Yamaha O1V96VCM Vs Yamaha LS932

[RoyS]

Hi All,

 

I am specifying new kit for a secondary school and looking for a new digital desk for live work.

Funds are finite as usual and spending more on a desk will mean savings elsewhere…

 

A few questions about the two contenders:

 

Major differences between the two?

 

If the O1V was chosen I would want to increase the mic inputs from 12 by adding an additional A-D card. I can’t find definitive info on these cards. Which card could be added? How many extra mic inputs would I get and at what price?

 

What are the best prices seen in the UK? (I’m not sure if Thomann is in the running due to ordering policy of school)

 

Cheers folks.

 

RS

[Rob_Beech]

Follow This Link For all the cards, check compatibility and they search for the model number in a suitable store. The digital ones require an external pre-amp aswell. The costs soon add up,

 

I'd recommend the LS9 for Live work, but I appreciate your budget limitations. That said, do compare the total cost of an O1V96VCM with an expansion slot and the necessary preamps, and a suitable flightcase for it. and the interconnecting cables, be it D sub, or ADAT, or whatever, to a standard LS9-16 with a case.

 

Rob

[iAudio]

Hello there,

 

I own an LS9 and an 01V96. I think both desks are great. Although the lS9 is used more often I dont want to sell the 01V as its just a great desk for the size and money plus it sounds great.

 

I have a Behringer ADA 8000, which gives you 8 additional inputs and outputs. They sell for around £135.00 plus VAT. You then need 2 optical leads then you are away, just plug the ADA in to the ADAT ins and outs on the back of the 01V96. If you want more in and outs you will have to buy an ADAT card, but Yamaha have other interface options,like rob said follow the link to Yamaha site and have a look.

 

For a school I would have to advise that the LS9 is the better option for a vast number of reasons, one main concern is that using a large number of inputs on the O1V can be a pain to handle even for the most experienced user but again depends on your channel requirements and budget.

 

Hope this helps if you want to know more about the features of each desk I (and other noiseboys of blueroom) would b happy to answer your questions.

 

Ben

[Bobbsy]

If you follow Rob's link you will see that there are various ways to add your extra mic channels.

 

Probably the most common would be with the addition of an ADAT card (MY8AT or MY16AT) plus a couple of mic preamp to ADAT adaptors. The most cost effective of this would be the Behringer ADA8000. Since the 01V96 already has one ADAT port as standard, you could get away with the MY8AT card plus 2 ADA8000s which would give you 16 more mic inputs. It's worth saying that the 16 input ADAT card is way less than double the 8 way and a good many people buy the MY16 even if they don't need that many inputs.

 

However, it's worth listening to what Rob says about the LS9 being more suitable for live work. Although many people manage to use an 01V live (I've done it myself) the layer and menu structure is not ideal. Considering that this is a school install where you will have a variety of operator skills and people leaving every year as they graduate, I'd be a bit worried about using the 01V.

 

If you can afford the LS9, I can very much recommend that; however, if budget dictates the 01V and the expansion gear, I'd seriously consider a decent analogue console and a bit of outboard.

 

Bob

 

Edited to add..."oops, iAudio got in there before me...at least we more or less agree!"

[RoyS]

You guys are stars!

 

Thanks so much for highlighting the Behringer I/O. Could I add more than one ADA 8000 or is one the limit on the O1V? Casing the whole lot up might not be too elegant… Obviously both desks obviate the necessity for outboard and drive racks so I think I try hard to stay digital.

 

I have a fair bit of experience using the LS9 and hope funds will stretch that far. The LS9 is not my first choice of the Yamaha digital desks but I recently saw one use by the Hoosiers for FOH duties driving a truck-load of Martin line-array supplied by Capital…You would have thought an M7 at least but hey…

 

I will probably end up being the main operator but want to get the kids involved and it seems logical to go for digital because that's what they’ll end up using at college and beyond…

 

Thanks again.

 

Roy

 

 

 

A concurrent post has been automatically merged from this point on.

 

Have just seen a thread referencing the Mackie TT24, very interesting... Will check it out...

 

Does anyone have any opinions on the TT24?

 

Thanks.

 

Roy

[Rob_Beech]

I've heard mixed reviews about the TT24, few of which are overly good. Subjective as with everything else.

[lxkev]

Hi There

 

I'm the technical manager of a performing arts college theatre in the middlands.. we bought the LS9/16, adat card and behringer pre amps......

 

Its very robust, we let the student's use it..

 

But I would like to suggest you might budget also for a laptop and a wifi router..........this alows you to sound check and adjust your mointors from stage.....loads of reasons...

 

2nd suggestion, you buy a behringer bcf2000.. its a 8 channel automated midi fader desk... (or 2) thus alowing you hands on faders for all 32 channels

[Rob_Beech]

In today's world of digital mixing. There aren't MANY desks that allow hands on access to al the faders, and with the user friendlyness increasing the way it has I don't find it to be a problem. A layer button is all that seems necessary. Gone are the days when you need 4 button presses just to get to the rest of your channels.

