Hands On With The New Yamaha CL5

Got an on site demo of the new Yamaha CL5 today.  We have a couple of M7CL’s and LS9’s and we have liked those.  We were curious how the CL5 improved on the other consoles.

First impression is that the console is very similar to the M7CL consoles, just less faders on the surface.  Almost the same center section with the knobs and touchscreen.  You gain some extra knobs to the right of the screen and some buttons above the knobs on the left to make navigating a little easier.

The faders are all new and feel pretty nice.  We did notice that a couple of the fader caps seemed too low and felt like they were rubbing the surface but this is a early production desk.  Above the faders are digital channel labels and colored bars that you can customize to help organize things.  Lastly there’s a knob above each fader that can be gain, pan, or a customized setting.

We were playing with the CL5 which is the largest console in the new CL series.  This has 16 input faders to the left, 8 input or bus faders in the middle, 8 bus faders to the right of the center section, a stereo fader and a mono fader.

The layout is pretty nice with lots of options.  The input faders on the left can access all 72 inputs plus there’s a couple of custom layers.  The custom layers let you arrange inputs any way you want on one layer.

The center section can access all 72 input channels and all of the output busses.  So you could have the left faders on inputs 1-16 and the center section on inputs 65-72 (or whatever).  You don’t have to switch layers on the entire desk at once, each section is switched individually.  This lets you work how you want to work and keep what’s important in front you all the time.

The right section is for output busses and VCA’s, like the center section on an M7.  Lastly the stereo and mono master faders are at the very end.  Since the masters can be accessed though the other bus sections these can actually be changed to input faders if you want.  For example you could have the Pastor’s wireless mic and the backup podium mic always available on those faders.  Then you always have quick access to those channels.

Sonically we didn’t really get to put it through it’s paces but it seems that Yamaha has done their homework.  The head end consists of all new mic pres and the digital snake is handled by a Dante audio network.  We were told that the built in dynamics and EQ on the channels are the same as the M7.

You get tons of graphic EQ’s, factory plugins, and “premium” plugins that can be inserted all over.  Graphics can be stereo 31 band or dual mono 15 band.  The standard plugin rack has effects, eq’s, and dynamics plugins that can be inserted.  The “premium” rack has some Rupert Neve endorsed plugins that model classic EQ’s and compressors.  According to Yamaha they’re the only console plugins that Rupert Neve will be officially endorsing.  You can have up to 16 stereo 31 band graphics or 32 mono 15 band graphics, 8 standard plugins, and 8 premium plugins.  A couple of the premium plugins take 2 spaces in the virtual rack due to the processing power needed.

Overall that’s a lot of stuff built into the box that’s all standard.  The premium rack doesn’t cost extra to unlock or anything like that.  If that’s not enough you can get cards and extra hardware for Waves plugins, Dan Dugan automatic gain control, and Lake processing.  It’s a pretty versatile desk and I like the fact that Yamaha makes it easy for their products to work with other 3rd party products.

Price wise it’s very competitive.  I didn’t get any real quotes but the rep said that it’s not a huge jump up from the M7, about 20% more.  In that case it’s kind of a no brainer considering the number of features that you gain.  The only real drawback would be less physical faders on the surface.  This means working with layers instead of having everything on the surface.

Overall we liked the console, it’s got a lot going for it and it’s a nice step up from the M7.  Our Yamaha consoles have proven to be very easy to use and have rock solid reliability.  They seemed to have spent a lot of effort addressing the audio quality which could be one of the few arrows to shoot at the M7 or LS9.  If you’re in the market for a new console in this price range it’s definitely worth a look.

http://www.yamahaproaudio.com/global/en/products/mixers/cl/index.jsp

Mackie HDA Speaker System

I got to check out Mackie’s new HDA arrayable speaker system today.  We are looking into it as an option at one of our satellite campuses.  I have to say we were pretty impressed with the sound right out of the box.

Basically these are self powered speakers with some processing already built in.  There’s an HDA top speaker that’s 110 degrees by 20 degrees with a 12″ low mid driver and two 1.7″ mid high drivers.  This matches up with the HD1801 subwoofer.

