Now celebrating its 30th anniversary of digital mixer technology, Yamaha’s flagship Rivage PM10 digital console remains a top choice of live sound engineers on major tours and installations. Since officially debuting in the U.S. two years ago, this comprehensive mixing system family continues to expand with new options and enhancements. With 144 input channels, 72 mix buses, 36 matrix buses and 24-bit/96 kHz clarity, the Rivage PM10 significantly increases the quality and versatility necessary in the live sound environment, while inheriting some of the most popular features from its renowned PM Series consoles.
The System
A PM10 system consists of a CS-R10 (or the new CS-R10-S, see sidebar) control surface that connects to a rack-mount DSP-R10 DSP “brain,” and up to eight RPio-series stage boxes. The console’s DSP engine and stage boxes are networked in a ring configuration via Yamaha’s TWINLANe digital I/O cards installed in the HY card slots provided in each device.
The proprietary TWINLANe digital audio network protocol can handle up to 400 channels of 96 kHz/32-bit audio up to 300 meters (984 feet) via multi-mode or much longer over single-mode optical cable. A ring network configuration simplifies setups, while providing redundancy to keep the system running if a cable fails or other malfunction occurs. Additionally, all components feature dual built-in power supply modules for failsafe redundancy. Two DSP-R10 DSP engines and eight RPio622 stage boxes can be connected in a single ring.
A computer running the Rivage PM10 Editor software can link to the DSP-R10 DSP engine or the CS-R10 to allow online status monitoring as well as redundant control capability in case the connection between the control surface and DSP engine is lost. The Rivage PM10 Editor can also be used for offline system setup.
And the Rivage PM10 system easily connects to a computer for multi-track recording or to Yamaha’s CL/QL series digital mixing consoles as well as other external devices via the HY144-D Dante network interface card.
I/O Flexibility — and More
Housed in a 10-rackspace chassis, the remotely controllable RPio622 stage box has six RY format I/O card slots to accommodating a variety of options while the 5-space RPio222 has two RY slots.
Available RY cards include the 16-channel RY16-ML-SILK mic/line input card featuring a revolutionary analog mic preamp combined with Silk processing from Rupert Neve Designs that lets users control depth and perspective through modeling in the digital domain. Each input supports 48 VDC phantom power and a 96 kHz sampling rate. The RY16-AE digital I/O card has 16 XLRs in the AES/EBU format, with sample rate converters (SRC’s) for each of the 16 input and 16 output channels. The 16-channel RY16-DA analog output card also supports 96 kHz sampling with switchable analog XLR outputs at +15, +18 or +24 dBu.
Taking Control
Housed within a 61-by-33.4-inch footprint, the CS-R10 control surface has 38 motorized faders in three bays of 12, plus two master faders. Two large (15-inch), high-res LCD touch screens provide logical channel parameter status with the faders. These offer the same operability as the highly regarded Centralogic™ interface, while multiple controls — 12 user defined keys in four banks and ample rotary encoders enable tactile response for fast access to any console function.
The CS-R10’s rear panel has eight local analog inputs and eight outputs — all on XLRs, along with 4+4 AES I/O channel pairs (all with SRC), 8-in/8-out GPI ports, two Yamaha MY format slots, word clock and MIDI ports and dual onboard redundant power supplies.
The Sound
Particular attention was paid to the sonic performance. Hybrid microphone preamplifiers and the analog section are optimized for a natural sound. Each input channel has high/low-pass filters, 4-band parametric EQ, two dynamics processors and delay. Some 48 31-band GEQ/FLEX15 graphic EQs and 96 8-band PEQs are available for inserts or to be used in-line. And Yamaha’s VCM (Virtual Circuitry Modeling) created models of Rupert Neve Designs (RND) transformer circuitry and acclaimed SILK processing, with the latter facilitating sonic shaping at the input, adding musical sparkle or power as required.
The two provided Dynamics stages function as a gate, compressor, ducker, or de-esser as required. Two compressor types are included: “Legacy Comp” features standard Yamaha digital console compressor characteristics; “Comp260” is a VCM model of a popular analog comp/limiter from the mid-70s.
A total of 45 plug-ins are available for creative processing, with substantially increased processing power for up to 384 instances. New and noteworthy are plug-ins created in collaboration with Rupert Neve Designs, TC Electronic, and Eventide. The Rupert Neve Designs collaboration resulted in the “Rupert EQ 773,” “Rupert Comp 754,” “Rupert EQ 810” and “Rupert Comp 830” — all VCM models of Neve-designed outboard devices from the 70s and 80s. The alliance with TC Electronic yielded two new reverb plug-ins: the VSS4HD room simulation reverb, with a multitude of reflection settings and reverb processing capabilities, and the NON LIN2, which can function as an envelope-filtered gate reverb without requiring a trigger.
Need more? Also standard are 24 DCAs, 12 mute groups and storage/recall of 1,000 memory scenes. On the horizon in Q3 2017, firmware update V1.5 will offer an Eventide “H3000 Live” Ultra-Harmonizer plug-in, a new analog delay and the Dan Dugan Sound Design automatic mixer plug-in.
For more information, go to www.yamahaca.com.
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