Yamaha DMP7

While my primary console to work on is the Yamaha PM1D system, all of our portable campuses utilize the magnificent Yamaha M7CL so I end up spending a fair amount of time with it by default. With this in mind, I read with great interest this interview with engineers who worked on designing the console and thought you might find it interesting as well.

Somewhere along the way there’s an interesting tidbit…

M7CL is a very clear concept and a professional tool based around the Centralogic™ idea. I wanted to paint a really straightforward design layout. Function and beauty come from the simple “cross” motif; a vertically laid out “Overview” and a horizontal “Selected Channel View”. Then when you look at the desk as a whole you can see thick side cheeks expressing warmth of sound and system stability while the sharp aluminum beams represent cutting-edge technology.

In fact my designs for the M7CL cosmetics took inspiration from the “DMP7” – which was Yamaha’s very first digital console back in 1987. In the very early days of digital mixing consoles, DMP7 made a big impact on the professional audio industry with its sophisticated user interface and lightweight / compact body. From a cosmetic viewpoint, it was really clean-cut and a functional beauty. I hope you feel the M7CL shares that same philosophy which Yamaha have been developing for over 18 years.

Yamaha DMP7 – 1987 vintage – original price $4,200

The DMP7 “Digital Mixing Processor” is a completely digital MIDI-controllable 8-channel 2-bus mixer with three sweepable bands of EQ per channel, three internal effects processors, and motorised faders. The channel levels, effects send/return levels and master level are all set up using the faders, which jump to the right place when the appropriate mode is selected. The other functions are programmed using a conventional 16×2 LCD interface and data entry slider (which is, of course, motorised). Each send can be switched between pre and postfade per channel. Each channel has its own phase switch. There is a compressor across the stereo output.

The desk can be totally automated: MIDI controllers and note values access all the parameters, and it takes program changes to select scenes (with a variable crossfade of up to 10 seconds). Moving the faders remotely from a MIDI fader box is a rather creepy experience.

The ergonomics of this desk are (in my opinion anyway) pretty superb, certainly for the major controls. It’s the right size and shape, the controls are in the right place, and it’s a breeze to use. When it comes to EQ settings (which could arguably be called “major controls”, depending on one’s taste), one is back to menus and data entry sliders, which is a bit of a shame.

The fader mechanism is rather cute. Each fader has a conventional miniature electric motor with a drive band to a larger nylon pulley, and the spindle of this drives a wire which is carried along the length of the fader, around another pulley at the top, and back through the fader knob itself via a couple of tiny tensioning springs. It’s very neat and relatively simple for what it does. The data entry slider is a completely different technology, and seems to use a plastic worm gear with some kind of clutch.

This console was so revolutionary for its time. Hitting just as the home studio craze really took off in the late 80′s, I remember seeing project studios with three of these units finally realizing automated 24 channel mixes. My dad’s project studio was only an 8 track 1/4″ reel to reel, so he would stripe SMPTE onto track 8 and then use an Atari computer running simple MIDI sequencer software to chase that sync and “record” the fader moves from the console. Extremely primitive but it worked great and provided a level of mix control never before possible outside of major studios.

I will never forget the first time I saw fader flip on that console – motorized faders performing multiple functions. To think that 20 years later I’m able to mix on Yamaha’s current flagship product every week is pretty cool.