You can have a system as simple as one HDA and one HD1801 up to a flown system of two HD1801’s and four HDA’s.  (That’s the weight limit of the flying hardware.)  Ground stacked you could have as many subs as you want and up to 3 HDA’s stacked.  We are looking at two HDA’s and two HD1801’s per side ground stacked in our application.

We heard the HDA’s in a music store, not really an ideal setup, but it still let us know whether they were going to be an option or not.  They were set up with two HDA’s flown left and two flown right with two HD1801’s ground stacked.  All of the system processing was done in the boxes, no external processor was set up.

They sounded really nice.  Pretty smooth from front to back as you transitioned between boxes and very smooth from left to right.  Some line array systems transition very badly left to right with all kinds of weird phase issues in the middle of multiple hangs.  These aren’t really line arrays since you don’t couple the speakers but you get some of the benefits of a line array.  Being able to adjust the level between the HDA’s to better balance the level between the near and far seats is a benefit of an array style setup.

The built in processing resulted in a pretty smooth system response.  Nothing seemed like it was standing out or lacking.  Overall system EQ would still be needed to adjust for the room but out of the box you have a really nice starting point.

Price wise I’ve seen street prices of $1,800 per HDA and $1,000 per HD1801.  That means you could have a stereo rig with two HDA’s and two HD1801’s per side for about $11,200.  That’s a pretty rocking system for the money!  Some of our rooms have line array cabinets that cost thousands of dollars per speaker and you don’t have any amps or processing yet.

The HDA system is a great middle ground between powered speakers on sticks and a full blown line array system.  Both price wise and performance wise.  Now that we have heard these we are going to get an on-site demo and listen to them a little more critically.  I’m sure for the application we’re looking to use them for they’ll be great.

Check out Mackie’s site for more information on the HDA’s.  Also check out the Resolution coverage software.  It’s pretty easy to use and will let you plug in your room’s specs and see what kind of coverage you can expect from the system.

Que Audio DA12 Headset Mic

At Calvary we have been on the hunt for a discrete, good sounding, headset mic, for a long time. We have gone through a ton of options from Countryman, DPA, and tons more that I can’t remember right now, ha ha.  We never found one that sounded good to us and at the same time was comfortable for the pastor to wear.

Our audio vender was at a trade show a couple years ago and someone approached him and said that they had the best headset mic.  He said to send us one and we’ll let him know if it’s any good.  Next thing we knew a DaCappo (now Que QudioDA12 headset mic showed up in the mail and we loved it.

For the first time we had a mic that sounded good and was comfortable to wear.  The part that goes around the ear is a soft rubber with a flexible wire inside.  The wire gives enough to get around the ear and put on but doesn’t lose it’s shape.  Once it has been adjusted and you’re wearing it for a few minutes you really can forget you’re wearing it.

Sound wise it’s pretty neutral, no hyped top end or anything.  We get plenty of gain before feedback using the omni capsule.  Lastly they’re built well, we haven’t killed one yet.  The only weird thing is that the boom is pretty long.  It’s adjustable about 1cm but that’s not really enough.  We’ve been ordering the “petite” size and found that gets the boom far enough away from the mouth and nose to avoid plosives, and it looks a little better.

That’s the DA12 headset mic.  So far about 4 or 5 people that said they “would never wear one of those” have worn this and have fell in love with it.  In the world of headset mics this is the greatest thing since sliced bread, ha ha.

Live Digital Audio Consoles

We currently have an aging Soundcraft Series Five audio console.  It’s been a warhorse, providing over 14 years of high quality analog audio.  But it’s getting cranky in it’s old age so we’re looking into a new option.  We also do enough different events in our sanctuary where we will really benefit from the recall that comes with a digital console.

This has been a long process. For about 8 months now we’ve been researching and looking at different consoles.  We’ve tried to stay open minded and give everything a look.  Since our current console is still working (mostly) we’re taking our time to make sure we make the right decision.  This will be something we have to live with for the next 10 years.

