BUENA PARK, CA —Yamaha Commercial Audio Systems, Inc. has announced that the first live use of the new DSP5D expander for the Yamaha PM5D console is taking place on the Dream Theater tour. Hired by Dream Theater, independent engineer Randy Lane is mixing front-of-house. He selected Clair Brothers to handle production for the tour in both the U.S. and internationally.
The Yamaha DSP5D is a stand-alone unit that expands the capabilities of the Yamaha PM5D digital console to 96 mono plus 16 stereo input channels.
On the Dream Theater tour, he has almost 70 inputs, not including effects, which necessitated using a second console for Dream Theater. There are two opening acts, which would mean a third console and a huge front-of-house footprint if you include processing in addition to console space. “Using the PM5D and DSP5D, the footprint is extremely small and amazingly powerful in features and capabilities,” notes Lane.
The tour is using 24 Clair Brothers I-3 line array cabinets and 12 Clair Brothers BT-218 subs. In Europe, they will use 32 I-3’s and 12 BT 218 subs. Microphones consist of Earthworks Periscope mics on the drum kit, as well as Shure SM57’s on guitars with a Sennheiser 5000/Neumann 105-combination for lead vocals.
Lane says he doesn’t use any outboard processing on the console’s internal effects and gates with Waves Plug in cards installed in the card slots of the PM5D for various compressors. He’s also using six Yamaha MY16-AT ADAT cards for multi-track recording of every input channel. M-Audio Lightbridge interfaces and Steinberg Nuendo are used as a recording platform on an Alienware laptop to multi-track for every show. “The PM5D and DSP5D allow this due to the great quality of internal effects and processing as well as the design foresight to have interfaces having a direct out of every input,” he explains.
“From the outset, the PM5D has been a great sounding console and more reliable than anything that I have used,” notes Lane. “The compact size and sheer processing power of the packaging of the DSP5D and PM5D gives an amazing amount of power in a very compact system. The Yamaha console and expander is a very transparent and warm system that translates the power and finesse of Dream Theater.”
Lane adds that the system’s toughness was demonstrated to him when a 300-pound motor box rolled from the edge of a stage and fell six feet onto the PM5D console. The entire surface was crushed and all control surface features were sheered from the top. The monitor engineer on the tour used the track pad and display to finish the show with the console’s surface being replaced the next day.
Dream Theater began in 1985 as Majesty, after longtime bandmates Petrucci and Myung arrived at Boston’s Berklee College of Music in search of a drummer who was into progressive rock and metal. After leaving Berklee, the group added a vocalist and keyboard player and changed its name to Dream Theater. They have had international success with more than 7 million units.
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