Yamaha LS 9 digital console – a review

Yamaha ls-9.

Yamaha LS-9

I have been using the ls9 for a few days and it seems to do it’s job capably. The model I have been using is the ls9-16, which it designation implies is the 16 channel version. There is also a 32 channel version of this console. The unit that I am using has a small footprint, it will sit comfortably on a standard 19″ rack. Since I have always used analog consoles this was a bit daunting to start of with. You soon realise that it has the same features as an analog desk plus a lot more. All the feature you expect are found in the menu structure or on the front panel. In fact it does not take long to get a simple mix happening.

LS-9 Rear Panel

On the back panel there are all of the inputs and outputs. 16 inputs and 8 omni outputs along with word clock in and out, midi in and out and 2track digital in and out. The LS9 is 16-bus, eight-matrix to stereo and mono, which can also be configured as LCR. All outputs have to be routed to the “Omni” outs. There is also an Ethernet port for attaching a computer to the system. There is also a slot for inserting digital in/out cards to expand the number of inputs. On the right-hand side you will also find a port for a usb stick. With this you can record the mix or playback music from it. You can also save your own personal settings for the desk.

The front panel contains all of the faders and controls you need to get to set up the desk and get a mix happening. Each channel also features a motorised fader, a LED meter, and buttons for channel on, SEL and cue.

Home Page View

When you turn the desk on the screen will default to the “home” page and you can always return to this page when you press the Home button on the front panel. If you look carefully at the screen it contains a lot of info. The information that is displayed is related to which channel you have selected. So if you press the select button above the channel 1 fader the screen will display info about the channel. The info will include eq settings, send levels etc. It does not take long to connect this mixer to your system. There is no real need for an effects rack as the desk contains a reasonable amount of processing within its software. You can patch the built in effects and graphics to any input or output.  One useful feature would be that the screen was a touch screen like Yamaha’s bigger brothers.  To the right of the display are a bunch of controls that adjust the various parameters of what you have selected. When you have a channel selected you can from these controls adjust the eq, head amp, sends to the mix/ matrix(when you use selectors on the left), al of the mono channels have 2 dynamic processors. There is also a rotary encoder to adjust levels, an up/down and left/right navigation keys. Also there is a INC and DEC buttons.

On the left hand side of the screen. you will find the display access controls, layer controls and the mix/matrix selectors. The Diplay access control allow you to access preferences, set

Yamaha showing USB

up menus for the desk. There is also access to the graphics/effects rack, these can assigned to any input and output. Using the 31-band graphic EQs was facilitated by switching the EQ to Fader Assign mode, in which the faders function like the sliders on a graphic EQ. The layers controls are two input layers — a “master” layer and a custom layer — where you can mix and match any combination of input, output and matrix channels or mix masters. If you want the star channel, two aux masters and a matrix master on one layer, you can have that. Pressing any Mix button once tells the LS9 which send you want to address using the Selected Send rotary in the selected channel section.  If you press the Mix button a second time, then the desk enters Sends on Faders mode, in which the faders control send level.

In use this console is pretty good. You patch in mics into the channels, connect the FOH amps to omni outs 7and 8 and then maybe 2  foldback sends on omni’s 1 and 2. Working with channel 1 you press the select button and ON button and adjust the Headroom amp to get a nice signal, you then wind up the master until you have sound happening. You can now adjust the EQ, add any dynamic effects. You press the mix/matrix button 1 and you can now send your signal to this output, in the intial setting of the desk this signal is PFL but this can be changed if you so desire. You do this now for all channels and you have a rudimentary mix. happening. You can then assign the graphics to the outputs, you have 4 31band graphics which can be changed to 8 15band graphics. You can assign also several effects to various channels. You would use the mix matrix buttons and assign one or more to send a signal to the internal effects and return the effects on one of the stereo returns or a desk channel.

