Galaxy 32 Synergy Core gets full surround/immersive audio support
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Owners of the Antelope Audio Galaxy 32 Synergy Core all-in converter are treated to a software and firmware update that adds full surround/immersive audio support. I believe this was the one missing piece left to fully unlock the unit’s potential. The new features will put its sophisticated internal DSP and rich I/O (32-in/32-out analog, HDX, MADI, S/PDIF, ADAT, Dante) to very good use. I also assume the update is headed towards the Galaxy 64 Synergy Core.
Antelope Audio Galaxy 32 Synergy Core gets surround & immersive audio
Immersive audio is serious business but, for the time being, it’s also seriously fragmented. From my (admiteddly distant) perspective, the workflows seem really complicated due to trial and error, highly specific software/hardware choices, and a whole bunch of formats. This makes me believe that the more spatial audio stuff comes integrated in an ecosystem and ready out of the box, the easier your life is from the get-go.
To that, the Galaxy 32 Synergy Core update delivers a full-fledged suite of surround/immersive audio speaker control and calibration features designed for the interface itself. That’s a pretty big deal because you are no longer forcing critical software and hardware from different manufacturers to meet heads. Here, they are literally made for each other. There’s lots to unpack, so let’s start this…
The spatial audio features are contained inside the newly added Surround section in the Antelope Control Panel application. It includes dedicated options for configuring and controlling a surround/immersive monitoring setup of up to 16 channels which is up to 9.1.6 Dolby Atmos spec. The 16 channels can come in from any combination of sources, including Thunderbolt, Dante, MADI, HDX, ADAT, SPDIF, and analog. They can be processed with Synergy Core effects and monitored from any combination of analog and digital outputs.
The new Surround view in the Antelope Control Panel.
The Surround section come pre-configured for 23 immersive audio mixing scenarios all the way up to Dolby Atmos 9.1.6. SMPTE and film path orders can be selected to easily match the incoming monitoring signals and apply adjustments. Configuration presets can be stored, recalled, and shared between computers. Besides the 23 pre-configured setups, any other channel/object/scene-based format or speaker configuration within the 16-channel limit can also be configured.
Also present is a speaker layout visual representation with mute and solo toggles. Metering is available pre- or post-processing for each respective channel, complete with labeling and color-coding. Main volume adjustment for the selected
speaker configuration is available as well, alongside dim and mute controls.
Each of the 16 supported channels has a dedicated 8-band parametric equalizer and up to 100ms of adjustable delay per channel. This can be used for speaker tuning, room and distance correction adjustments. Color coded graphs show the applied EQ settings, crossover filters and resulting output, for each speaker. Per channel level adjustments are also available, as well as phase invert. Global “lip-sync” delay is also available, with an additional 100ms, offsetting all speakers.
This is already super-deep, but wait, there’s more! Flexible crossover filters on each speaker channel allow for sending a specific amount of low-frequency information to the LFE channel. This facilitates mixing on monitoring setups lacking full-range speakers. LFE send levels are configured via a separate mixer window, with the option to send these low-passed signals before or after the channel’s EQ as well as mute, solo and bypass options.
These settings can be individual per channel or linked as required. Additional settings include filter type, order, and cutoff frequency for the respective low-pass and high-pass crossover filters. They are visualized in each channel’s EQ graph.
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Free immersive audio update
The new surround and immersive audio functionality is coming to new and existing Galaxy 32 Synergy Core users via a free firmware and software update. Take it or leave it! The unit itself is priced very attractively for what it is and compared to competitors. You can read more about it here and buy it from our affiliate partner Thomann *:
Learn more about the Galaxy 32 Synergy Core
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