Sound Engineer with many year experience working with famous national and international artists
M7CL
"The M7CL is the one product I had to try. My first thought was that of comparing it to the PM1D and PM5DRH, but naturally the price difference could have made me think that it should be considered as a toy…no way! It really has all I ever could need for this particular show and as well as delivering excellent audio quality and superb recall, it keeps rental costs for the producer down to a minimum and only takes away three seats from the theater’s income."
"As soon as it was delivered I set it up for a musical, Nino D’Angelo’s “Core Pazzo”. A total of 21 DPA headsets, a couple of spares and a stereo pair of channels for all of the musical tracks, backed up on a stereo return from a PC on stage. Being a musical, my idea was to keep all channels in the “safe” mode for channel gains, eq, dynamics and matrix sends, all post fader. Since we are not using a monitor engineer, the man responsible for all the mics, Diego Jacuz (actually a sound engineer), has partial control of matrix mixes I was sending on stage; one for the main vocal, one for all the other singers and another one for the music tracks. These three matrixes go into a Yamaha 03 and are sent to the four monitor lines on stage. All graphic equalizing is done with the M7CL’s onboard mono equalizers, three in fact. FOH has a stereo equalizer inserted into its path. The other four effects rack spaces are used for my effects in FOH."
"The touch screen and the “Central Logic” area is precious and practical and are definitely two advantages compared to the two previous models in matter of speed. Something else to keep in mind is that the 48 channels are all on one layer and at eye’s reach at all times."
"So far we’ve done about 40 shows and I still haven’t had any problem. I consider myself a sort of beta tester, being one of the first in Italy to use the M7CL and my feelings are very positive towards this product as they always have been for the PM1D and PM5DRH. There are a few features that could be added to future software upgrades and I’m sure that after more users get their hands on the board they will contribute to these upgrades with their ideas as well. I am constructing a list of these features that will be object of correspondence between Yamaha and myself as I prefer to keep them as private as possible for now. I must say that two lamps could have been added to the package, but at least this time there is a dust cover, as opposed to the PM5DRH package."
Monitor engineer, Zelig Circus
PM1D
”At Zelig, the same mics were often used for both speech and singing, so we ‘doubled them up’, giving them two different equalizations – one equivalent to conventional ‘lavalier’ settings, the other with reverb, compressor, etc. for singing – all this is really easy with the PM1D.”
“Even if the songs were always different, I started out with a basic memory, on which I carried out the necessary changes each time. I think that this sort of work could only be done so quickly with this console. The choice of the PM1D was essentially a winner, because before the shows started we didn’t know what the finished product would be – at the end, I found myself with 30 outputs to cope with and the forty channels at the start finished up as sixty!”
FOH engineer, Zelig Circus
PM1D
“I’d already used the first version of the PM1D, so knew it well, and on Zelig I based the majority of the work on the matrices – I put the music on the stereo matrix and speech on an Aux, in order to EQ them differently before sending the mixdown to the PA, which consisted in a main system and seven delay lines. It was the first time I’d made such in-depth use of the matrices and I must say the results were excellent.”
“I always put a gate on every speech mic, as – being digital – they’re very fast, which enables me to keep the sound very ‘precise’ – they closed as soon as the comedian stopped talking and re-opened immediately he started again – they’re imperceptible, ensure a really clean sound and I would have been lost without them. The few effects I used were all on-board – they are sufficient and good quality and the dynamics work well even if used with somebody who shouts.”
“As far as I’m concerned, managing to achieve a detailed sound like I had on Zelig - where you could distinguish every touch of the drummer’s cymbals and every ‘ghost note’ on his snare - is only possible with the precision of a console of this type.”
FOH engineer, “Luglio Suona Bene”
PM5000
“We’d already used the PM5000 console last winter on various occasions and, after having used it for Luglio Suona Bene with a considerable variety of music genres, I must say it’s a pleasure to work with, because it sounds really good – Yamaha has come up with a console that in my opinion is of an extremely high standard – the preamplifiers for example are really excellent.”