With this desk you can also store scenes, that is you can record changes in levels, channels on and off etc., for later recall. This is very handy for theatre style shows or musicals, especially if the have radio mics in them. With this feature you can turn radio mic channels on and off in the correct scenes.

Next to the faders on the front panel you will notice a set of 12 buttons, these are the user definable keys. These are extremely useful, you can make them mute buttons or scene go buttons. Basicly any function of the desk can be assigned to these keys.

One of the LS9 features is a built-in USB recording/playback device. The USB port accepts a standard memory stick (up to 2 GB) and allows you to record the desk’s output to MP3 files. You can record audio from any bus on the console.  The USB recorder can also play MP3s that are stored on the stick. MP3s may be linked to scenes so that when a scene is recalled, a specific MP3 plays automatically.  This feature will be a boon in theatre applications.

The more you use this desk the more you will discover want it can do. Coming from an analog desk to this digital console was an eye opener. This desk is very versatile. No longer do you need to cart a van load of gear with you. You can carry this desk under your arm to the gig. For its small size this console packs a punch. This is a pleasant but powerful console to use. As you use it you will find more and more functions that you can use to make your task easier therefore concentrating on the task at hand- making the show sound great.

Overall I rate this device as a 8/10

Basic Overview

• 16 or 32 mono mic/line input channels plus 4 stereo input channels, expandable up to 32 or 64 channels in two layers.

Desk in use

• 16 mix buses, 8 matrix buses, plus stereo and mono buses with LCR mode.
• Top-performance analog mic/line preamplifiers.
• Compact and light enough for one person to move and set up easily.
• Yamaha Selected Channel interface allows smooth, intuitive access to detailed channel functions via a color LCD display and
logically arranged encoders.
• Extensive gating, compression, and equalization facilities.
• Built-in USB memory recorder/player for recording or BGM playback.
• Virtual Rack packed with effects and EQ for just about any processing requirements.
• Scene memory for instant store and recall of all console parameters, including head amp gain.
• Advanced access management includes user keys (standard USB memory devices) that can be issued with different access levels for
different users.
• LS9 Editor Software for enhanced operability and programmability.

Technical Specifications

Stage Management no-no’s

The life of a theatre technician can be interesting and frustrating all at the same time. Have you ever had someone call a show who had no idea? How about a Director  who calls a show, who was more interested in the performance rather calling the cues correctly. Or those temporary SM’s that call cues the wrong and differently each time.  Or the worse possible situation a show without a Stage Manager, the client hands you a script and expects you to operate the equipment, read the script and follow the action on stage. They must think that we are supermen. The cast of course consists of members that cannot project their voices beyond the first row, so we are suppose to hear them with the sound of equipment buzzing in our ears is beyond me.  This particular scenario is one that I don’t recommend no matter what the event is or how simple it might seem. You need to be in contact with someone backstage in case something goes wrong or changes. All venues should have a policy about always having a responsible person in contact with the technician at all times, it really becomes an Occupational Health and Safety issue. We also need to instil in the client a correct way of calling cues, don’t you just hate the statement  ” GO   LX 45″ or just plain “GO” . What can make it even worse is there is no standby or “Standby..GO LX” – that will keep you on your toes. Or the long standby, were you drift of into another world waiting for the GO cue. And there is my particular favourite – my son/daughter will call the show,they have seen me do it since they were 9. Now they are 14 and do ont realise the responsibility that has been thrust upon by their parent. And even worse they are now going to be in charge of their friends and peers possibly.

We certainly did not get into this job for the glamour.

