An intensive period of beta testing with an international roster of leading musicians, engineers and producers, has delivered the Merging+Anubis Music Mission, allowing the system feature set to be optimised for specific applications by loading different software.
Available to existing users free of charge (all new orders will be shipped with both Music and Monitor Missions), the ‘mission’ is selected at switch-on via the touchscreen and loads the versatile monitor controller or the Music Mission providing a 48-input/24-output, low-latency mixer with multiple effects appears.
The size of the mixer depends on the number of AoIP devices on a network but instead of a complex matrix to manage I/O sources and destinations, the new Peer and Unite features add additional channels to the mixer with a simple screen tap. Routing can be managed from the Anubis touchscreen without the need for network skills. Although only the faders and a few buttons are initially presented, there are full channel strips with local and remote control of preamps, EQ, dynamics, reverb, sends and auxes, as well as pan, solo, solo pfl, mute, linking, grouping and naming.
The Music Mission embeds multiple mixers allowing the creation of from one to five different mixes for performers’ cues or programmes. Different input sources or a unique mix balance can be routed to any outputs thanks to flexible bus routing. Additionally, there are 18 Snapshots to save and fully recall any mixer, masters, songs or set-ups with the possibility to customise mixer layouts depending on whether it is being used in the studio or live on stage. All this can be done without having a DAW connected.
The Music Mission provides all the necessary monitoring controls with ref, dim, mono, downmix and exclusive monitoring mutes, along with A/B speaker set support, 2.1 and 2.2 with crossover and built-in crossfeed for headphones. This also applies to being able to create and monitor artists’ cues, interact and talk to any musician or all at once. The Music Mission includes monitoring features that are the equal of large-scale consoles. Cues can be used when recording, overdubbing, playing live or for independent programme distribution.
Included in every Anubis are three high-quality effects that can operate at the highest PCM frequencies. These can be applied to monitoring, recording or live performance on any Strips, Buses or Returns, and recalled at any time on one of the 18 available effects snapshots.
Anubis Music Mission four-band EQ is built on the Pyramix EQ-X and offers Extreme Definition filtering at sampling frequencies up to DXD (352.8kHz). EQ can be applied to any inputs (Local or Peered) or to any bus output (e.g. for headphones or room correction). 21 EQ instances are available at any sampling rate
The Anubis Built-in FPGA Dynamics effect includes multi-modules – a gate, compressor and limiter that can be combined in series, with each module having its own parameter values. The dynamics can operate in mono or stereo mode (Link Dyn) and 64 dynamics instances are available at 44.1/48kHz, 32 at 88.2/96kHz and eight in DXD/384kHz.
A stereo reverb to put the performer at ease, reverb can be added to the ultra-low latency mixes on vocal, guitars, drums and more. Parameters can be dialled in from a user-friendly interface to quickly give the performer a sense of space. Using low diffusion values will increase the reflexional effect and perform as a delay. Applying effects to performers’ ultra-low latency cue mixes gives a listening environment with EQ, compression and reverb on their channel inputs. Those effects can be used in standalone, or can be routed back to a DAW for recording or for loopback processing applications.
Users can also use external hardware such as a distortion pedal or an analogue EQ – the Music Mission has three sends for externals that can quickly be integrated into the mixer to apply effects to any channel strip.
Included in all missions are tools that allow users to Expand, Monitor, Mix and Route any I/O anywhere over a network with quick and simple solutions. This can be done from a single Anubis and even be in operation with standalone devices interconnected. The Anubis Peering feature puts expanding Anubis I/O a finger tap away without the need for a computer to set it up.
Unite is an automatic AoIP stream patching feature included in the Merging drivers that allows users to connect I/O streams between the Anubis and the DAW without the need for AoIP knowledge or additional applications.
The Music Mission is expandable to 48 inputs channels and 24 outputs within the Anubis mixer, when adding AoIP interfaces to a set-up.
If the TFT screen on the Anubis is a little small, the web app allows full remote control from computer or tablet – a gig adjustment of the mix from front of house, can be done with a smartphone.
Both missions can be supplied on the Pro or Premium versions of Anubis and also the Pro and Premium versions of the Anubis SPS. The SPS has the benefit of being able to add extra I/O without the need to add an external network switch, or work in full ST2022-7 redundancy mode for extra safety. A real bonus for location recording and live applications.
‘I have been living and breathing this Mission for several months; recording my own music including for the introductory videos and discussing every last feature detail with some of the finest engineers, musicians and reviewers,’ says Music Mission Product Manager, Ricardo Ryan. ‘The feedback has been exhilarating and we feel confident that the Anubis Music Mission revolutionises the process of recording through to gigging. As we always said, Anubis is one of a kind.’
More: www.merging.com
