BY NICK BATZDORF

 



amaha isn't the only company to exploit its technology in a variety of products of all shapes and sizes, but it's certainly one of the best at doing so. Examples: the hugely successful DX-7 was one in a long series of FM synthesizers; most of the awesome VL-1 acoustic modeling synth can be found in the VL-70m and some other synths; the REV500 and several other products-including the VL-1 and the 01V mixer being reviewed-use the same effects chips first introduced in Yamaha's ProR3 reverb.

That's how it is with Yamaha's current line of digital mixers, which themselves contain software elements from previous digital products. The 01V is perhaps 80% of Yamaha's 03D mixer, minus the on-board dynamic automation and surround mixing capabilities-for about half the price. And with slight differences, these same innards come from Yamaha's current top-of-line 02R mixer. They'll also appear in the upcoming DSP Factory computer-based digital audio system.

Furthermore, the 01V has a lot in common with the unit it's eclipsing, 1994's revolutionary ProMix 01, the first current generation digital mixer. But it's a considerably better board that provides a lot more for about the same price.

In a nutshell
Because the 01V borrows most of its analog and digital "circuitry" from the 03D, you might also want to check out that review in the 8/97 issue; just picture a pared down version with a couple of design improvements of its own.

As an overview, the 01V is an automatable digital board with 60mm multi-function motorized faders that move to reflect their current positions. Push one button and the faders control the first 16 inputs, another button and they control the send levels to, say, Aux 1, and so on.

This mixer has room for eight digital I/Os with an optional card, and it comes with 16 analog ins (24 total inputs), four analog busses, and a main stereo bus. You could call this a 24 x 4 mixer, but actually it's possible to address up to 14 independent destinations: eight digital tape tracks, the stereo out, and the four analog aux sends.

The 16 analog inputs consist of twelve balanced XLR or 1/4" TRS mono mic/line with +48V phantom power switchable in blocks of six channels, plus two 1/4" TRS stereo line/instrument ins. By comparison the 03D has eight mic preamps with individually switchable phantom power, and it has 16 mono channels and one stereo analog channel; the ProMix 01 had eight XLR and eight 1/4" ins.

Among other uses the stereo channels would work well for returning external effects, since there are no dedicated inputs for the purpose. However, the 01V has the two internal effects processors mentioned above, and they do have returns. These returns are controlled by dedicated rotary encoders that aren't motorized; the 03D uses a single motorized fader with a toggle between the two units.

The 01V does have a stereo S/PDIF digital input that can be routed to stereo channel 13/14, but it's hard to imagine that anyone would purchase an 01V without adding an 8-channel Option I/O digital card in your choice of Tascam, ADAT optical, or AES/EBU formats. Incidentally, the Option I/O cards, which run about $300, are not the same as the YGDAI cards used in the 03D and 02R. Yamaha has also announced three analog Option I/O cards.

All 16 analog inputs, the board's four aux sends, and the stereo output have integral digital dynamics processors (compressor, gate, expander, etc.). These are the board's full-featured channels, which also have 4-band eq. The eight digital channels are more minimal, with 2-band eq and no dynamics processing. Their operation is also a little more involved-you must adjust onscreen faders to set their levels to the onboard effects processors, for instance. However, you can swap any or all of the eight digital channels with the first eight analog channels to spend your DSP where it's needed.

Note that there are no insert points for external compressors or other processors. While the mere 2.5 milliseconds it takes a signal to go through the board is very impressive, it's enough to require external mic preamps if you're sending the entire signal through outboard processors-running the signal through a board input, out a bus, and back in could be a problem. Digital delays with single sample increments on each of the 16 full-featured channels can help compensate for this or for phase problems due to mic positioning. This is a very useful feature, although these delays can't be panned independly of the direct signal-they get merged in the same data stream.

If you expand to more than one digital tape machine, Yamaha has made it as easy as possible to add a second 01V mixer. Unlike other 0-series mixers, there's no digital Cascade card available-you simply go S/PDIF digital from board to board, routing the digital return from the first 01V to stereo Channel 13/14 on the second. But a Local Off mode lets one 01V control the second one via MIDI SysEx messages, and you can link the two pretty thoroughly using a serial cable. We had only one board in for review and weren't able to test this.

Layout
At 27-1/2 pounds and 16.9"W x 5.8"H x 20.4"D, the 01V is a little lighter, narrower, and lower than the 03D. The lower height dictates that the board not have as steep a back-to-front slope, so propping it up a little makes it easier to see. While the 01V's 320 x 80 pixel graphic display has a contrast control and is bigger than the ProMix's 240 x 64, it's less visible and has a narrower viewing angle than the 03D's more deluxe screen (which is considerably brighter and displays 320 x 240 pixels). But the choice of display screen is understandable, as this is probably the single most expensive component of the whole mixer. And the designers did a good job of keeping screen switching to a minimum.

The 01V uses the same onscreen metering as other 0-mixers to supplemement its main stereo 12-stage LED meters. These somewhat crude 6-stage meters display a maximum of 16 simultaneous inputs per screenful. However, an 03D annoyance has been fixed: the meter screen now follows the fader selection automatically. Also, there's a horizontal "mastering" high resolution stereo meter screen not found on other 0 boards.

While the 01V has the same number of digital control buttons as the 03D (70-odd), it employs them differently. For one, each channel has a dedicated solo button. Of course, that improvement is financed partly by grouping more functions under other buttons, by putting more information onto each screen, and by doing without user definable buttons, scene memory buttons, and some others. But the cost is actually quite minimal thanks to some careful thought.

