Other than the recent enhancement of the 01V96 and the marvelous StageMix iPad Apps, it has been a quiet spell for new Yamaha digital mixing boards. Their biggest news in years was announced at Frankfurt’s Prolight + Sound last month. The CL Series consists of three consoles, the CL1, CL3 and CL5, ranging from 48 to 72 mono channels plus eight stereo inputs, as well as two Dante-enabled stage boxes.
The CL1 has 48 mono channels plus 8 stereo channels, with two 8-fader bays and two master faders. The CL3 increases that to 64 mono channels and adds a third 8-fader bay on the left. The CL5 bumps up to 72 faders and adds a fourth 8-fader bay on the right hand side, with the optional MBCL meter bridge now built in above.
The consoles are all 26 inches deep and 12 inches high, with 25, 33 or 41-inch widths and weights of 53, 64 or 80 pounds. All specifications other than input channel capacity are consistent throughout the series, including 24 mix buses and 8 matrixes (including input to matrix mixing, for a total of 32 auxes), as well as 16 DCAs, 8 mute groups, 16 user-defined keys and four new user defined knobs that can be used for things like HPF frequency, compressor knee or reverb time, chosen from the library, just like user defined keys.
CL stands for Centralogic, the touchscreen concept that originated with the M7. Banks of eight inputs are brought to the touchscreen above an eight-fader bank. Other than the motorized fader, all the mix controls for each channel are accessed from one 8-channel overview screen or from the individual selected channel’s display. Though the selected channel screen’s layout has changed slightly, the same familiarly colored set of 33 knobs to the left of the touch screen is exactly like the M7. Tapping a parameter on the screen zooms in for in-depth control, and the multi-function encoders below the screen adjust the corresponding parameters in the display above.
Down on the fader deck, fader caps have been redesigned to be more ergonomic, with sculpted edges and non-slip inserts for ease of use. Above the faders, the channel display shows channel name, gain value, fader value and channel number or, by using the preference page, it can simply show the channel name in large letters. Just below is a color-coding strip programmed on the PATCH/NAME screen, from which eight familiar color options can be chosen.
The CL Series has expanded Yamaha’s previous concept of on-board racks. Besides an 8-channel Effects rack with the entire range of 46 ambience and 8 insertion effects, including the premium REV-X reverbs, there are also two 8-channel Graphic EQ racks assignable to outputs which can accommodate up to 16 total 31-band GEQs or, alternatively, up to 32 graphic EQs in the Flex15GEQ mode familiar to LS9 and M7CL users. The Effects rack can also be programmed with GEQs, allowing them to be used with input channels.
Finally there’s also a new 8-channel Premium Rack for a range of six new EQ and dynamics processors that employ VCM (Virtual Circuitry Modeling) analog modeling, including Rupert Neve Designs’ Portico 5033 5-band EQ and Portico 5043 compressor/limiter, as well as a new dynamic EQ, an FET limiter, an optical compressor and a studio EQ. Previous Yamaha VCM effects, the Comp 276, Comp 260, Open Deck and EQ 601 are still available in the Effects rack, as with previous Yamaha consoles.
As is becoming common for digital consoles primarily intended to work with digital audio networks instead of analog XLR snakes, such as Yamaha’s previous M7CL-48ES, the CL desks have limited I/O on the rear, in this case consisting simply of eight Omni Ins and eight Omni Outs. The only other audio connection on the rear is an XLR AES output and a headphone jack on the front.
Other rear panel connections simply include the main and secondary Dante ports and an Ethernet control port for using a laptop running CL Editor, for attaching a WiFi router allowing the console to be controlled wirelessly with the CL StageMix iPad App, or both. Like the M7, the separately sold PW800W external power supply can be added to back up the console’s internal supply.
There are two different Dante stage boxes or I/O racks. The Rio1608-D has 16 mic inputs, 8 line outputs and is similar in appearance to Yamaha’s 3RU SB168-ES, except, of course, it employs Dante instead of EtherSound. The larger 5RU Rio3224-D has 32 mic inputs, 16 line outputs, plus four dual-channel AES digital outputs. Up to eight I/O stage boxes can be connected to any single CL console. Dante directly supports star network configurations and the use of redundant primary and secondary switches, or simple daisy-chain connections can be accommodated.
Similar to the M7CL-48ES, CL’s Dante ports are built-in and don’t occupy any of the three expansion ports, leaving MY card slots open for a Waves SoundGrid plugin server, Lake Processing, Dugan automatic mic mixer or any of the dozens of other MY cards. For applications that require a large number of input channels, CL consoles can be cascade connected using AES I/O cards.
The CL consoles are supplied with Steinberg “Nuendo Live” software for live multi-track recording and virtual sound check, with features and performance that have been fine tuned for live recording chores, recording WAV files that can be used on any editing platform. Its Extension plugin software facilitates communication between the console and Nuendo Live, providing channel names, song markers, and transport control directly from the console. The included Dante Virtual Soundcard driver allows direct recording to any Windows or Mac based DAW software. As with the LS9, two-track MP3 recordings can be made to and played back from USB flash drives.
For the first time CL console files have their own CL Editor instead of being programmed or controlled from within Studio Manager. Additionally, the newest version of Yamaha’s Console File Converter software includes CL Series, as well as LS9, M7CL and PM5D desks, and it should be noted that Yamaha’s existing console line up remains in place. Like their previous consoles, these Yamaha desks are instant industry standards.
The CL5 will be available this spring, while the CL3 and CL1 will be shipping later this summer. For more information, go to www.yamahaca.com.
