Yamaha EMX 5016CF Powered Mixer
By Jamie Rio
I think it has been as least eight years since I reviewed the first Yamaha EMX board. It was nice, but really didn't have enough features and horsepower to propel a band or sound company into the big leagues. So here I am nearly a decade later. I don't know how many versions of this mixer have been produced, but I haven't reviewed one since the first incarnation. So, let's take a look at this unit. The Gear
The EMX 5016CF sports 12 mono mic/line input channels and four stereo input channel pairs. A 1000-watt (500 + 500) stereo power amp is built into the board, sending its wattage through 1/4" phone jacks or Neutrik Speakon outputs. Not one, but two SPX effects processors are featured, giving you buckets of effects possibilities. Individual compressors are present on channels one through eight. This compressor is a unique single knob device. Turn your knob to the right and you raise the compression ratio while adjusting the gain accordingly. All channels have gain knobs and 80Hz roll-off (high pass filter) buttons, but only channels one through eight have a 26dB attenuator button.
Basically, one through eight are set up for mic inputs. Only one through eight have insert jacks, and although all channels feature three bands of EQ, only the first eight channels feature a sweepable mid-range. All channels get two aux sends with pre- and postbuttons and two effects knobs for those SPX processors. Pan knobs are present along with nice large on/off buttons. Signal and peak indicator lights adorn each channel, and a PFL button sends the signal to the headphone jack. Next, we are left with the channel faders for the mono and stereo channels.
As we get to the Master section we can really see some of the Yamaha innovations. An array of output jacks using 1/4" and RCA plugs are designed to send your mixed signal to external power amps or powered speakers, recording devices or an additional mixer. There are also foot switch on/off jacks for the internal effects processors. Aux sends one and two, an XLR lamp jack and a stereo 1/4" headphone jack finish off the output cluster. So far pretty standard — the cool stuff lies ahead.
Following the jacks, we are outfitted with a nine-band digital graphic EQ controlled by a simple on/off button. The FRC (Frequency Response Correction System) is pretty cool. We can measure the sound characteristics of our environment through a pink noise generator and adjust the EQ automatically with the touch of a button. I won't get into the set-up and operation here, but let me just say it's simple and it works. There are also a bank of Vocal, Dance and Speech buttons for presets and User 1, 2 and 3 buttons for storing your own settings. There is a feedback suppressor section laid out just under the graphic EQ with auto- and manual-detect buttons. Next, a Maximize button engages a three-band compressor to the Stereo L/R bus signal, enhancing the sound and volume of the overall mix.
A phantom power switch gives you the 48 volts you need for whatever, and a power adjust switch lets you choose 500, 200 or 75watts (all stereo at 4 ohms). Power amp limiter lights let you see if you're blowing up your speakers. Here we are left with the Yamaha Speaker processing switch, or YS Processing switch. This button will kick up the bass if you don't have any subs. There are faders present for effects returns one and two, the aux sends and the stereo out. There is also a cool little mute button that mutes channels one through eight. That's pretty much what you get. Would you like to know how well it works?
The Gigs
The first run with the EMX mixer was at a local hotel. I had another gig, so I sent one of my best techs by the name of Walter Olney to the hotel. Walter mixed a five-piece jazz band for an audience of about two hundred. He used the Yamaha to power two passive sub boxes loaded with 15-inch speakers and two full-range boxes with two 10s and a high compression horn each. Besides the jazz band, he was running an audiovisual signal and some program music though the board. The first thing Walter reported was how clean the mixer is. "The sound quality is really transparent" were his exact words. He also commented on how nice the effects sounded, and he liked the punch that the Maximize button gave the whole mix. I figured I'd better be there for the next show, and I was.
We both set up the same system for a city event in my hometown of Sierra Madre, Calif. One of our acts was the local kids choir, and with lots of little voices I had to set my mics hot. Anyway, the feedback suppression came in very handy here, allowing me to get maximum volume with a minimum of howling. I also got a firsthand experience with the onboard SPX effects and I found them to be very pleasant and very clean.
During the course of this event I had everything from the aforementioned choir to a solo autoharp player with an attitude. And of course, I was playing programmed music via my iPod throughout the entire day. I really enjoyed working with the EMX mixer. I loved some of the features more than others, but I didn't feel let down by any single aspect of the board. I think this would be a great mixer for a band or a church's youth house — or, in my case, as a "B" system. It's super easy to set up and operate and comes with all the features you need to sound good (as long as you actually know how to mix).
What it is: An all-in-one mixing board.
