PUIDOUX, Switzerland — Since its inception 30 years ago, Merging Technologies has been a pioneer in developing equipment to capture, edit, mix, master and present the very best in audio experiences. The company has always pushed the boundaries of digital technology to achieve the closest to analog. Capturing the emotional content of the music in DSD or DXD, which was a joint Merging development, was essential for SACD and is now enabling the download and streaming of high-resolution music to thrive.
Merging Technologies has also been at the forefront of immersive audio — both in the capture of the music as well as in the playback for audiophiles as well as massive show audiences. In 2001, Merging was already offering a 5.1 DAW, and then 22.2 in 2009 and finally offered a 3D rendering engine with the ability to render objects to speaker sets of up to 384 discrete speaker channels.
The new 25th Anniversary Edition of Pyramix sees the integration of Dolby Atmos workflow specifically aimed at immersive music production. This technology has been widely accepted by content providers and offers several accessible options to getting started with immersive music. New productions are being originated in Dolby Atmos but also there is a vast archive of surround and immersive content to repurpose.
Merging Technologies is excited about helping get great content available to more people. By making DSD/DXD technologies available at a much lower price point, Merging allows content creators to experience what their music can feel like when captured with an analog-like technology.
A complete revision of the sales packs makes it easier and cheaper to get into high-resolution recording and mastering. This combines with a new dongle-less licensing scheme, making it simpler to administer and to authorize fully featured demos for specific periods.
Numerous other significant performance improvements are listed here to complete one of the most significant revisions of Pyramix in many years.
When Merging Technologies embraced audio over IP 10 years ago, it recognized the huge advantages of using a network connection for audio transport in and out of a DAW, combined with the significant benefit of the increased length and simplification of the cabling.
Another milestone was achieved in 2017 by linking Pyramix 11 to ANEMAN; the company’s new Audio Network Manager tool. Bringing all of a user’s RAVENNA/AES67 devices within one interface provides full control of the network.
Pyramix 25th — New Features and Enhancements
Offering a full-on Dolby Atmos workflow for music production, Pyramix 25th lets users complete Dolby Atmos projects without the need to move to an alternative platform. For many customers asked to provide immersive content can dramatically simplify and speed up the process of delivering the final master.
Merging Technologies has worked closely with Dolby to not only have full communication between Pyramix and the Dolby Atmos Renderer, but also to bridge the gap between the Dolby Atmos 7.1.2 maximum bed size and the traditionally bigger bus sizes used by Immersive Music Pyramix Users.
By detecting when a user is mapping the bus-based channel to an object, Pyramix sends the correct metadata to the Dolby Atmos Renderer, to emulate a speaker. This is particularly relevant for users wanting to translate native mixes using more than two height channels (5.1.4, 7.1.4) and/or using wide speakers (9.1.4, 9.1.6).
Pyramix also automatically detects Dolby Atmos Renderer input channel names in order to facilitate mapping in Pyramix.
Pyramix aside, any DAW user needing an audio interface to get started with Dolby Atmos should consider MERGING+ANUBIS as the perfect companion to the very affordable Dolby Atmos Production Suite since the release of EQ on outputs (latest Anubis firmware).
Other perks include: direct connection with HE-RMU to transfer audio and metadata with the Dolby Atmos Mastering Suite; full compatibility with the Dolby Atmos Production Suite renderer; extremely flexible mixing options; and Bed and Objects can be optimized in Pyramix to manage different speaker set configurations.
New Pyramix Software Packs
Pyramix software now comes in three versions with dramatically reduced prices.
- ELEMENTS is the most affordable version, allowing creators to experience this transparent DAW within the DSD/DXD format.
- PRO is for those who rely on Pyramix for editing and require more channels of DSD/DXD.
- PREMIUM is the version containing all features allowing 24 channels of DSD/DXD, featuring all the mastering options that Pyramix is famous for including Dolby Atmos compatibility.
A MassCore Hardware option for any software version offers ultra-low latency, maximum track count and massive performances for VS3 plug-ins.
New Security System
With laptops being stripped of USB ports and software deployment requiring lightning speed, Merging has implemented a new security system allowing customers to authorize their software without any hardware dongle. This system works online and offline and a user can still use hardware dongles is desired.
New Multi-Threading Native Engine
For a long time, clients looking for maximum performances required MassCore. As Pyramix is now based on a multi-threading architecture, Pyramix Native users will benefit from a huge performance improvement.
The audio engine analyses the session in real time and calculates the optimal number of threads to be used. MassCore remains the go to option for maximum I/O, lowest latencies and tons of power for VS3 processing.
Improved VST/VS3 Plug-in Distribution
To enhance performance for Pyramix (Native and MassCore), company engineers analyzed typical usage and worked out significant improvements allowing more plug-ins to be loaded.
Improved Video Playback Engine
Merging has addressed video playback performances issues with its latest work on the Video engine, now allowing users to have increased performance on video playback for all formats, including 4K and 360 resolutions requiring 2 x FPS playback
Improved Sampling Rate Conversion Engine and Playback
Merging has addressed SRC playback performances issues with its latest work on the playback engine, offering benefits from 1FS to DSD256.
Improved Mixer Elements
- New plug-in Distribution dialog
- Enhanced General Aux/Group Buses Send & Trim Gain
- 3-D Room Import/Export support
- Dual Pan controls
- Meter Bridge Peak Overload setting
This touches on a few of the enhancements. For more information, visit merging.com
