Roland V-Mixing M-400

[Ben Langfeld]

Hi all,

 

I've just stumbled across the Roland M-400 and it's got me thinking about whether my planned purchase of a Yammy LS9-32 should be modified. I love the idea of the digital snake with the Roland, but just looking at it I can't help but think it screams "my first mixer". Has anyone used this desk? Does anyone have an opinion on it whether positive or negative? Specifically, how would you compare it to the LS9-32? Better, worse, or just different, and why? Obviously I'll get a demo of both before I buy, but I just wanted to gauge the forum's response to this console. If no-one's ever used one before, I guess that's one big con for the Roland.

 

Thanks guys.

[Simon Lewis]

Ben,

 

The desk is now showing on Thomann's website. Their price for the desk and 40 in 16 return multi is £9k, so I'd guess pro rata it's in LS9 territory.

 

Whether Roland can achieve the same momentum and critical mass of sales so that it becomes rider accepted and people learn the surface because they're likely to come across it is a different matter. Having said that, if the features, HUI, price point and integrated digital snake are right (and it does look tempting!) they may have a winner...

 

I've not seen the desk, so I won't try and compare details...

 

Simon

[klemay]

Are you planning on using the desk for your own use , or for hiring it out?. I do alot of work in a recieving house, and the majority of the companies we get in use a yamaha PM5D. Although this is further up the market that The LS9 I imagine the control protocol of them is the same or very similar. if your using the desk for your own use, its really upto what you personally prefer, but if you were planning on hiring it out you may want to go down the yamaha route.

 

just my 2p worth

 

:unsure:

[JakeCTG]

I saw the desk at plasa and was interested in the concept but it did look very cheep and plastic, and I don't think it would last as well on dry hire or touring as the LS9.

[Ben Langfeld]

The desk would be for use by me and my team, not for dry hire. I managed to convince myself that the feature set really is superior to the LS9, having a digital snake, recording direct to Sonar, DCAs, etc. I worked out that it would save me almost £1500 compared to buying an LS9, ADAT cards, a firewire ADAT interface and an analogue multi. Plus, lugging that multi round in a case would really not do my back any favours. Got myself in a right twist over it now though. Roland have the features, yamaha have the reputation. Guess the only way to decide is by demoing them.

 

Any more thoughts greatly appreciated.

[Stuart91]

We have three Roland VM mixers in our hire stock. (They are the predecessor to the M-400 system and share many features as well as the same general layout and architecture)

 

The multicore option is simply brilliant - the time, effort, money, and truck space it saves is fantastic. For me this is a big advantage over any comparable Yamaha board. I agree that rider-friendliness will be a big issue for many people, but if you don't have touring engineers to deal with it would make a very good choice.

 

I had maybe 20mins hands-on with the M-400 at Plasa, and it seems to have addressed many of the niggles that I have with the VM series. There are more local inputs available, less restriction on dynamics and other processing, and a larger display which is generally nicer looking. The meters are built into the main console rather than being a seperate unit. The stuff which has been cut appears to be the more esoteric features which hardly anyone ever used anyway, like surround sound support.