Who it's for: Bands, schools, churches, sound companies
Pros: Lots of great features
Cons: Maybe a little more wattage
Web site: www.yamaha.com/ca
Peavey Kosmos V2
By Bill Evans
No one talks about "spectrum enhancement" units, but plenty of pros use them. Peavey faced this dilemma when they first released the Kosmos. In addition to enhancing highs and providing the illusion of a bigger stereo spread the Peavey added a subharmonic generator to make the unit popular with DJs, and gave it settings like "Thud" and "Quake" to fit that market. When Peavey released the Kosmos Pro, they added some good features, like the ability to use it as a crossover and the use of balanced I/O, but they also added more settings with cute names, which turned a lot of pros off.
But at Summer NAMM last year, Peavey released the Kosmos V2, which addresses much of what pros did not like but kept all of the good stuff, and all at a price that is just over half of the Kosmos Pro.
The Gear
The Kosmos Pro is a single RU component packaged in a silver case that screams "pro audio" — the DJ friendly face of the previous model is gone. The rear panel includes an IEC jack for power, stereo ins and outs on both balanced TRS and XLR connects and a switch to put the V2 into mono mode. The last connector on the back is a subwoofer out, which is also balanced, but only on a TRS connection.
The front panel has been greatly simplified with about a third fewer controls. Starting from the left, you have a hard system bypass, then the subharmonic generator control that allows you to both dial in the amount of this effect and to engage a damping control, which "tightens" the subharmonic content.
Next are Low Freq and High Freq knobs. It is important to remember that the Kosmos is not an EQ and it adjusts frequency response through phase manipulation. The Low Freq control serves to emphasize and tighten the lows, works best when using a sub and really helps smooth things out when using the subharmonic generator. The High Freq control does not really boost the highs; it adds clarity and widens the stereo image. At high setting it can sound harsh, but used judiciously it can go a long way toward making a small system sound bigger — especially at low volumes.
Continuing to the right, we get an Output Level control with two LEDs for signal present and clip. A button next to the control knob will take the subharmonic content out of the mains and route them only to the subwoofer output. Finally, there is a subwoofer level control, with a switch to disable the crossover function.
While I like the V2, I would not suggest using its full-range option, and would urge caution if you do. A subharmonic generator requires a lot more power to get those low frequencies going, and you are really asking the speaker to work overtime to produce them. Trying to do this with a full range cabinet is something you want to be very careful with. [Peavey's Dan Boomer says, "The full range output is important when you use a Kosmos as a signal processor on a single channel insert. They are great on acoustic guitars, where you may have to fool with the channel EQ so you can get the guitar signal through the monitors without feedback and then add some Kosmos in to restore the thumping low end from the guitar body to the FOH mix. Of course, it's also killer on kick drums as an insert."]
The Gigs
The show was a very quiet series of acoustic performances in a room for about 200 people. The acts were all solo or duos with acoustic guitars and nothing else. The system consisted of a very old Soundcraft board driving a pair of Mackie 15-inch powered subs and a pair of SLS top boxes powered by a QSC PLX amp. The signal from the board went into the Kosmos V2 in stereo, and both subs got the same output signal, with the stereo outs feeding the QSC/SLS combo. The crossover function was engaged, as was the control to remove the subharmonic frequencies from the mains.
The acts were playing during a dinner and became audio wallpaper, essentially. Most people ignored them. I started dialing up the subharmonic on an acoustic guitar duo with a female lead singer and male backing singer who also did the bulk of the betweensong talking. I liked what it was doing to the guitars, but it was muddying the male vocal. I dumped the EQ on the male vocal channels at about 200 Hz and tried the subharmonic again. No mud.
Feeling particularly brilliant, I dumped the lows from the female singer's guitar and — voila! — got what sounded like a third band member. With the subharmonic tracking just the lead acoustic guitar, who was doing a lot of finger picking, you would think — if you closed your eyes and just listened — that there was a bass doubling those parts.
With some creative use of the Kosmos V2, we not only made a small system at very low volume sound much bigger without getting loud, but we added a new dimension to the performance. I looked around the room and saw that people were paying less attention to their food and more to the act on stage. There are not many processors I can use to get that kind of response.
What It Is: Spectral enhancer/crossover/ subharmonic generator
Who It's For: Anyone who needs lots and lots of bass, or to make a small system sound bigger.
