Since joining the Sennheiser Group two years ago, Merging Technologies has been steadily working to introduce new hardware, including the Neumann MT48, Merging Hapi Mk III, and Dante options for the Anubis and Hapi networked audio interfaces. Alongside these developments, the Merging software team was working to bring a major update to its flagship DAW. After all, Pyramix remains one of the most respected studio tools, used by the best mastering engineers, the most reputed live recording audio engineers, particularly for classical music, while it remains one of the most praised tools for serious editing and processing work, thanks to its top-level plugins, unique Dolby Atmos hybrid workflow, and high-resolution audio capabilities.
Pyramix has been pushing the boundaries since the earliest days of SACD and leading the way in DSD/DXD, jointly developed by Merging and Philips, and including the best sample rate conversions. Also for location recording, Pyramix has proven countless times to be a highly optimized software, ideal to run in a laptop, particularly in combination with Merging's unique range of audio networking interfaces and using the Ravenna protocol that supports high sampling frequencies and resolution over standard Ethernet.
Pyramix 15 was previewed at multiple industry events prior to this final release, and the update is already being well received by the industry - mostly because users are feeling relief that Sennheiser is keeping Merging Technologies as a separate company and extending the development of all its existing products. Most importantly, many users looking for a premium DAW solution will gain renewed confidence to finally embrace Pyramix, trusting Sennheiser and Neumann to keep updating and supporting the software in the future.
"I am very happy about the new ARA integration, clip-based FX/processing, and the enhanced features of the redesigned mixer," says Harald Gericke, a Pyramix user. "The flexible strip and bus placement, pinning of strips and busses, and sidechaining make it much more comfortable to mix complex projects."
“The new Final Check tool with multichannel audio and DXD support delivers exceptional accuracy in mixing and finalization stages,” adds Vladislav Isaev, another audio designer and user of the Merging DAW.
With seamless Dolby Atmos integration, a powerful real-time editor, and support for up to 384 low-latency I/O, Pyramix continues to be a trusted choice for recording, mixing, and mastering engineers. But users are mostly praising the new user interface in Pyramix 15, which is a very rare thing to happen since change is usually disruptive for users who depend on software for a living. The fully customizable mixer, allowing users to move buses, strips, and aux channels to suit their workflow, together with the possibility to apply effects directly to individual clips, are among the most welcome updates.
Redesigned and optimized for even better performance, the new Merging VS3 plugins are also a very important update, while the enhanced monitoring section, with new speaker group mute/solo features for multichannel workflows, is ideal for Dolby Atmos production. Also important is the new Final Check Tool, with a revamped interface with multichannel support.
Pyramix 15 is available as a Native (ASIO/Windows-based) DAW and comes in three software packs: Elements, Pro, and Premium. It can also run with the MassCore real-time engine, supporting up to 384 inputs and outputs at ultra-low latencies with Ravenna/AES67/ST2110 audio networking compatibility. Although we no longer get those wonderful software card boxes with the printed manuals to show in the studio shelf. Maybe Sennheiser could bring those back? (And maybe start working on a macOS version? After all Microsoft discontinued Skype, and no one knows what they might do with Windows).
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