While he began his music career recording with a band in high school, GRAMMY Award-winning Audio Mixer Justin Merrill found his sweet spot behind the glass, working his way through various music and video production projects. Merrill, who is also co-CEO of his own production company, Happy Yeah! Productions, has worked with many top music producers in the business. Included among them is Will.I.Am of the Black Eyed Peas and Raphael Saadiq, with whom he worked on film scoring and music engineering. It was those projects that turned Merrill on to audio post-production.
Today, he spends his time on personal music writing and recording projects, as well as mixing and production work for top network television networks. Merrill utilizes NUGEN Audio's Halo Upmix and Halo Downmix software and the ISL limiter on a regular basis. He also uses the brand's VisLM loudness meter as needed, and is currently diving into Paragon, NUGEN's latest offering.
Merrill says that he typically works on audio for a variety of reality programs, in addition to re-mixing network introsupdating them from stereo 5.1 to 7.1 surround and turns to NUGEN's Halo Upmix software to add space to the audio. Halo Upmix is the one that I definitely use the most and, compared to any of the other upmixers I've seen, NUGEN's is the most versatile, Merrill says. A lot of other plug-ins are very basic, you put something in, and you get something else out, whereas, with NUGEN, you can tell it which channels you actually want and move stuff around. It's definitely more useful than any other ones I've used, and I think it just sounds better than the other solutions, by far. It's usually the first thing I go to if I ever get a mono or stereo file that I want to spread out easily.
Merrill says he also turns to Halo Upmix to mix stereo 5.1 audio to 7.1 or Atmos, which continues to become an industry standard. If I have an Atmos mix, I'm definitely using Halo Upmix, he adds. I think Atmos music has some really cool potential. I love remixing music in Atmos, it just has so much more space and dynamic range to use.
Merrill will also tap Halo Downmix software on the occasions when he is working on 5.1 music stems, and it needs to go to a stereo output. In those cases, I'll definitely reach for Downmix rather than trying to actually downmix it another way, he says. It's also an easier process than asking a client to re-deliver stems, especially since they often don't have them.
Merrill first came to know the NUGEN brand from working with its original ISL limiter plug-in on a particular project. Today, Merrill says he regularly turns to NUGEN's ISL plug-inkeeping it on his master buss at all timesand has most recently also started to use the brand's VisLM loudness metering tool. The ISL plug-in has the hardest True Peak wall that I've found, so far. With some of the other limiters, sometimes they'll sneak over a little bit, but NUGEN's seems to be just a hard, True Peak limiter, he continues. It also doesn't really mess with the character of the sound; the plug-in just does what it needs to and is very transparent, which I really like. I've also used it on some music projects for parallel compression. It seems to mix in well with the original sounds. And, like I said, you can push it and it doesn't really change the sound, character-wise.
For more information about NUGEN Audio products, visit: https://nugenaudio.com.
Most recent headlines
16/12/2025
Hawkins has landed on Spotify, just in time for Stranger Things Season 5, Volume...
16/12/2025
Wherever you are, your favorite music and audio content should go seamlessly with you. That's why Spotify has partnered with NAVER Corp, Korea's leading...
16/12/2025
2025 Wrapped arrived bigger and bolder than ever. This year's experience is designed to be ultra personal and shareable, with new features like Wrapped Part...
16/12/2025
Three 12-kilowatt Advanced Electric Propulsion System thrusters, supplied by L3Harris Technologies, form the core of Gateway's propulsion system. Pictured i...
16/12/2025
The challenge facing America's defense industrial base is not just about speed - its about rebuilding the foundation that makes speed possible. Our nations ...
16/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
16/12/2025
SEVILLE, Spain Canal Sur, the public broadcasting service for Andalusia, Spain, has completed a total technology refresh based on Pebble's resilient, softwa...
16/12/2025
NEW YORK Teleprompting hardware provider Telescript International has acquired all software code and intellectual property previously owned by Telescript West. ...
16/12/2025
As cable operators face increased competition from 5G fixed wireless access providers, a new report from Ookla Research finds that T-Mobile is the FWA speed lea...
16/12/2025
Apple has announced a major upgrade to the Apple TV app for device owners outside the Apple ecosystem with news that the Apple TV app for Android now supports G...
16/12/2025
Space42 grows Direct-to-Device partner ecosystem through a Memorandum of Underst...
16/12/2025
16 Dec 2025
VEON Announces Release Date for Full Year and Fourth Quarter 2025 R...
16/12/2025
16 Dec 2025
VEON's Kyivstar Invests in Renewable Energy in Ukraine with Acq...
16/12/2025
Back to All News
Emma Appleton, Fares Fares, Frida Gustavsson and Jakob Oftebro...
16/12/2025
Back to All News
Docu-reality My Korean Boyfriend Gets a Trailer and Premiere D...
16/12/2025
Harmonic's XOS Advanced Media Processor Improves Streaming Video Quality and Boosts Viewer Engagement SAN JOSE, Calif. - Dec. 16, 2025 - Harmonic (NASDAQ: ...
