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FOLLOW-UP NEWS |
JULY,
2000 |
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REQ
Editor Tours Yahama |
BY ROBERT DENNIS |
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| If you have ever attended a major
concert you probably have experienced the Yamaha sound. There's also a good chance
that you have experienced the Yamaha sound if you have ever watched television or went to
a movie. Yamaha is the acknowledged leader in large-format sound-reinforcement
consoles - you know - those huge consoles that look like they belong in million dollar
studios but are in the back of the concert seating area controlling the concert's sound.
Ever since Yamaha introduced its first digital mixer in 1996, the DMP 7, Yamaha has
been the choice of many post-production houses doing video and film audio. |
| It is only natural that this
industry giant would gear it's first large-format digital console for the live sound area
of the industry rather than the recording studio. Yamaha is doing just that in
releasing its PM1D console. This console comes in a modular format with a large
mixing desk that has 60 automated moving faders. The console also has one or two
side racks that actually house input/output modular units and the "brain" of the
console, providing the eight built-in effects units, 48 or 96 inputs, scene
automation, more compressors and equalizers than there are input channels, etc., etc..
The unit retails for over $100,000, even for a "stripped down" version. |
| Looking over the preliminary
literature on the PM1D, it looked like a console that was made for a recording studio.
Looking over the specifications, I could see no reasons for it not to be used in
this kind of application. So one of my reasons for My June, 2000 visit to Yamaha was
to see just how usable the console would be in a music recording studio. |
| Just before I left on my trip,
my Yamaha contact pointed out that there was another "soon to be release"
product that was brought to my attention, the AW4416 audio workstation. List price
of this unit is about $600.00 more than the Roland 1808 workstation, but the "out the
door" price at major retailers is likely to be only $200 - $300 more than the Roland
unit. Impressive is the actual amount of "real" internal tracks in
the unit (as opposed to the Roland's "virtual" tracks), and a built in
"sampling pad" section that allows the user to insert samples as needed into the
productions. These features, along with a lot of internal hard dive space and
optional Recordable CD drive, should make this product a "hit" with home
studios and even some smaller professional studios. |
| So with these things in mind I
made my way to Yamaha late last month. |
| The Visit |
| My host was Mr. Don Morris, head
of "information services" of Yamaha customer support. When you call Yamaha
for help with your 02R, you get plugged into his section of customer support. I got
a quick tour of the customer service and pro audio /commercial audio marketing area of
Yamaha's Buena Park, California complex, got a nice Chinese lunch at their expense and got
a meeting with one of the product managers after lunch. |
| The first stop was the
information services area. Yamaha is in the process of beefing up its customer
service web presence so that customers can get answers to most of their questions with a
few mouse clicks rather than waiting to speak to a customer service representative.
So when you don't know how to do something with a Yamaha product at midnight, you can find
out with a few mouse clicks rather than wait for customer service to open in the
morning. Yamaha also wants to help make its customers become more "educated
users" by providing in depth information at the customers service part of the
web site. |
| At the heart of their customer
service web is a technical glossary that can provide accurate and concise definitions of
technical audio and recording terms. To this end, they have arranged to use hundreds
of the definitions that we have posted in our Recording Engineer's Quarterly audio
glossary and the Alexander Magazine Audio Dictionary. I got a chance to see them
working on this posting, view how it's going to appear on the web and how our definitions
will "pop up" with a mouse click. It looks like it will be a highly useful
resource for Yamaha customers. In a follow-up conversation to the visit, I found out
that the project was delayed slightly because they lost a key employee, unexpectedly.
The replacement is now on the job and the work has resumed on the project. |
| After lunch I got a chance to
talk with product manager Marc Lopez about the PM1D console system. Marc went over
the unit's operation and performance in some detail. It met and exceeded all of my
expectations as being a good choice for music recording studios except for one thing,
which unfortunately is a major point. The console has scene automation but no
"dynamic" automation like the 02R and other digital recording consoles on the
market. Fortunately, this is a software item and we may well see an enhanced
automation on future versions of the console. Marc let me know that the current
software (version 1.0) does not have this and the next version (1.1) is pretty well
planned without this feature. Since Yamaha realizes that this console could be a
contender in the music studio market, most likely this type of automation will be
eventually added. |
| An interesting point is that
scene automation (fully-supported by the PM1D system) is actually as powerful, if not more
powerful, than dynamic automation. The problem is the time it takes to program scene
automation to do what dynamic automation can do in one quick move of a control.
Since large studios (that can afford and use this big of a console) have clients that
demand quick changes, and it is unlikely that you will see the PM1D used in these
applications until these features are added. |
| Another new Yamaha product that
Don and Marc introduced me to is the new DME 32 Digital Mixing Engine. To understand
this product, first think of a patch bay that has 32 inputs and 32 outputs with any input
or output being in any format you want (analog line, analog mic, digital ADAT, digital
Tascam, AES/EBU, etc.). Then think of being able to insert any console component,
anywhere you want (fader, EQ, compressor, buss, etc. The result would be that you
have a completely customized router, mixer or complete recording console that exactly
suits you and your needs. With this you would, of course, have complete
programmable scenes. It may well be that this format will be the console of the
future. You can find out more about this exciting new product at Yamaha's DME32
product page. |
| Unfortunately Yamaha scheduled a
product manager conference in Los Vegas during the time I was in LA. As a result I
was unable to meet with the product manager that oversees the AW4416 to get more
in-depth information on it. We will, however, be in contact with Yamaha on this
product and you can expect to see future REQ articles on this unit. |
| Getting In and Out of
Yamaha |
| On a lighter note, there was
something strange about my visit to Yamaha. Yamaha's parking lot is arranged so that
you can freely drive into it but to get out you need a "parking token" to
operate a gate blocking the exit. It would seem as though Yamaha wants it customers
to stay a while. They gave me an extra parking token as a souvenir which promptly
wound up in my step-son's coin collection. |
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Copyright © 2000, by
Robert Dennis, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED |
Published in Recording
Engineer's Quarterly and Alexander magazines with permission |
USE OF THIS ARTICLE SUBJECT TO USER AGREEMENT |
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