Yamaha M7CL series User manual

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M7CL Quick Start Guide Part 2
Quick Start Guide
A guide for people using M7CL Version 3 in the real world.
Part 2
An introductory guide to the M7CL group of consoles including features
included in Version 3 Firmware and the M7CL-48ES hardware.
These guides are for people about to use the
M7CL for the fi rst time, or for experienced
users requiring some tips and tricks for better
understanding of M7CL and its PC based
software partner the M7CL edito r .
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M7CL Quick Start Guide Part 2
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M7CL Quick Start Guides.
The M7CL Quick Start Guide is in multiple parts. It is available as a download from www.yamahaproaudio.com in
the “Self Training” area. Also available is the revised M7CL Short-cuts and Tips List.
Part 1 is an introduction to the M7CL and its variations and goes on to describe the basic operations of the con-
sole to the level of a similar featured analogue console.
Part 2 introduces the extra features provided only by digital consoles; the internal effects rack package and the
basic use of scenes to store and recall parameters.
Part 3 looks at scene memory use in more detail and the connection of the PC based software for remote control
and setup; Studio Manager and M7CL Editor.
M7CL-48ES users may also wish to look at Yamaha’s EtherSound Setup Guide. This explains the basic principals of
designing an EtherSound network.
Table of Contents
The virtual rack; ......................................................................... 3
Effects, graphics EQ and VCM processors. ......................................... 3
Mounting units in the virtual rack ................................................... 4
Effects. Selecting, editing and storing the effect you want .................... 5
Effect selection. VCM effects......................................................... 6
Effects/graphic EQ. Assigning Effects and GEQs. ................................. 7
Selecting and editing the GEQ........................................................ 8
Graphic EQ; Copying, pasting, comparing and storing GEQ settings .......... 9
The Monitor Section; .................................................................. 10
Cue buttons and assigning a monitor output ..................................... 10
Monitor level on fader ................................................................ 11
User De fi ned Keys; Programming User De fi ned Keys. ......................... 12
DCAs and Mute groups. ............................................................... 13
Using Scenes; Storing and recalling scenes. .................................... 14
Using Scenes; What is in a scene?................................................. 15
Trouble shooting ideas. ............................................................... 16
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M7CL Quick Start Guide Part 2
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The virtual rack; Effects, graphic EQ and VCM processors.
M7CL has an on-board virtual rack to replace the conventional rack of outboard processing like multi-effects
engines, graphic EQ and hi-end characterful dynamics processors. The virtual rack consists of eight stereo/two
channel units. Any of the eight can be filled with 31 band graphic EQ and the last four can be filled with SPX type
multi-effect units or VCM processors. Any one unit can be a single 31 band GEQ or 2 x “flex 15” GEQ.
The traditional analogue rack is replaced by the “Virtual Rack”
This is the VIRTUAL RACK EXTERNAL HA screen for
controlling external headamps. Either AD8HR type or
SB168-ES.
This is the VIRTUAL RACK GEQ/EFFECT screen for se-
lecting and controlling GEQ and effects.
EXT-ES HA view in
M7CL-48ES
EXTERNAL HA view
in M7CL-48/32
Press the [RACK] button in the Function
Access Area to access the onboard
virtual effects rack. There are two tabs
[GEQ/EFFECT] and [EXTERNAL HA].
Press the tabs to change between the
screens.
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The virtual rack; Mounting units in the virtual rack.
The default Scene 000 has four effects and four GEQ selected. There are always eight virtual rack units, even if
some are blank or unused.
Only units 5-8 can be selected as effects. Any of the units can be GEQ or Flex15GEQ. To change the selected unit
from its current state to one of the other states, press the [RACK MOUNT] button. This brings up the RACK
MOUNTER pop-up window for the selected unit.
Press [RACK MOUNT] to open the Rack Mounter popup
and choose the kind of unit you want to mount.
And remember to press [OK] before closing
the popup!
Newly mounted rack units are not patched. See page 7
to patch a new effect or GEQ.
Tiipp;;If all eight units are mounted as Flex-15 GEQs then
the rack can contain 16 GEQs; great for monitor mixing
with wedges.