16/12/2025
RT Sport Awards 2025 live on RT One and RT Player at 8:05pm on Saturday 20 December.
On Saturday 20 December live on RT One and RT Player at the earlier t...
16/12/2025
Singer -songwriter Brian Kennedy has been announced as the final celebrity dance...
15/12/2025
Harlem Globetrotters Celebrate 100th Anniversary With New Brand Campaign From Th...
15/12/2025
Top L-R: La Tierra Del Valor (The Home of the Brave), Mangittatuarjuk (The Gnawe...
15/12/2025
L3Harris will leverage 15 years of experience supporting the E-4B Nightwatch and...
15/12/2025
CONWAY, Ark. In a notable example of how the loss of federal funding is forcing public stations to make massive cuts and operational changes, the statewide pub...
15/12/2025
BOULDER, Colo. Public Media Venture Group (PMVG), Venture Technologies Group (VTG), and WQED have completed a multipart agreement that they say will significant...
15/12/2025
Cape Town, November 13, 2025 - SES and International artist and humanitarian, Fo...
15/12/2025
Luxembourg, December 15, 2025 - SES, a leading space solutions company, and Abra Group launched fast and reliable multi-orbit inflight connectivity service on t...
15/12/2025
How Rivian s Design Puts Drivers First-And Why That Matters Published on Dec 15, 2025 Categories: Business Solutions
LinkedIn Corporate Communications
Sha...
15/12/2025
Space42 and Cobham Satcom completed the full range of advanced terminals for the...
15/12/2025
15 Dec 2025
VEON's Beeline Kazakhstan Delivers First Starlink Direct to Cel...
15/12/2025
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor finds himself the topic of year's cracker jokes
Oasis, David Harbour, Celebrity Traitors and Angela Rayner all feature in this y...
15/12/2025
Comscore Expands Cross-Platform Campaign Measurement to Include Audio and Social New capabilities strengthen cross-platform campaign reporting suite; CCR rebran...
15/12/2025
NVIDIA today announced it has acquired SchedMD - the leading developer of Slurm, an open-source workload management system for high-performance computing (HPC) ...
15/12/2025
RT .ie has reached one billion page views this year and is on track to finish 2025 2% ahead of last year. Average time spent on the site is up 3% on 2024, with ...
15/12/2025
Modern workflows showcase the endless possibilities of generative and agentic AI on PCs.
Of many, some examples include tuning a chatbot to handle product-supp...
13/12/2025
Powering Client Growth: Horizon Deepens Nielsen Partnership, Enabling More Effic...
13/12/2025
In a move that will help it offer more flexible and less costly programming options, YouTube TV has announced that it will be launching YouTube TV Plans with mo...
13/12/2025
SINGAPORE Magna Systems has designed, built and completed what is believed to be the first full UHD and IP-based OB truck in Southeast Asia for a Singapore medi...
12/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Everything You Need to Know for Next Week's Big Sho...
12/12/2025
Hailey Gates at the Atropia premiere (photo by George Pimentel / Shutterstock for Sundance Film Festival)...
12/12/2025
Last month, Spotify announced a new collaboration with the ATP Tour, the global governing body of men's professional tennis, aimed at bringing the next gene...
12/12/2025
CONWAY, Ark. In a notable example of how the elimination of Federal federal funding is forcing public stations to make massive cuts and changes in the way they...
12/12/2025
Wisycom and DPA Microphones announce the appointment of Ren Moerch as Group Product Director, Wireless, a strategic leadership role that will guide the combine...
12/12/2025
SMPTE , the home of media professionals, technologists, and engineers, in conjuncture with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and the Entertainment Technolog...
12/12/2025
Keepit, the vendor-independent, cloud-native data protection provider, today announced a strategic go-to-market relationship in Poland with Ingram Micro, a lead...
12/12/2025
Atomos announced the immediate availability of a new firmware update for its Ninja TX GO and Ninja TX monitor-recorders, unlocking Open Gate 48P RAW recording w...
12/12/2025
Professional Wireless Systems (PWS) once again played a critical role in delivering flawless wireless coordination and support at the 2025 Latin Grammy Awards a...
12/12/2025
The Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS), together with the Video Services Forum (VSF), the Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA) and the European Broadc...
12/12/2025
DHD audio will demonstrate the latest additions to its range of digital audio production solutions on Booth 321 in Hall B6 at Hamburg Open 2026. The show will b...
12/12/2025
Chaos today announces the release of V-Ray for Blender, update 2, bringing its award-winning rendering technology to even more Blender users by adding support f...
12/12/2025
Lighting specialist UltraLEDs has launched Precision LED Tape, a high-CRI lighting solution designed specifically for professional film, TV, and studio use.
P...
While he began his music career recording with a band in high school, GRAMMY Award-winning Audio Mixer Justin Merrill found his sweet spot behind the glass, working his way through various music and video production projects. Merrill, who is also co-CEO of his own production company, Happy Yeah! Productions, has worked with many top music producers in the business. Included among them is Will.I.Am of the Black Eyed Peas and Raphael Saadiq, with whom he worked on film scoring and music engineering. It was those projects that turned Merrill on to audio post-production.
