Soundmirror Reflects In Grammy® Glory

Merging Technologies’ continued success in the classical section

Puidoux: January 2020 - Merging Technologies’ prestigious clients have been monopolizing the Classical Grammys for many years and this is a source of great pride to the company. There are few recording teams that come close to the success enjoyed by Soundmirror over more than 40 years. Nominations and awards go well past 100 and 2020 was a particularly rich year. Two wins and five additional nominations and of those, two were in the same category as the winners.

Blanton Alspaugh has picked up the Producer of the Year, Classical three times and 2020 was the latest of these. Another member of the team, Dirk Sobotka, was also nominated for the same category. The other win was in the Best Choral Performance category where the Complete Choral Works of Duruflé performed by the Houston Chamber Choir triumphed. The Soundmirror team’s recording of Kurt Sander: The Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom was on the same list with production credits, once again, for Blanton Alspaugh.

One of the big prizes just got away from Mark Donahue who was nominated for Best Engineered Album, Classical for the Bruckner: Symphony No.9 performed by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra conducted by Manfred Honeck. The same recording was nominated in the Best Orchestral Performance section. Another nomination in this category was the Detroit Symphony Orchestra recording of Aaron Copland’s Grohg and Billy the Kid. This was conducted by the very distinguished Leonard Slatkin and released on the Naxos label. The producer was again, Blanton Alspaugh and no less than eight albums were mentioned in his nomination including the Berlioz, Duruflé and the Sander recordings. A truly remarkable achievement and it should be noted that these performances were recorded all over the USA.

Other Merging luminaries dominated the other classical categories with previous winners nominated including Bob Ludwig, Daniel Shores, Preston Smith and Jim Anderson. The prestigious Best Immersive Audio Album was won by Morten Lindberg who produced, recorded, mixed and mastered LUX performed by Nidarosdomens jentikor and Trondheim Solistene. The Best Orchestral gong went to the team at the LA Philharmonic with their exciting recording of Gustavo Dudamel conducting Sustain by Andrew Norman. The Best Classical Solo Vocal Album was won by Joyce DiDonato with her Songplay collection recorded by Preston Smith.

Merging’s CEO, Claude Cellier commented; “This is always a time of the year when we get excited by the Grammy Awards as it is a regular confirmation of the wonderful recordings our friends are consistently making with our equipment. This was really a bumper year and we would like to congratulate all the nominees and winners and thank them for their loyalty and support. It is a great reward for our team and a reminder that Pyramix has been the source of so many amazing recordings over the last 25 years.”



Downloads:

Blanton Alspaugh on left in blue shirt and James Blachly, choir leader Blanton Alspaugh on left in blue shirt and James Blachly, choir leader

Session shot from Trinity Wall St Session Session shot from Trinity Wall St Session

Control room shot from Trinity Wall St Session Control room shot from Trinity Wall St Session

Merging Horus on studio floor Merging Horus on studio floor

L to R, Dirk Sobotka, Manfred Honeck, Mark Donahue L to R, Dirk Sobotka, Manfred Honeck, Mark Donahue

Official Grammy shot of Morten Lindbergh Official Grammy shot of Morten Lindbergh


Merging Technologies SA is a Swiss manufacturer with over 25 years of experience in developing groundbreaking, professional Audio and Video products for a wide range of entertainment and media industries. With a dedicated user base in the elite end of the music, film, television, mastering and performances industries, Merging is committed to developing product ranges with unrivalled quality and flexibility, no matter what the application. Merging builds tools for people who want more from their systems, have an inherent need to push boundaries, and believe that quality always comes first.

RAVENNA is a solution for real-time distribution of audio and other media content in IP-based network environments. Utilizing standardized network protocols and technologies, RAVENNA can operate on existing network infrastructures. RAVENNA is designed to meet the strict requirements of the pro audio market featuring low latency, full signal transparency and high reliability and is fully AES67 compatible. With a capacity of nearly 8 x MADI streams over a single Gigabit Ethernet link, it is also the first and only Layer-3 based IP audio protocol with full support for high-channel count DXD and DSD signals.
While primarily targeting the professional broadcast market, RAVENNA is also suitable for deployment in other pro audio market segments like live sound, install market and recording. Possible fields of application include (but are not limited to) in-house signal distribution in broadcasting houses, theatres, concert halls and other fixed installations, flexible setups at venues and live events, OB van support, inter-facility links across WAN connections and in production & recording applications

Photo credits: Brandon Johnson, Robby Klein and Soundmirror.