Yamaha D5000

The Yamaha D5000 is a little known digital delay unit. It's got a lot to offer, but like a lot of digital outboard gear has been pushed to the side in lieu of plug-ins of the same function. The D5000 consists of connections for stereo XLR inputs and outputs, as well as the same in the form of 1/4" jacks. It also has MIDI connections and a 1/4" foot switch jack. It is rack mountable and will take up just a single space.

UTILIZATION

I can't say that I've mastered using the Yamaha D5000, as I find devices like this to be somewhat hard to use, but I will say that this one is easier than others. It's easy enough to scroll through all of the presets (and there are a good amount of them), but I haven't yet had a need to get more in depth with it. If you wanted to learn all of the D5000's features I'd recommend scoping out the manual, although I haven't had a look at it myself.

SOUND QUALITY

A studio that I used to work at had one of these Yamaha D5000's, and it didn't see much use. However, when the studio was taken down, we tried it out a bit and did some research on it. At first the owner was just going to sell it for whatever, but upon some research we found that this is actually revered by famed engineer Bob Clearmountain. That certainly changed our opinion of it a bit and we went ahead and tried it out some more. We found it to be a very useful digital delay with a lot to offer. I don't think he ended up selling it, but also still don't think he uses it very much. Unless you're a professional engineer or studio owner, it's not really necessary to have around, but it certainly sounds great!

OVERALL OPINION

I think you'll find the Yamaha D5000 in a number of studio racks, but probably isn't a device that sees much use. If you have one of these in your studio, give it another shot! I don't know that it's worth it to buy one if you're a home studio owner, but professionals should consider it if they're looking for a delay unit. It shouldn't cost very much as not too many people know about it, so definitely go for it if you're at all thinking about it!