Beginners advice on Yamaha 01 mixer

[Steve Thomas]

Currently I've been asking questions about running my Martin Blackline rig and ease of set up and control given that my 5 piece band has no sound engineer (moi, of and guitarist, oh and vocalist) and several people have commented on Digital desks. The 1st proposal put to me was a yamaha LS9....then I looked at the price, thereafter someone said about a yamaha 01, although there are so many versions (or at least it seems to me) as on e-bay today there is a yamaha 01v currently at £148 (2 days to go) and yet a yamaha 01v 96 going for £1800.

 

My 1st question is whats with the differences and does the £1800 version mean its version 96 :D (said it was a beginners question).

 

I am in a 5 piece covers band, so where would you steer me in terms to what to look for. If it helps we have a technician Keyboard player who is into cubase etc and brings a laptop to gigs.

 

There will (no doubt) be more questions, but what benefits will a digital mixer do for my application...and yes I'm about to hit the search button.

[berry120]

There's quite a few changes, the review of the 01V96 here details a lot of them. Also bear in mind that the original 01V is quite an old desk now so watch out for things wrong with them if they're going on ebay, quite a few of the ones I've seen on there have been advertised as having faders sticking or effects not working and suchlike. If you can get a good one then great, but I'd advise looking closely at the small print before buying! Someone might want to clarify this but I think there's actually been more versions than just 2, there was the original 01V, 01V96, then I think the 01V96v2 before the current 01V96 VCM - might be worth looking up the differences (I'm not entirely sure so I won't post my vague thoughts here!)

 

Digital desks will come with a lot of things build in that you'd traditionally need outboard for - so EQ (the 01V family offers 4 band fully parametric on each channel IIRC), effects, dynamics processing like compressors and gates usually come in on each channel as well as on each output. If you need this sort of thing on each channel or you think it'd come in handy then digital might well be the way to go, it works out cheaper and it'll definitely come in a smaller package! If on the other hand you don't need the sorts of features digital offers then I'd advise going analogue.

[Killyp]

If you're used to the way digital systems such as Cubase work, then you shouldn't have *too* many problems getting your head around a digital desk. For reference, the 01V is visually similar, but functionally massively inferior to the 01V96. The one to go for is the 01V96 VCM (the VCM being more advanced effects).

[Gareth Owen]

The 96 refers to the sample rate the new version of the console supports. Yamaha did something similar with the O2R96 too.

 

Theres an intresting atricle about sample rates here : http://www.3daudioinc.com/3daudio_hi-res.html

 

I haven't used the O1V in so long I can't comment on it but the O1V06 is a great bit of kit. I would have thought either unit would be great for the OP's task with the final choice being down to budget...

 

Oh, amd you might glance at the O3D or maybe a 2nd hand O2R too if that fits your I/O requirments.

[Doug Siddons]

FWIW www.Go-Dove.com have an auction on their list of ex bbc gear and I counted 9 O1V's in it. The desk in any version will work for you as long as its reliable, as in motor cars the newer the version the more bells and whistles you get, which in my opinion, based on your requirements, you probably won't need or use. Any new piece of kit is going to involve a learning curve which you will just have to get your head round having spent the money; that said the 01v isn't a difficult desk to learn. There are alternatives out there but I wouldn't muddy the waters at this stage. The advantage/benefit the desk will bring to your shows is that the desk will remember the settings you used after each show (give or take human error but that applies to any piece of gear) and on subsequent gigs all you really have to worry about is how your rig sounds in each venue, the sound of your band is stored.

 

Finally as a sound engineer/pa hire company I would prefer it if you budgeted for £60k's worth of digico desk and employ one of us to do your sound at every gig for the next month