LOS ANGELES — Harold Rubens, known for his work as an FOH engineer for dozens of artists who specialize in Christian music, has been using the Yamaha CL5 Digital Audio Console on several tours in 2012 and early 2013.
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“CTS Audio (Franklin, Tenn.) has been my preferred audio provider,” states Rubens “They provide us with racks and stacks and any additional audio support we need. For the shows I’m doing now the CL I’m using is owned by musician, Brandon Heath, who purchased the console through CTS for his Blue Mountain Tour.” Once I mixed on the CL5 for Brandon’s national tour, I liked it so much that I turned right around and took the same console out to mix the Andrew Peterson Behold The Lamb of God Christmas tour.
“The networking capabilities of the CL Series using Dante makes everything easier,” Rubens said. “On the Blue Mountain Tour, it was easy to just plug in a computer and instantly record and playback all 64 tracks for both virtual sound check and recording. On Andrew Peterson’s tour, we were touring with one CL5, but with two sold-out shows at the Ryman, we added a second CL5 to accommodate additional instruments and guest performers. The console’s networking made it really easy to add the second CL5 and also be able to sound check everything using the playback from the previous show.”
“I think that the CL5 sounds incredible,” added Rubens. “It has exceeded any expectation I had for the console. I’ve used Yamaha digital consoles extensively at one point or another on tours and/or installs, and I was anxious to see how the CL5 was going to perform. I knew about the long list of new features, but I still wondered how it was going to sound. Needless to say, I was very impressed which is why I recommended that Brandon buy one along with two Rio3224-D boxes to use as part of his own touring system.”
Andrew Peterson’s Behold The Lamb Of God show has been touring for 13 years. Each year, the tour makes a stop at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville which production support from CTS. “The show is a complicated concert to mix,” saids Rubens. “There is a seven-piece string section, drums, percussion, bass, lap steel, dobro, mandolin, ukele, electric guitars, acoustic guitars, piano, hammer dulcimer, lap dulcimer, accordion, along with six vocalists who take lead on different songs.” The concert featured special appearances by Steven Curtis Chapman, Stuart Duncan, Jeff Taylor, Buddy Green, Sierra Hull and members of Union Station (Allison Krause’s band).”
“When Harold came into the Ryman with Andrew’s annual Christmas show, it was the first time anyone had brought in a Yamaha CL5,” noted Les Banks, Ryman Auditorium tech supervisor. “I had previously attended a demo but had not yet seen one in action. As soon as Harold powered up the CL5 and played the previous evening’s show (using Virtual Soundcheck), I instantly commented on how clear the console sounded. The top end was clear and the bottom was tight…no smoke and mirrors here; great mic pre’s and plug-ins. As the Ryman’s audio supervisor, I am in the unique position to audition every type of console on the planet through the same PA, and this console rocks! For its price and size, the CL is jammed-packed with performance and features. It gets all A’s on my report card!”
Rubens said that while out with Heath, things were sounding so good that opener, Matt Maher, decided to release a live project using the tracks acquired during the tour from the Nuendo Live function of the Yamaha CL. “Yamaha digital consoles all have different feature sets that are not always available on other Yamaha consoles; i.e. the USB recorder on the LS9, the touch screen on the M7CL, and the direct to matrix send on inputs on M7s and 5Ds.The CL is a culmination of all those features plus a whole lot more, and to top it all, it sounds really, really good. This is an amazing package at an incredible price point.”
For more information on Harold Rubens, email [email protected].
For more information on the Ryman Auditorium, visit www.ryman.com.
For more information on CTS Audio, visit www.ctsaudio.com.