“The function I appreciate most of all and use most frequently is the possibility of using the desk’s software to make different uses of the eight mono aux sends – post-pan groups, pre-pan groups, or just normal auxes – this makes for extremely flexible pot use. This facility is very useful, for example, when several channels have to be compressed – such as brass sections, keyboards or groups of backing vocalists – instead of using eight compressors, you can use just two on a sub group.”
FOH engineer, Umbria Jazz
PM5D
“As well as its numerous effect and a very nice sound quality – thanks to its preamps and converters - in a situation such as Perugia, where there are several groups in the course of the day, which come back to perform on the following days, it’s is extremely useful to be able to recall the stored scenes for each band. The console is also very user-friendly, as it puts all the most frequently used parameters - EQ, gates, comps – immediately there at your fingertips in a very intuitive manner ”
“For example, if, after having played calmly, at a certain point the musicians began to swing harder, the possibility of being able to use the inserts directly via the PM5D software in real time while they were playing was a priceless feature! The Piazza IV Novembre stage is fun – with its free concerts open to everybody, it doesn’t host elite sounds, but a nice assortment of genres. Chiara Civello congratulated me personally for the sound, and the FOH engineer with Relax – who really knows his job and works a lot in studio – said he really enjoyed working on the PM5D.”
“A lot of folk say there are certain things they can’t do with a digital desk, but that’s not true – once you get learn how to use the software, you can do anything an analogue can, plus a lot of more!”
Monitor Engineer, Umbria Jazz
PM5D
“I would have preferred to study the console with more time at my disposal, but I immediately learned the basics and was able to face the job at Perugia without any worries.”
“For example, I was able to set the first of these keys (User Defined keys) to recall the EQ of Aux 1 – it was like having an external graphic equalizer at my disposal – I opted for EQ, but it’s possible to assign many other parameters to the keys.”
“The ‘Cut and paste’ function is extremely useful. With big bands for example, I saved typical settings, which I copied into a new scene and modified according to any small differences in formation.“
Monitor engineer, Keane US tour
PM5D
“The first digital desk I used on the road was a DM2000 and then I started to use a PM5D. It certainly made my life easier for things like festivals. You just stick a card in and up comes the mix!”
“What can I say about the PM5D? It’s reliable. It works, I’m happy! It’s that simple! It has more bells and whistles that I’ll ever need.”
System technician, Keane US tour
PM5D
“I really like the desk. It’s reliable, flexible and easy to use.”
“On the Keane tour the PM5D handled the opening acts as well as Keane thanks to the recallable gains and in festivals it’s so small no one cares about us bringing in our own desk mid afternoon.”
Sound engineer, Daniel Bedingfield's UK and European Tour
PM5D
“The desk stood up very well throughout the tour and managed to keep up with Daniel’s monitor needs. Daniel knows exactly what he wants and requires different mixes for every song. No analogue desk could have kept up with him.”
“Essentially, I like the fact that everything you need is contained within the desk. It has a small footprint, and its on-board graphic EQs and effects means there’s no need for any external racks. The desk certainly gives a lot for the money.”
Monitor engineer, Black-eyed Peas
PM5D
“It had everything I wanted, it’s small and light - you don’t need ten guys to lift it. It takes no space at all, not even for a power supply. It’s the sort of desk you can turn up with at a festival and the house sound crew won’t mind putting it in for you - it’s not like your asking for a lot of space to fit in all the racks and stuff that you’d take with an analogue board.”
“I’m out here now with no manual and I’m discovering something new everyday, and it just gets easier. It took me a little time to get the hang of, sure. But the vibe I’m getting off the band already is great - I just love this desk. Gates and compressors are great, so there’s no external processing; and although effects are not much of an issue for monitors, the quality of the reverb’ in the desk I’m using is great, you can change anything on it. You know, I thought the on board compressors would be kind’ a basic, but they have everything you’d expect on a 4u off board unit.”
Sound engineer, Neil Diamond Tour
PM5D
“For this current tour we have a pair of PM5Ds for mixing the show, one out front, one for monitors. The recall of the console - which I’ve been preaching about for a long time - is amazing. The EQ is exactly what it needs to be. The sends, muting, effects on/off is all taken care of in the programming - so I can concentrate on the show and mix.”
“Yamaha has been proven in the field - I’ve been using this product line since the old PM1000s - reliability is the key, I knew this was going to work.”
