Doing a Christmas tour is very similar to doing Christmas programs at church; there are lots of moving parts and a lot of people involved. This past Christmas I had the privilege of working on Andrew Peterson's "Behold The Lamb of God" tour (BTLOG) which is now in its 10th year. This past year there were 11 musicians on stage, and I had the task of not only running FOH but running monitors from FOH.
Our venues would be small churches, large theaters, and the tour would culminate with two sold out shows at the "mother church of country music"—The Ryman in Nashville, Tenn.
This was my first time as production manager for this tour and with that comes a lot of uncertainties. Because of the demands of the tour I needed a console that would handle the tasks of FOH and monitors, and I needed to quickly make changes and recall scenes.
As we were doing pre-production planning for BTLOG, Church Production arranged for me to look at Roland's new OHRCA M-5000 console. Before its arrival I knew next to nothing about the console. From the literature I had read, the console appeared to be extremely flexible while providing 96-kHz audio. The more I read, the more I thought this tour would be a perfect way to put the console through its paces.
Real-time Review
Brian Belcher, Roland's Nashville-area sales engineer, met me at Black Hawk Audio the week before rehearsals to give me a run down of the console and to allow me to get my hands on it for the first time. The first thing that I recognized as we set up the console was its compact nature. The second thing that stuck out was the tactile function of the console. The faders felt solid and detailed, the console surface was laid out well, and the touch screen was nearly flawless. I think its safe to say that Apple has created the touch screen standard that all other technologies work to emulate. I don't think I've laid hands on any audio console with a screen that has met that standard—until now. The touch screen on the M-5000 is accurate and effortless. I never needed a stylus because of the screen's hypersensitivity. Every intended push, swipe and scroll was smooth and precise. No need to work around the limitations of the screen, like on many other consoles.
After a quick run down of the console I began setting up my console for the 64-input, 28-output show I'd be mixing for the tour. OHRCA stands for “Open High Resolution Configurable Architecture.” As we started configuring the console everything seemed simple enough, but Belcher suggested I connect to the console with my computer or tablet to speed things up. He was right. I downloaded the Roland RCS software onto my computer (available for Windows or Mac OS), connected to the console. This allowed me to quickly label the inputs and outputs with my Macbook. Tablet apps are available, as well. Color coding inputs really helped me distinguish between groups of inputs. It was when I got to input 48 that Belcher showed me how truly customizable the console is. The console had been previously setup for a 48-channel show. I need more than that, so he showed me how to add the needed inputs and outputs. The OHRCA system offers 128 inputs/outputs/buses. They can be configured as needed, and you are only restricted by the I/O that you are using. So if you needed 28 inputs and 100 outputs you could theoretically do it. I needed 64 inputs and 28 outputs, so Belcher directed me to the setup page and simply added the inputs and stereo outputs needed. It was as simple as that. The ability to change/choose the type of main output bus (stereo, mono, LCR, 5.1 and more) would come in handy later on.
"After spending a month with the M-5000 I can honestly say I would be happy to use it again on any tour, festival or installation. The smart, compact, and lightweight design makes it a worthy competitor for touring and for any room—large or small."
Nolan Rossi
Reviewer
During my orientation, I learned the M-5000 works with the Roland's other REAC products—specifically the M-48 personal monitor mixer, which offers 40 channels of audio via 16 stereo groups. The M-48's audio quality is fantastic, and it has a built-in ambient mic, aux in, EQ and limiter. Each scene on the M-5000 can recall a different patch and mix for each M-48 personal mixer that's connected. There is also a place on the M-5000 to set an M-48 that can be put into "Engineer Mode." In this mode, the engineer's M-48 can “follow” any M-48 in the system and he can hear what any of the musicians are hearing. Pretty amazing feature to have. That being said, with the diversity of my 64-input input list, and being new to this console, I opted out of using the M-48s for the tour. I've spent years doing monitors from FOH so I felt most comfortable running the show in that manner.
Details and Performance
The M-5000 uses the Roland REAC (Roland Ethernet Audio Communication) digital audio protocol, which allows 40x40 (80 total) of 24-bit/96-kHz audio to be transferred down one Cat5e cable. Out of the box there are two REAC ports on the M-5000 as well as one "split/backup" port. Two expansion slots allow for more even more connectivity. My console had another REAC card plus a Dante card installed. Roland also makes cards for MADI, SDI, SFP, DVI, and a WSG Waves SoundGrid card, so digital networking options are plentiful.
For the BTLOG tour, we used two S-2416 and one S-1608 digital snake I/O units (64 inputs).
Roland also makes a R-1000 48-track, 96-kHz hard disk recorder that can be used for virtual sound check. I simply used the Dante card and my laptop for this application.
So what about mixing on the console? With three banks of eight user-assigned buttons and four user-defined knobs, there is a lot that you can do to customize the console to your needs—hence the OHRCA acronym. There are three user layers for faders and DCA spill capabilities. This made organizing the 64 channels for this tour very manageable. I configured the main user layer of faders to show eight DCA groups (which would spill band inputs as needed). The main user layer also contained my iPad playback, an MC mic, video playback input, front-fill matrix, and the sub output. It was really helpful to have this single layer that contained a quick view of our entire show. I could easily maneuver any way I needed from this custom layer.
Navigating the console is quick and easy with options a-plenty. The main home screen shows eight channels and displays input level, dynamics, EQ, and aux send status. Each press on the screen engages the two banks of encoders below the screen. But any time you wish to make a specific change you simply press any parameter on screen and use the "Selected Knob" to make the adjustment. This was a lifesaver early in rehearsals when I was still learning the console. That customizable output proved to be handy in many situations. On the tour there were a few mono rooms, and one LCR theater. Simply switching the main output as such corrected my pans and main bus assignments. The LCR pan on each channel allowed me to shape the stereo image in a way I've never done before on an LCR system.
The M-5000 has 32 31-band graphic EQs that can be inserted as needed. There are eight stereo effect slots that range from traditional console effects, to some Roland and Korg legacy products. Some of my favorites were the RE-201 Space Echo, the SRV-2000 Digital Reverb, and the Dynamic EQ. I was impressed with the entire library of effects. The same GUI interface exists for all effects, so don't expect a visual "plug-in" experience. Effects sounded great, though.
Personal Notes
One of my favorite features was the dock-to-Lightning connector, which allows you to connect and patch your Apple iPad or iPhone directly to a channel on the console, while charging your device. No XLRs, DI's, or 1/8-inch cable needed. Nice!
Let's talk audio now. The M-5000 is a very open and clean sounding console. I found I could push levels and maintain the transparency even at higher SPL. This clean and transparent sound took a bit of getting used to because high-frequency content was so clearly maintained. When using this console I found my EQ process and system tuning required more work. I think Roland is nailing the high-resolution approach here.
One thing that I wish was a bit different involved the preamps on their I/O. The sound is really open and transparent, but I prefer a preamp that's a bit more musical sounding. This is certainly my personal preference, but I like preamps that create more harmonic content when pushed. I was never unhappy with how the console sounded. When I had great PA the console just sung beautifully. When the PA was less than desired, I struggled with the transparency.
After spending a month with the M-5000 I can honestly say I would be happy to use it again on any tour, festival or installation. The smart, compact, and lightweight design makes it a worthy competitor for touring and for any room—large or small. The sound of the console will compete with at least 85% of the consoles, regardless of price. The feature set and customization capabilities are unmatched, and it's in a price range that makes it appealing to most churches. I'm definitely a fan.