[TimmyP1955]

I've heard mixed reviews about the TT24, few of which are overly good. Subjective as with everything else.

 

'Tis said that with the latest firmware it finally works as intended. For me the lack of recallable headamps is a big negative (as with the 01V96). THE deal breaker though is that with all the changes and cutbacks at Loud/Mackie, I'd be worried about getting proper service on a TT24 should there be any problems.

[MarkPAman]

We've had a TT24 at the college where I work for some years now. Never had a single problem with it.

 

For teaching, the large, clear TT control software is fantastic & we find it a very easy desk to get students using. With full input and output routing now available the large number of inputs & outputs make it very flexible. Add their CAT5 multicore system to get 32 recallable head amps, and the Lake Processor card for a very powerful speaker management system and/or extra graphics. I particularly like the dedicated group faders, the different ways of using groups (which to my mind is closer to a big analogue desk than most digi desks) and the matrices that can take signals from virtually anywhere in the signal path.

 

Down side? Well it's quite big compared to it's newer rivals & the effects are really not that nice (though new software may change that soon). Oh, and no off-line editing.

 

I've no problem with recomending this desk for a school.

[Bobbsy]

Thanks so much for highlighting the Behringer I/O. Could I add more than one ADA 8000 or is one the limit on the O1V?

 

Just to take this specific query, yes, you can use more than one ADA8000 on an O1V. Each ADA8000 has eight mic preamps...the signals from these are output in ADAT form on TOSLINK/lightpipe. The 01V has one ADAT input as standard; if you add an MY8AT in the expansion slot, this can handle the second ADA8000.

 

Bob

[paulears]

One educational comment on the two desks in question. 3 actually, because I also have seen similar things with the old 02.

 

The snag is in the operating style. As Yamaha have gone through each phase of digital desk design, they've tinkered with the operation style - and I think each time it's been a good jump. I suppose that the kind of people we have on the forum could come to any of these mixers and with a bit of lable reading and a few cautionary button prods, they'd be away. We're comfy talking about adding extra A/D and handling the interfacing. School and college students nowadays rarely follow logical processes - they certainly don't read manuals! The snag with an 01 is that random button prodding can really mess things up. Some critical features require a 2nd push. but the sheer quantity of controls on the top layer, and then others one layer below confuse things. On the latest versions of Yamaha products only the 'working' controls are on the top panel for immediate use. As casual users don't need to go deeper to turn something up, or simply to get sound out of them, these latest products are really good for schools and colleges who may have some skilled ops, and tons of er.... not so skilled one (include staff in this). In a way, the old 03 was much better for them than the 01 as the slight differences in operational style made using it simply, simple. All of the incarnations of 01 from the earliest to the latest are too complex on the top panel - no doubt of the initial hate of sub menus and extra layers, which we now quite like!

 

For schools and colleges, products need to follow the KISS principle, or they will be wrecked or simply put away in a store because the technicians get fed up constantly resetting them. This may well be the critical factor - does the purchase of the new bit of kit give the technicians (often overworked and underpaid) lots more work to do? If it does, it will not be popular no matter how sonically excellent it is.

[RoyS]

Thanks to all contributors thus far on this subject.

I feel drawn to the LS9-32 due to familiarity, robustness of the desk and the product support (perceived or otherwise) of Yamaha.

Untrained fingers could screw up routing and end up with silent outputs but a USB stick could put things back to normal in an instant.

 

One other thing regarding the LS9… The LS9-32 is sold as a 32 channel desk and comes with 16 mic inputs. The 16 channels can be added to by adding a propriety card like the MY8-AD24 into the desks single expansion slot, the result is now 24. How do I get to 32 without using external A-D’s?

 

Thanks again.

 

Roy

[MarkPAman]

One other thing regarding the LS9… The LS9-32 is sold as a 32 channel desk and comes with 16 mic inputs. The 16 channels can be added to by adding a propriety card like the MY8-AD24 into the desks single expansion slot, the result is now 24. How do I get to 32 without using external A-D’s?

 

Not quite.

 

The LS9-16 has 16 mic inputs & can be expanded to 32. The LS9-32 has 32 mic inputs & can be expanded to 64.

[Bobbsy]

Exactly. As Mark says, the LS9/32 has 32 mic inputs "out of the box". Importantly, it also has 32 faders so you don't need to use multiple layers unless you expand to more than this number.

 

I know you like the idea of a digital board but I'd endorse what Paulears had to say. I personally like the 01V....in a home studio or edit suite situation...and have used it for live. However, I think it would be a poor choice for a school setting, both because of the damage you can do with random button pressing but also because it's not what I consider a good board to learn mixing principles from the beginning. I've been a digital convert for many years now...but, as I posted earlier, I'd choose analogue over digital if budget only allowed the 01V.

 

One comment on the TT24: I have no personal experience using that board but, if one of the goals is to give students some digital experience, it's worth considering that they are FAR more likely to encounter a Yamaha board than a Mackie. I'd also be a bit worried about the present financial instability that Loud/Mackie are going through.

 

Bob