Another improvement is borrowed from the 02R: dedicated rotary encoders for the eq's frequency and gain, plus one for panning. When you turn a knob the display jumps to the appropriate graphic to show what's going on. So to eq, you'd just push one of four eq frequency buttons, hit the appropriate channel's Sel[ect] button, and twiddle the frequency and gain knob. And panning works the same way. Fine-tuning the Q or eq type still requires that one use the arrow buttons and data wheel, but this setup makes fast changes in the heat of battle much easier than on either the 03D or ProMix.

Because the 01V has 15 motorized faders to the 03D's 19, it was possible to place the navigation controls (arrows, Enter button, data wheel, parameter increment/decrement buttons) where right-handers really want them to be: at the right front of the board. By no coincidence, that's right next to where the trackball for this reporter's 03D goes. The 03D's mouse input is one of its best innovations, but it probably wouldn't make sense on the 01V's much smaller screen.

Finally, the 01V's lower profile means that all but the digital and power connections have to be on the top panel rather than the rear. That makes the jacks more accessible at the expense of a slightly less tidy installation.

Automation
Out of the box the 01V has 100 memory locations to store Scenes, which are snapshots of the entire state of the board (except for a few analog parameters like the headphone and monitor levels and the input gains). You can store a fade transition time with each Scene that applies only to selected parameters, and the faders hop right to their new positions. Or else they glide there-you can program fade times as long as 25 seconds.

Faders also reflect their actual positions when you're using dynamic mix automation, meaning that you've recorded their movements-or other controller's movements-and are playing them back. But like the ProMix 01 and two of the other digital boards reviewed in this issue, the 01V relies on an external MIDI sequencer for dynamic mix automation.

The lack of onboard dynamic automation is bound to be a drawback for some people, while others who always use the board hooked up to a sequencer or digital audio workstation will be happy not having to pay extra for it. Regardless, editing automation moves is easier in some sequencers than others. Emagic Logic Audio, for instance, has automation merge, replace, and update modes that make it possible to punch in on individual MIDI controllers-i.e. individual faders or parameters-without overwriting the other automation data you've recorded.

In addition to storing scenes, all 0-series mixers can store several categories of parameters. These include libraries of entire channel settings (which can be copied to other channels and also recalled via program changes-useful for automation), eq programs (including a bunch of presets whose purpose still eludes me), and dynamics programs.

Old misc.
The 0-series mixers all have a dizzying number of software features that would be expensive or impossible to implement on an analog board. Here are a few: pairing channels for stereo-all changes made to one side apply to the other as well, and moving one fader drags the other along; three scaled fader groups and three mute groups (the 03D has four of each); switchable metering positions; switchable pre-post configurations; different solo and monitor modes that are at last explained very well in the manual, which is up to Yamaha's usual high standards for documentation.

Here are a few more features: calibration tones and noises; phase reversals on all inputs; the ability to set up the faders for alternate destinations; and a peak hold toggle for the meters.

The 01V has a built-in Mac or PC MIDI interface (the To Host connector) in addition to the standard MIDI connectors. It can control other MIDI devices remotely, and the first few Select buttons can be set up to send MMC transport control messages (play, stop, etc.). You can program the MIDI messages each physical control sends.

But there's still one tantalizing ommission common to all the 0-series mixers: would that there were a motorized local off mode to control digital audio workstation mixing. A somewhat clumsy workaround involves devoting one of the board's sends to this task-leave its audio path unconnected, but use its fader positions for MIDI remote control of the DAW's mixing levels.

Audio
Which brings us to what the 01V sounds like. With a couple of exceptions, it sounds like and has the same specs as the 03D/02R, which are supposed to be sonically identical and are clear, quiet, and transparent.

One difference from the 03D/02R is that these mic preamps are specified as having 6dB less gain. Otherwise, the 01V uses 20-bit A/D converters of the same subjective quality as the 03D/02R, and it has 20-bit D/As on its main record outs. Both the analog sends and the monitor outs use 18-bit converters. The 03D/02R use 20-bit D/As on their monitor outs, but the audible difference between the two is very subtle.

These mixers all process internally at 32-bit resolution but can dither down to any bit rate between 24 and 16. It seems that the dither is only being applied to the board's digital outs, though; it would most likely sound noticeably better if dither were also in the analog monitor path. Plus, it's probably a good idea to be monitoring exactly what's going down.

But the 01V sounds excellent, legitimately better than the ProMix-which in my opinion sounded fine. With its four overlapping bands and adjustable Q, the 4-band eq on the full-featured channels is flexible enough for all but the most surgical applications. While you won't be raving about the onboard dynamics processors to your grandchildren on your deathbed, they sound perfectly competent and offer plenty of control.

Finally, Yamaha has rethought the onboard effects processors a little since the 03D by letting you route the output of one into the other. There are fewer reverbs and more effect-type programs in the mix, a new ring modulator algorithm, and new features include tap tempo and musical value delay time setting. These are studio-quality effects processors that you're likely to use, not add-on toys.

Conclusion
Everything there is to like about Yamaha's other digital mixers-and there really is quite a lot-applies equally to the 01V on its smaller scale.

The way its eight optional digital I/Os are set up makes it an excellent companion for a digital audio workstation. It would also work perfectly well with a single 8-track digital recorder, and its ability to be cascaded offers an escape clause if you add a second machine.

Bottom line, the 01V is an extremely appealing product in its price range, and it's pretty much everything one wished for in the 1994 ProMix 01. Four years is a very long time nowadays.

Reprinted with permission from

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