So far we have looked at digital consoles from Avid, Yamaha, Soundcraft, Studer, Midas, and Digico, probably more, ha ha.  All have pros and cons and slightly different methods of laying out the console and how features work.  They also vary greatly in price so that’s something else we’re looking at in addition to the features.

At this point it looks like it’s down to two options.  The Studer Vista 9 and the Digico SD7.  Both are flagship consoles for their brands and both are around the same price point.  They can handle a large number of channels, more than we’ll need.  Both have an option for Waves plugins.  There’s tons of auxes, groups, DCA’s, matrix channels, both could handle whatever we want to do for the foreseeable future.

The real difference, like with most of these consoles, is how they’re laid out and how you access channels, features, and layers.  Both are pretty flexible, pretty much any channel can be placed anywhere on any layer.  You really need this flexibility in a large console to make it fit your mixing style and feel like you know where everything is.

The Studer is a little more traditional in it’s layout.  Channels are in 10 fader blocks and there’s 10 faders in the master section for DCA’s and groups.  In each channel bucket there’s a screen with lots of knobs on the screens for tweaking EQ’s, aux’s, dynamics, all the channel features.  The knobs right on the screens makes it easy to know what you’re adjusting.

Switching between layers is done in a traditional way, pressing a button takes you through each layer.  There’s a unique feature that shifts you towards the next layer 10 channels at a time.  That is kinda cool but pretty limited as to when you can use it.  But since you can customize what is on each layer you’ll build what you want that way instead of shifting things.

The thing I like least about the Studer is that the master section is only 10 faders.  I’m used to our Soundcraft which has 8 groups and 10 VCA’s right in front of you at the master section.  Having 18 faders means you don’t have to move around the console very much for level changes.  With the Studer you have tons of groups and DCA’s but you access them through layers and only 10 faders in front of you at a time.  You can use the knobs above the faders for controlling things but I hate mixing on knobs.  That’s only ok to for aux masters or something you don’t access much.

It’s not practical to me to switch layers in order to use groups and DCA’s at the same time, i’ll just end up using one or the other.  The only way to have both in front of you at once is to eat up some of the channel faders next to the master section and put the groups or DCA’s there.  That would work but it’s not ideal.  You could have that bank of 10 faders be half groups and half DCA’s and that would work but with our setup that’s not enough faders to do what we usually do.

The Digico SD7 gives you a lot of faders in a relatively small footprint.  You get 12 faders on each side of hte master section for accessing channels.  In the master section you get two rows of 12 faders for groups and DCA’s plus 4 more for masters and matrix outputs.  That’s the default setup, anything can be put anywhere you want.

The SD7 layout seems the most flexible to me. When you change layers you do it in each of left, center, right, sections separately.  So you can access whatever channels you want in the left bank while leaving you’re money faders ready in the right bank.  You also get 18 layers (three banks of six) in the left and right banks and 12 layers (three banks of 4) in the master section.  On the one hand that seems like a lot but on the other it lets you build the layers however you want.

On the demo console I set up one layer bank with each of the channels in order like a normal console would be laid out.  Then on the next layer bank I grouped the mix down into sections.  For example drums, guitars, keys, vocals, wireless, and playback channels.  Now I’m not worrying about what channel is where.  If I need to raise the snare I go to the drum group and tweak the snare.  Because you have 18 layer to play with you have options like that.

Having 28 faders in front of me in the master section is great.  I can mix with both groups and DCA’s in front of me at the same time with 12 faders for each.  The remaining 4 faders for the masters and matrix outputs can be changed to “money” channels like the Pastor’s mic so you always have it without changing layers.  That makes more sense for me than needing a matrix output fader.  For getting into the menus and accessing the Waves plugins you do everything from the screen in front of you instead of a secondary computer like the Studer.  Not a huge deal but it’s nice, keeps you in front of the console rather than away from the desk to make changes.

The rest of the differences are just preferences really.  Software things to learn more than right or wrong.  While we have demo’d both separately will will be getting both again, hopefully at the same time, and setting them up in our sanctuary and putting them through their paces with a live band.  So far we have only tested them with pre-recorded stuff and local monitors, not real bands through the house system.  Check back and see what we get!