In my mind, Yamaha Commercial Audio Systems, Inc. has single handily revolutionized church audio with the release of the M7CL and LS9. They developed consoles at a price point low enough to allow even the smallest of churches the opportunity to enhance their services and further support their ministries. We all know that church auditoriums support many different events. Those events require many different console configurations. In the analog world this can be difficult. The installation of a digital console in any of those environments can be a welcome addition. Yamaha has brought that possibility closer to many of us.
When I was asked to review an M7CL-48ES, I actually couldn't wait to get ahold of it. I had a middle school retreat coming up a couple weeks later that would offer a great opportunity to see how the new networkable options really panned out. I was also excited about the opportunity NOT to take my 40-pair, 100-foot long snake with me.
Over the last seven years, I have been blessed enough to get quite a bit of experience with Yamaha digital consoles. At the church where I work, we have 13 of them spread out in 11 different auditoriums. From the DM2000 and the LS9-16 to the M7CL-48 and all the way up to the PM5D. Yamaha has been a staple in my world and I was hoping that this new version of the M7CL is able to stand up next to its predecessor.
I am very familiar with the M7CL and its feature-rich components, and most of us know about its capabilities, but, as a review... The M7CL is available in 32- and 48-channel frames, both with the addition of four stereo inputs. The M7CL also has 16 auxiliary outputs and eight matrices. It features internal 31-band EQs and effects that are good enough for any mix. My favorite feature is the recallable head amps that afford you the ability to support multiple events in the same room without losing your settings from sound checks or rehearsals.
Yamaha was gracious enough to send me two SB168-ES EtherSound Stage Boxes along with the M7CL-48ES console. When daisy-chained together, this gave me a total of 32 inputs and 16 outputs (on stage) with remote controllable headamps. The eight omni inputs and eight omni outputs on the back of the console bring the total I/O to 40 inputs/24 outputs, more than enough inputs for the six-piece rock band that was leading worship that weekend. I also was able to run six monitor mixes along with my main left and right feeds. Keep in mind, I ran all this on a single CAT5e cable running from the console to the stage. Not only did this cut down on the setup time, that CAT5e cable was 75 pounds lighter than the 40-pair analog snake I spoke of earlier.
After the cable was run, all that needed to happen was the addressing of the stage boxes. After that was done, I flipped the power button on the stage boxes and then the console. (Tip: turn the stage boxes on first… less headaches.) Once I figured out the sequence, the console and stage boxes automatically configured themselves, and I was ready to pass audio through the system.
The audio quality was on par with the other consoles in the Yamaha line. It had a good signal-to-noise ratio and the signal was free of noise and artifacts. Over the weekend, we had six individual musical worship sessions. The network of audio was rock solid. Not once did the audio drop out or error out like other systems.
The M7CL-48ES console itself has a mixing surface identical to the other 48-channel version of the M7CL. That channel count gave me the ability to run the full 32 channels coming from the stage, a CD player, an iPod, the stereo video feed, two channels of wireless and four stereo effects.
In this application , the wireless microphone receivers were racked at FOH along with the CD player and iPod dock. One downfall of this console is, that it only has eight inputs at the console. I had all of them filled up. It is worth mentioning that I did have what I needed and I still had one card slot open but, I didn't have any more mic preamps. I would have liked to see at least four to eight more mic preamps on the console.
The M7CL-48ES also has eight outputs built into the back of the console. This was enough for my needs since all I needed was a video and CD record feed from the console. An added bonus to the ES version is that the stage boxes do not utilize the card slots at all. They have a separate built-in EtherSound interface for the CAT5e cable to connect to alongside the “local” CAT5e jack for a computer to control the EtherSound network as needed, leaving all three card slots available for other uses.
As with all M7CLs, it also has a network jack for the use of Yamaha's Studio Manager (software that allows set-up of the console) or for the integration of a wireless network access point. I absolutely love this when I have my iPad with StageMix loaded. Sending monitors from FOH became a lot more feasible with that addition.
In the end, the pros far outweigh the cons with this console. Did I mention that my snake was 75 pounds lighter than before? That alone was enough for me, but then add in the rock solid audio, the freed up card slots and channel counts of the boxes. To me, Yamaha did it again. They married ease of use, reliability, quality and networked audio into a system that no one can touch.
Yamaha consoles may not be for everybody but, they have definitely solidified themselves in the church world and I look forward to seeing what they come out with next.