Tiipp;;GEQ parameters are part of scene memory. If you
don’t want the GEQs changing with scenes then press
[SAFE] below the Rack Mount button. This will “SAFE”
the patching and the fader settings against scene recall
changes.
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The virtual rack; Effects. Selecting, editing and storing the effect
you want.
The effects selected in Scene 000 are a typical user selection. The default REV-X reverbs are the mostnatural
sounding and were developed for the SPX 2000 multi-effect unit, but for Yamaha’s older reverb effect sounds
choose non-REV-X reverbs taken from the older Yamaha SPX multi-effects units.
From the main rack screen press the centre of the virtual rack mounted effect. This brings up the EFFECT param-
eter pop-up.
To select another type of effect either; press the coloured effect image to reveal the EFFECT TYPE pop-up or press
the LIBRARY tab button at the top of the pop-up and use the EFFECT LIBRARY.
Press the [Library] tab
or coloured icon.
Recall a new effect or save your
edited effect from this popup.
Recall a new effect this EFFECT TYPE
popup.
The parameters can be edited using the encoders below.
If there are more than one row of parameters, touch a
knob from the row you want before using the encoders.
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The virtual rack; effect selection. VCM effects.
As an alternative to the varied SPX multi-effects available there are six VCM (Virtual Circuit Modelling) effects.
These VCM effects give M7CL users access to some sounds only previously available from rare, fragile, analogue
equipment or other higher cost live Yamaha mixers like PM5D V2.
Every channel on M7CL has EQ and a compressor included, but the VCM effects provide an alternative style. How-
ever VCM technology is extremely demanding of DSP resources so only one stereo or dual mono unit can be created
from each M7CL effects engine.
N
N
oottee;In the default, the effects engines are patched as send and return effects so we suggest re-patching the VCM
effects as inserts. Tiipp;Try Open Deck inserted on your masters to add analogue quality to your mix.
For engineers requiring an even broader range
of processing choice, you can access Waves
SoundGrid effects running on an external
PC/Mac server via a special Mini YGDAI card
made and distributed by Waves. This system
is very low latency and can offer redundancy
to provide excellent characteristics for live
mixing use.
Comp 276. These models recreate the fast
response, frequency characteristics, and
tube-amp saturation of the most in-demand
analog compressors for studio use, delivering
classic-style compression with all the punch
and fatness you’d expect from a fi ne piece of
studio-grade analog gea r .
Open Deck recreates both the analog circuit-
ry and tape characteristics that shaped the
sound of openreel tape recorders. Because
of their ability to smooth out peak levels and
tidy up the response, many high-end record-
ing studios still maintain open-reel recorders
to be used to provide tape compression at
the mastering stage.
Different types of tape; new, old, etc. are
also selected and used according to the
unique sounds they produce.
The Open Deck provides models of four ma-
chine types: Swiss ’70,Swiss ’78, Swiss ’85,
and America ’70. You can even combine dif-
ferent record and playback decks for a wider
range of variation.
Comp 260. Featuring faithful modelling of
the solid-state VCA and RMS level detection
circuitry of the late 70’ s, these Add-on Ef-
fects bring back the sound of classic comp/
limiters used primarily for live sound rein-
forcement applications.
The 601 equalizer offers two equalizer types
–Clean and Drive. The Drive type models the
distortion characteristics of 70’ s analog EQ
circuitry, delivering musical-sounding drive
and saturation. The 601 is a stereo sixband
parametric, and it accurately reproduces
both the boost and cut frequency response
and band interaction of vintage analog gea r .
N
Noottee; “S” versions of the Comps are stereo. The non-
S version is dual mono.
VCM is a technology developed to use traditional
DSP processing power in a revolutionary new way to
recreate the circuits of traditional analogue audio
devices. P ioneered by Yamaha’ s K’s Lab it was
originally used to recreate the sounds of analogue
synths, but the techniques were soon adapted to
make models of analogue devices like Compressors
and EQs. Until the M7CL V3 upgrade this technology
was only available on Yamaha’ s higher end products
or at extra cost.
Dr T oshifumi K unimoto, founder of K’s Lab and VCM
pionee r .
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The virtual rack; effects/graphic EQ. Assigning Effects and GEQs.
