Monday at NAB
I spent most of the day today with Greg Atkinson and Jonathan Moon, from Bent Tree Bible Fellowship. We got about a half day on the exhibit floor. One thing thing that I really wanted to look at . . .
Yamaha M7CL. We just started another service, and the gain structures for the two services are way different. Gate settings on drums are not translating well, lead vocal mic compressor settings are way different, etc. It’s time for a digital console. The features of the M7CL are very similar to our Allen and Heath ML5000. 48 inputs, 8 VCA’s (DCA’s on the Yamaha) 16 aux busses, etc. So this new console will pretty much be a drop-in. Plus I’ll have the added advantage of dynamics processing on any channel I need it. I’m pretty sold on it. ANYONE USING THIS AND HAVE ANY WORDS OF WISDOM FOR ME??
April 15, 2008 at 9:02 am
Brian, with a church your size I’d look at something a little more on the large scale format. The M7 is a great console, and I’m a bit of yamaha fan :-D, but the M7 to me isn’t always MY particular best friend. There are a lot of people who have had great success with the M7. what if one day you need more than 48 channels? I really like the Vi6 for a church in your size. It’s a great desk and drives just like an analog console. Feel free to email me. We just got done demo’ing everything imaginable for our church, and bought a CS-D5 from DigICo.
April 15, 2008 at 5:06 pm
We love our M7CL console, but John raises a valid concern. If you think you will need more than 48 channels, you probably need to consider a larger console; perhaps a PM5D.
We’re considering adding an LS9 console using the card slot with midi control to give us more channels to work with. The M7 and the LS9 would then operate as one console, although busing will probably get confusing.
April 15, 2008 at 6:13 pm
We (www.mycrossroads.org) use an LS9. Our dealer (5th largest Yamaha dealer in the south) told me that the M7 is based off their old architecture, and the LS9 represents what’s new coming from Yamaha. Right now, we use it in a 32-channel configuration, but we’re going to 48 soon. It’s expandable to 64.
There aren’t any features in the M7 that we needed enough to pay the extra $10K, so I went with the LS9. The only thing I wish we had was a dedicated talkback mic. We just use one of our lavs for the engineer to talk back during rehearsals. Not optimal, but it works.
So far, the LS9 has worked great for us. We’re about to build a 1500-seat auditorium, and whatever Yamaha has comparable to a PM5D in their new architecture is likely what I’ll get.
April 15, 2008 at 7:22 pm
I really like the Vi6 for churches that need a 48 channel sized console and are lookigng to go digital. especially if you need all the functions of a large format console. 16 Auxes can be really limiting.
April 17, 2008 at 12:26 am
We’ve got an M7CL at monitors and like it, however it does not offer all the convienience afforded on other digital platforms such as the Digidesign Venue, PM5D, DigiCo D5, etc. By that, it does not have snapshot/recall, but it does offer scenes, a good tool, but not all that flexible. You can build your library of EQ’s, Dynamics, etc. to meet your needs, but you cannot store an entire channel (i.e. in/out, sends, pre’s etc.) I much prefer the M7 over the LS9 due to the availability of all four bands of EQ at yoru finger tips, and the touch screen is a great benefit. Those two features alone, are worth the cost increase over the LS9. The M7 can be expanded to 96 channels, but only with remote pre’s. Likely a clunky solution for growth, but an option none-the-less. If you want to get your hands on one, feel free to contact me and you can play around a bit.
April 17, 2008 at 10:14 am
I appreciate the comments. I was under the impression that all the patching and mic pres are recallable as scenes. I’ll do some more reading on it. the main reason for not going with a Vi6 or something else is $$. I’ll have to sell my ML5K to make up for a good bit of the cost of th new console. I don’t really have a concern about the 48 channel limitation. I’ve had that with my Current desk anyway. As for outputs, I’ll max it out with additional outputs and an Aviom card. Any other suggestions for another low-cost digital mixer?
Ryan - I’d love to come by and take a look at your mixer.
April 18, 2008 at 6:52 pm
I love my M7CL. We installed it at FOH in mid-February at our church. It was easy for me to teach the other guys (they had only used analog mixers) how to use it. I really only have 2 complaints about the M7CL. 1) The mic pres are a little on the bright side and 2) it does not have the ability to record to a USB drive like the LS9.
When I went to the M7CL class that Yamaha offers the teacher validated both issues and had good explanations for the board being the way it is. Obviously my issues didn’t stop me from getting the board and loving it. The bottom line is I believe it is a great FOH mixer. Good luck on your journey.
April 18, 2008 at 11:08 pm
John,
Isn’t the M7 expandable?
We’ve been using the 48channel since last fall. I love the digital format . For your main mixer it’s a great help especially if you run multiple services which require different settings.. etc
Good luck.
April 25, 2008 at 7:44 pm
I do not think the M7 is expandable, as there are no user layers, though there are a lot of things I haven’t come across on the M7. I’ve gotten so used to the PM1D, 5D, DM2000 format when it comes to digital consoles, that I struggle a little bit getting around the m7 for the first half hour or so. The m7 is a great console, don’t get me wrong, but for a church the size of Fellowship, I just think one day, you might wish you’d waited to spend the 25,000 on a larger console.
As far as outputs the physical outputs aren’t a problem for me so much as the output busses that it offers.
April 28, 2008 at 3:36 pm
We just recently installed the Allen and Heath iLive 144. It is a great console. It has the feel of an analog console in many ways, but is really a great digital console. I love the digital snake that it offers making it a smooth transition from an analog console and the large snake to the digital console snake that consists of 2 Cat5 cables. If you haven’t looked into it I would definitely suggest it before you make any purchase. I looked at the M7CL, but it doesn’t compare to what the Allen and Heath has to offer.