and album publishing reflect that. The latest version also addresses immersive audio workflows that are increasingly important in gaming and live situations, with up to 7th Order Ambisonics options available. Improvements to the internal mixer and VS3 plug-in support for some popular FLUX products are also significant improvements.
Other Merging Networked Audio components continue to sell well and offer users of any DAW the way into AES67 and RAVENNA networks. The importance of IP networks to the professional world are well documented, but it is not always recognized how easy it is to gain the advantages in a home studio environment. Anubis is the affordable entry point, but adding Hapi or Horus can offer tremendous opportunities for easy network control and resource sharing in a larger facility.
2020 sees the company’s 30th anniversary and there are plans to celebrate Merging’s trailblazing achievements in improving the recording and listening experiences for clients across the globe and there will be some special events announced in the coming months to celebrate the achievement of surviving this long as an independent and forward-thinking audio manufacturer. As Claude Cellier, Merging’s founder and President observed; “The spotlight is now on Anubis and we could not be more pleased with its reception, but there are many landmarks during those years of which our team can be justly proud. Innovation has been the key to our continued success.”