Effects also need a channel assigned to return to. By default, in Scene 000, the STEREO channels are selected, but
these can be changed. To get to the INPUT CH SELECT pop-up press the grey assign key beside the effect image OR
go from the CentralogicTM Overview screen to the PATCH/NAME screen where you can route the effect return, name
it and give it an icon.
N
Noottee; The above screens show patching an effect
to a channel, but there is no reason why the
operation shouldn’t be approached the other
way; from the selected channel choose an effect
to feed it.
This is often the way to un-patch unwanted
returns.
T
Tiip p; ; when choosing to return the effect to a different
channel the original routing to the Stereo input chan-
nel is not lost. You should reassign the Stereo channel
either as unassigned or to its associated rear panel HA.
GEQ can only be assigned to any insert point;
Input, mix, matrix or master channel.
Effects can be inserted or fed from a mix,
matrix or master out.
By default in scene 000 the effects are prepatched.
The sends are mixes 13-16, the returns are Stereo
Inputs 1-4. However these can easily be repatched if
desired.
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The virtual rack; Selecting and editing the GEQ.
From the main RACK screen, press the virtual rack mounted GEQ image; this opens the GEQ popup.
Tiipp; Press the [ON] above the fader to
zero that single GEQ fader. Flat the
whole EQ using the [FLAT] button on
the screen pop-up.
N
Noottee; Flex 15 GEQ are selected and edited in
the same way. An A VAILABLE BANDS count-
down is displayed.
From the GEQ parameter pop-up press the GEQ im-
age with the frequency range you want to edit. For
example [200-1K]. The faders and tab will turn white
and the faders of the Centralogic section will move
to match the chosen frequency range. Moving these
faders will edit the GEQ curve. Press different areas
or tabs to access different frequency groups. Flat
the whole EQ using the [FLA T] button on the screen
pop-up.
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The virtual rack; Graphic EQ; Copying, pasting, comparing and
storing GEQ settings
At the top of the GEQ pop-up are buttons for COPY, PASTE, COMPARE and LIBRARY.
Press the [LIBRARY] button to store or recall GEQ
curves.
Tiipp; You can copy and paste any GEQ curve to a 31 Band
GEQ but only curves with less than 15 bands moved will
paste to a Flex15GEQ.
N
N
oottee;Flex 15 GEQ are treated as a pair of EQs when
saved to the library; they will copy and paste together!
Use any encoder below the screen to scroll through
the 199 library locations. Then press the [RECALL] or
[STORE] button.
P ressing the [COPY] button stores
the displayed GEQ curve into a
temporary “copy buffer”. If anoth-
er GEQ is selected to the screen,
then pressing the [ PASTE] button
will change that GEQ to match the
copied source.
Tiipp; You can use the [RACK] tabs at the bottom of the
pop-up to move between different GEQ units.
If you copy a GEQ curve to the copy
buffer”, you can change the curve
and then press the [COM PARE] but-
ton to alternate between the two
curves.
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The Monitor Section; Cue buttons and assigning a monitor output.
Cueing a channel will send its audio signal to the CUE bus and meter the channel in the Function Access Area.
The audio will be sent to the headphone output under the front panel. Press the [MONITOR] headphone symbol
to access options for the monitor setup.
The PHONES LEVEL LINK makes the headphone
level control come after the MONITOR LEVEL
pot on the surface. This link can be broken,
which is especially useful for monitor mixing.
Using the SOURCE SELECT buttons in the MONI-
TOR section can switch off the default STEREO
L/R feed to the monitor bus or replace it with
one of the other outputs or a ST IN rear panel
socket.
As well as the headphones, the MONITOR sec-
tion can output via an OMNI socket on the rear.
This patching is also accessed from the MONITOR
pop-up.
T
T
ii
p
p; ;
Use this to create a monitor out for a listen
wedge or monitor engineer IEM pack.
N
N
oottee;Don’t select the C bus for a listen wedge;
unless you are using LCR!
By default, the MONIT OR section is fed by STEREO L/R
and these signals are sent to the headphone output.
(Found under the front panel.) Cueing a signal inter-
rupts this and replaces the cued signal.
N
Noottee; Cue and SEL are linked in the default. To unlink
go to SETUP>USER SETUP>PREFERENCES
T
Tiip p; ; Press here
for CUE clear
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