02/2003
"We’ve been using Yamaha O2Rs for the past five years, and although they’ve been brilliant consoles and had served us very well, the time had come to look for an upgrade." Peter Leggett speaking from one of the West End’s and busiest Post Production facilities, Clearcut Sound Studios in Soho, central London.
"I started doing the research for new consoles a couple of months ago, and it was while I was talking with Simon Stoll at Raper & Wayman that I finally had the opportunity to take a good look at the DM2000."
Leggett’s expectations of the new Yamaha desk were high, "I needed something that gave me all the processing power and flexibility I would want for the next five years; I needed future-proofing. I already had a certain respect for the Yamaha build quality, and the software coding is excellent, our experience already showed these machines just don’t crash - and believe me, the O2R’s had been very busy over the past five years, working a minimum nine hours a day, every day." Leggett also reported that during those five years the biggest problem they’d encountered was the need to replace one fader and one knob, "considering the intense use and occasional abuse, a small price to pay."
But more than faith in past experience, it was resolution that held the key to fulfilling Leggett’s expectations for the future, "that element of 48kHz/16-bit up to 96kHz/24-bit; it’s my belief that in time the higher resolution will be adopted as the industry standard"
Stoll arranged for three new DM2000’s to be installed in September, the transition to new technology being a particularly easy one for Clear Cut. "One new desk was installed each week, a very smooth process. The new desks have a very similar look and feel to their predecessors, so much so that all our engineers moved up with no training whatsoever. Since they came we’ve had no problems at all, and we don’t expect any."
