Making a M7CL sound worth a damn

[Jon Martin]

Originally Posted by Sheldon Radford

Hey Jon,

Sounds like a signal flow problem. Try inserting the accountant post-fader instead of pre-fader. That can sometimes be a bit tricky, though...

Good luck out there!

Sheldon

Actually I was looking for the Global Mute button.

It's a done deal. M7 it is..

[musicman476]

Originally Posted by Jon Martin

Actually I was looking for the Global Mute button.

Is that the one next to the "anti-suck" knob? I've been trying to find that one, too!

[bruce reiter]

hi jon,

times are tough huh? i will have a m7cl for my upcoming tour in april too .... size/$$$ makes the choice for us ...

i have had good luck with the m7cl and actually kinda like it. i would rather have a venue but if i cant ... ... oh well.

i used a external tube preamp for the vocals and also used my "real" h3000, lexicon reverb, tc delay ... the gates on the console are great ...

the comps on the console are only so so ... nothing special especially when comparing to the plug ins we know and love from the digidesign consoles.

one of the biggest things i miss is the way the snap shots work on the didi consoles is perfect and the m7cl is not as friendly ...

good luck,

bruce

i have used the maxxbass and it rocks!

[digidesigner]

If you have Pro Tools it is possible to use plugins with M7 thru adat cards.

[Jon Martin]

Originally Posted by bruce reiter

hi jon,

times are tough huh? i will have a m7cl for my upcoming tour in april too .... size/$$$ makes the choice for us ...

i have had good luck with the m7cl and actually kinda like it. i would rather have a venue but if i cant ... ... oh well.

i used a external tube preamp for the vocals and also used my "real" h3000, lexicon reverb, tc delay ... the gates on the console are great ...

the comps on the console are only so so ... nothing special especially when comparing to the plug ins we know and love from the digidesign consoles.

one of the biggest things i miss is the way the snap shots work on the didi consoles is perfect and the m7cl is not as friendly ...

good luck,

bruce

i have used the maxxbass and it rocks!

Heya Bruce, still out with DF?

The band own a Avalon 737SM that I'm going to pop on the $ vocal and I'll just use the onboard dynamics / FX and try some upwards compression.

I was pretty pissed when I was told the bean counters hacked the budget but I'm over it now....just spin the knobs around till it sounds good, right?

Hope all is well with you.

[bruce reiter]

Originally Posted by Jon Martin

Heya Bruce, still out with DF?

The band own a Avalon 737SM that I'm going to pop on the $ vocal and I'll just use the onboard dynamics / FX and try some upwards compression.

I was pretty pissed when I was told the bean counters hacked the budget but I'm over it now....just spin the knobs around till it sounds good, right?

Hope all is well with you.

yep we just played rockfeller in oslo tonight ... i have a few more shows in europe then i go to se asia with dragonforce and then .... i go back to static-x for their new tour cycle.

spin those knobs ...

the graphic eq's are ok i guess but i took my klark eq and use it on the outs of the console to tune the main pa

the thing i miss most is the way the snap shots work on the venue ... it feels good to mix with them while on some other consoles the snap shots are too well i dont know just no vibe ...

gain structure is very important with the m7 ... (and all consoles lol)
i use the "bottom" of the -18 light for my "zero" and it all sums together just fine. go a few db over that and the l&r are red and fuzzy ...

let us know how it goes after a few shows lol ...

best,

bruce

p.s. i might get lucky and get a upgrade but who knows $$$$$

[bcs723]

Ok, so this seems like a long shot but its worth a shot. One of the biggest downgrades on the M7 to make it cheap were the preamps. I was told by an old school engineer who has traveled with a 5d for the past few years that he has found a trick to "warm up" the M7.

I have tried it once, but have not been able to do extensive tests. It has been Sept 2007 since I was last on this console.

He says that you have to overdrive the preamps to get a warmer sound, I know youre thinking as soon as this baby sees clip you're having issues. Heres the trick, First attenuate the channel, I believe its on the EQ tab of the selected channel. ATT -10 to -20db and then you take the preamp gain and overdrive it. I found that the level of attenuation/gain varied per instrument for the best sounds on each.
I would try it on something like the bass, set up a normal channel strip and then an attenuated channel side by side. tweak away on the attenuated strip to get the right levels and see what you come up with. Do this with the band and then get a couple good pres ( Avalon, Universal Audio, etc.) and put them on your lead vocals.

Please write back if you do any tests with this.

[digidesigner]

Originally Posted by bcs723

Ok, so this seems like a long shot but its worth a shot. One of the biggest downgrades on the M7 to make it cheap were the preamps. I was told by an old school engineer who has traveled with a 5d for the past few years that he has found a trick to "warm up" the M7.

I have tried it once, but have not been able to do extensive tests. It has been Sept 2007 since I was last on this console.

He says that you have to overdrive the preamps to get a warmer sound, I know youre thinking as soon as this baby sees clip you're having issues. Heres the trick, First attenuate the channel, I believe its on the EQ tab of the selected channel. ATT -10 to -20db and then you take the preamp gain and overdrive it. I found that the level of attenuation/gain varied per instrument for the best sounds on each.
I would try it on something like the bass, set up a normal channel strip and then an attenuated channel side by side. tweak away on the attenuated strip to get the right levels and see what you come up with. Do this with the band and then get a couple good pres ( Avalon, Universal Audio, etc.) and put them on your lead vocals.

Please write back if you do any tests with this.

I would not recommend doing that at all, what you get is a pre + converter distortion as attenuator is in digital domain.

[Nicolas Lowman]

I typically run the preamps hot (not clipping) in monitor world. It still doesn't sound good. I think 480v on the power supply and some jet fuel on the surface would warm it up pretty good.

nicolas

[fifthcircle]

As Roland said, the M7 isn't a great board, but you can do good work on it.

I've used this board pretty extensively and have found the weaknesses to be in a couple places.

1. The clock. In most of Yamaha's consoles, I find that the Clock makes a MASSIVE difference. Yamaha's clocks have always had issues (I used to use an AardsyncII with an O3D)

2. The mic pres- tend to be on the noisy side and a bit harsh when driven too hard. My solution isn't exactly great for touring- I use external pres. Yamaha's AD8HR preamps are a major improvement in sound. You also get remote headamp control with them so you don't have to worry about wacky gain structures from scene to scene.

I think the question of clock boils down to if you are mixing mono or stereo. Your biggest improvement is in the spaciousness and the Left-Right imaging. Clock it and it gets way better. If you are mixing a mono show, though, you aren't going to notice it much.

I've certainly used worse boards, though... There are a lot of things from a user's standpoint that are really great (like sending to the Matrix from individual channels).

good luck with your tour.

--Ben