Yamaha M7CL-32

32 mic / line inputs which must be added four stereo inputs. 16 mix buses, LCR bus, 8 channel matrix and 8 DCA, assignable to 16 omni outputs on XLR connectors. The motorized faders are, of course, but not touch on other consoles as more prestigious. It is the same quality as on the consoles of DM and 01 V ranges, ie they tend to de-calibrate quickly and easily but are moreover easy to use.
Each channel has three buttons: On, salt, and Cue (three classic Yamaha) and a 6 LED graduated from -60 to Over (I personally find it a little bit ...). A touch screen very practical, and well thought out can access simply and easily to any of the battery settings and options available in the console. Placed facing the screen, a row of eight faders and eight rotary encoders dedicated left and which are located 33 rotary encoders grouped by modules: 16 Aux / Matrix, 4 x 3 for the 4-band parametric equalizer, one for preamp gain by (store), 2 for the threshold of milking dynamics 1 and 2 to the pan, for a cutoff frequency of the high-pass filter ..
Still very important in sound, the Monitor page is accessible from any page of track and can select the monitor signal to activate the oscillator, to assign any input channel to talk back . A very useful mode of operation, Send It Fader, which affects the level control knobs to faders auxiliaries, which is much more convenient and accurate to draw the corresponding mixing ..
In bulk, I spend on the different slot optional functions "user key", the usb etc. .. See manufacturer site.

UTILIZATION

Use of this console is very simple, such as encoders manager EQ, aux sends etc. .. are active when the page is called Selected Channel on the screen, ie when it supports the key salt of a channel. Now there is another mode called Overview and even more convenient. In this case, we call a group of 8 channels on the screen via dedicated keys "1-8", "9-16", etc. .. "DCA", "Mix 1-8", "Mix 9-16" is a row of touch-screen controls, and can be accessed on the 8 channels simultaneously, via encoders located next . In both cases, a very intuitive approach, which one gets in a few minutes. Bravo!

I have not "spoken" in terms of features, but one important aspect when working on a digital console, except the possibility of snapshot is the available processing capacity and especially how to access the same treatments. So the M7 provides, for each input channel, a compressor / limiter, noise gate / expander, a de-esser and parametric 4-band EQ with high pass filter as described above. Same for the outputs. For the console uses onboard effects for better accessibility for the tracks, a concept of multi-effects rack comprising four processors (the assignments are very simple) and four graphic equalizers. Can adjust the equalizers by zippers series of 8 via the faders of the middle section, even if it is not a new practice is roughly!

SOUNDS

The party always difficult .. Start with the preamp, but not really zero they distill unfortunately not what I call her a first choice. I seem to find myself on a 01v 24/96 or DM 2000 .. This is not fatal but do not expect to resume all the nuances of games a string quartet or a pianist as closely as possible .. To stay at Yamaha are not preamps D version of PM5 RH .. As for headroom, I would strongly advise you to forget the ribbon mics ..
The onboard effects are not bad, and sufficient in a lot of cases, but they will not replace dedicated units .. Same with graphic equalizers.

OVERALL OPINION

Although not a model of entry-level console that can claim to replace her sisters most prestigious (and not at Yamaha) The true strength of the M 7 CL is the adoption of an approach emphasizing the intuitive and ease of use. And here's a no-fault!