Pros: Simplified, more "pro" looking interface; flexible; quiet
Cons: Be careful with that subharmonic…
How Much? $299
Web site: www.peavey.com
ISP HDM 210 Monitors
By Jamie Rio
As an owner and operator of a live sound company that uses a lot of powered speaker boxes, I think I speak for most of us in this end of the biz when I say we would all like more sound pressure level in a smaller package. You know, lighter boxes with better sound, that produce more wattage and dBs. The initial idea of self-powered speaker enclosures is to get more pure amperage to the speakers. It makes a great deal of sense to have power that is matched to the speaker configuration. However, my writing efforts today are not designed to convince you of the advantages of powered speakers, only to inform you that the ISP company has taken another step forward in their evolution in this field. In other words, they are producing a new line of high definition monitors (HDM) that they claim are more ass-kicking than previous incarnations. Actually, the claim is that these new active speakers have more fidelity and resolution than many studio monitors. I will be discussing and reviewing the HDM 210 model of this particular line.
The Gear
The 210 is a three-way box with two 10- inch speakers, two 2-inch compression drivers fed into one CD horn and a 1.75 inch compression driver with a polyester diaphragm into a CD horn. The speaker components are driven by a 600 x 200 x 100 watt power amp with an electronic fourth order crossover to sort the frequencies out. The amplifier is an ISP invention, featuring their patent pending DCAT amp technology. I really have no idea how the DCAT technology works, but it basically holds power in reserve and releases it during loud transients — it makes a snare drum really pop, for example. The boxes themselves are about 31 inches high by 18 inches wide by 16 inches deep. They are made of Baltic birch plywood and covered in a black, rubberized polyurethane finish. There is a tough powder-coated grill for speaker protection, and the boxes have all the handles and feet necessary. The speakers can be mounted on poles, set up vertically or horizontally.
At this point I would like to talk about the components ISP has loaded into their speaker boxes. Let's start with the dual 10-inch woofers. These speakers are loaded with lightweight, high-energy neodymium drivers rather than heavy magnets. The lightweight part is very good on its own, but the two 10s actually can handle more power and have a greater output than a single 15-inch speaker. Next we have the dual mid-range compression drivers. This design results in a better transient attack and detail than a two-way system or a three-way system using cone drivers. A lower crossover point can be used, and there is virtually no cone breakup. Lastly, we have the 1.75-inch diaphragm neodymium for our highs. In this design the smaller diaphragm has higher sensitivity and takes less energy to drive. Basically, it just sounds better. This also gives us some insight into the 900-watt three-channel power amp. ISP pumps 600 watts into the 10s and 200 watts into the mid drivers, leaving 100 watts for the highs. It all works out to some very high dB claims. So, why don't we look at the real, live sound results of my use of the HDM 210 monitors?
The Gigs
My first date with the monitors was at nice neighborhood church fair/carnival. I had everything from the local dance troupe to a nine-piece R&B band. At this two-day event I used the 210s as my front of house speakers. I just set them vertically on a pair of 18-inch powered subs and I was ready to rock. Before the acts showed up, I was playing programmed music through my iPod. This gave me a chance to EQ the system. Right off, the ISPs sounded like very good and powerful home speakers. I can see why the HDMs are compared to studio monitors. They have great definition and clarity. Plus, the 900 watts is so perfectly matched to the components that it feels like you've got twice as much wattage under the hood. I had no problems making the various acts (talent aside) sound good. Even the R&B band sounded very defined and separated. Granted, I know how to mix such a group. But when the front of house speakers are smooth and clear, it makes my mix sound that much better. I got the horns in the right place without squeezing out the background singers and the keyboards. The bass, drums and guitar weren't fighting each other, and there was still room for the lead vocals. Basically, I was having a really fun time. And when I do a show my personal enjoyment is way up on the list.
My next outing with the HDM 210 monitors was at a Halloween party for about 2000 people. The featured band was an Orange County '80s tribute band that was very loud. The lead singer's only request was that he hear himself far and above everything else. I figured I would try one of the 210s as a floor monitor. During the sound check I had the monitor at an ear splitting level. The lead singer was actually taking the abuse and asked if he could have a little more. I cranked it up until the drummer complained that the lead vocalist monitor was ripping off his head. The beauty of all this sound pressure was that I could still maintain great clarity and definition without diving into feedback hell. After the show began and the band had run though their first set, the lead singer asked me to turn down his monitor a bit. It is always a personal goal for me to get my stage monitors hot enough and clean enough so I never have the talent asking for more monitor volume. The HDM 210s make this goal a piece of cake.
Looking back at the two gigs and two completely different settings that I used the ISP monitors in, I can say that they are everything that ISP claims. So, if you are looking for a small and very potent front of house speaker or monitor system, you should probably listen to the ISP 210 monitors. I am sure you can find them at NAMM. By the way, they also come in 212, 112 and 115 versions.
What it is: Powered FOH or monitor Speakers
Who it's for: Sound companies, churches, bands
Pros: Powerful and clean
Cons: I don't own a pair.
Web site: www.isptechnologies.com
