Use Cases

Bastian Gerner describes Merging’s Anubis as “a piece of art”.

Starting his career at the age of 18 immersed in the niche world of sound design and production, Bastian Gerner has continued to find his footing in the complex art of music creation.

Based in a studio in the vibrant city of Dusseldorf, Gerner’s illustrious career has led him from DJing to rapping to sound engineering and the art of foley, but the multi-talented audiophile is still fully committed to honing his skills in post-production and sound design.

Bastian Gerner

“I landed my first job as an intermediate sound designer in a post-production facility that was linked to the Bavaria Film Studios in Munich,” he begins. “That was the field where I could apply all my talent, so it was a dream job. I could accelerate and progress very quickly.”

“I then moved into becoming a foley artist and was doing film after film or episode after episode for about three years. After that I was given the opportunity to start working at Ubisoft as a foley artist. It gave me the opportunity to work on international projects, which was super beneficial to my career.”

Crucial to Gerner’s success over the years has been his audio toolkit. Since his early 20s he has been accumulating products and figuring out which brands work best for his creative process. A name that he has been coming back to time and time again is Merging Technologies, whose products have now become a central part of his studio set-up.

Gerner's studio setup

“I have Merging as my complete infrastructure for I/O and monitoring,” he explains. “Anubis is an amazing tool. It’s a piece of art. It’s so small, I have it on my desk and I can handle it right next to me. I can control my complete monitoring, even in a Dolby Atmos setting with an additional set for stereo speakers. I also have the measurements of all the channels and delay compensation in this little box. There is so much going on in there.”

Anubis from Merging Technologies offers exceptional audio precision and control from initial recordings all the way through to live performances and album mastering. It’s compact and unique in its configurability, enabling it to perform without the need to change to any hardware.

It can be used standalone or simultaneously with a DAW for front-end signal processing combined with Merging’s Music Mission DSP engine for low latency monitoring and tracking. Additionally, the Anubis can handle anything from single home recordings to multiple performers as it houses all the sends, cues, snapshots and effects you need.

Bastian Gerner at work, with Anubis, Hapi and Neumann monitors for his Dolby Atmos setup

“The preamps are also really good quality,” adds Gerner. “I decided to go with Merging because I wanted their ADDA converters and that’s why I also chose the Neumann monitors, I'm familiar with them and they’re always very reliable. I have 310s in the front (LCR), KH 80s for surround and top and a KH 870 sub. They also have no AD converter inside. You might not hear it, but I just wanted the sound of the Merging converters on my speakers without anything in between.” Gerner also uses MKH 416 mics from Sennheiser and the Shure SM7B for a more low-end approach, as well as a Sanken CUX-100K microphone for gaming projects that require a higher frequency.

Looking to the future, Gerner is excited to get back to working on films and documentaries and furthering his coaching career. Known as ‘The Foley Teacher’, Gerner helps students and entry level professionals who are interested in sound design and post-production get started in the field. “I want to help professionals to record more of their own sounds within their own editing suites and record their own foley,” he concludes.

“That is something I really enjoy and my mission here is to enable people to do that and show the rising popularity of foley. It’s such a cool thing to be able to bring foley to more people. That’s my mission and what I enjoy the most.”

Bastian Gerner, the Foley Teacher

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