We are really Teachers

I have come to the conclusion that theatre technicians and venue technicians in particular are really there to teach clients about the processes of theatre. We often have clients that have very little or slightly dodgy understanding of theatre , its processes and some of it traditions.  They have the impression that it all happens like magic and that anything they ask for can happen in a minute or 2. They don’t realise that at times that things can take a while to set up. You might get a statement like “can I have spotlight on that person now”, unfortunately that cast member is not in the path of a spotlight and you say that to the client.  And one of the reactions is will can you bring one up and then you go into a discussion about the fact that you can re-focus a light on that cast member but it will take a bit of time. some people do not realise that some of these tasks will take time and that it is going to eat into the time that they have in the venue. Must not also not forget about the programming of lighting and audio consoles. You set up the show to run smoothly on the consoles and the client wants to change the order of the show as you are running. It becomes interesting, very interesting.This can lead to conflict and a few upset people including you.

So a way to overcome these sort of problems, is to sit down with the client and educate them in the way you work and the way the equipment and venue work. You need to explain that somethings are going to take a bit of time and that there are going to be a time when they cannot make changes to the show.  They are going to appreciate that you take the time to explain the way of the theatre with them. This is just another part of customer service. It will make your job easier and it will make it easier on the client.

A Little Light Drawing

Do you remember the good old days of lighting design, large chunks of paper, pencils, reasers and a set of stencils of the most common theatre lights. You sat slaving under a desk lamp putting your ideas down in pencil only to rub them out when you realised that light cannot shine through a solid object. Once you had finalised the design you inked it in ready to be copied. You then sat down and did all of the associated paperwork, hook up charts, cut colour lists. You then realised that you did not have enough lanterns or dimmers – late nights taking their toll.

Well things have now changed for the modern lighting designer. Many moons ago the personnel computer came out and since that day theatre techies have being finding ways to use them to make their life easier. The have basically gone down the same path that architects have gone down. The road is called CAD. Now this might seem like old hat to you, but still it is a good idea to remind people of where things have come from. We now have software dedicated to the lighting designer. A lot of this software is not cheap but it does speed up the process of getting your design down on paper. A lot of the software also will generate the required paperwork in any form that you require, all you need to do is click a button. No more of this tedious collating of info by hand. You are less likely to produce errors.

The beauty of the software solutions is that you can input the set design elements and venue information into the program and then you position the lights, sounds good. But the program can also render in 3d what it could look like. You can check your lighting before you get to the venue. You can with some software build lighting states and rehearse cues to see how it all gels. So a lot of the tasks of the lighting designer have been made easier therefore allowing them to spend more time on the creative elements. Also if changes are needed to be made it becomes a lot easier to update all of the paperwork with a click of the mouse key.

Some of the software that is available is as follows:

AutoCad available from autodesk

This is a heavy weight program originally for industrial designers. This is one of the originals in the area of CAD.  It has a fairly steep learning curve, but there are plenty of tools available for the theatre professional. you can download a trial version. I would suggest doing a course in using this software, but there are some good resources for help with this software.

Vectorworks available from nemetschek

This is another comprehensive software package. It comes in several different flavours, Designer, Architectural, Landmark and Spotlight. Spotlight is the theatrical version of this very powerful package. This version comes complete with a reasonable fixture library. You also have access to truss libraries, and scenic elements.  This software seems to have a reasonable learning curve. Once you know the basics it is not that hard to come up with a 2D lighting plot. You can also work in 3D and also render the scenes to get a visualizsation of what your lighting is going to look like. It is one program I would recommend.

Cast Lighting WYSIWYG available from  Cast Software

WYSIWYG is a 3D CAD, paperwork, rendering, and pre-visualisation software package. This piece of source is extremely sophisticated. not only can you use it to  design the lighting but you can plan your cues and basicly have the show rehearsed before a light is actually rigged.

SoftPlot available from Stage Research

SoftPlot 9 is a CAD application specifically for lighting.  Plot lighting, manage paperwork for all levels of  theatre. This is a pretty good piece of software. I own an early version of this software and it works quite well. It again comes with a decent library of lanterns and lighting bars etc. It generates the paperwork which is also customisable. This company also makes the lighting control software LightFactory.

Stardraw Lighting 2D 2007 available from Stardraw

Another interesting product. It is another piece of software that has an extensive symbol library. It is quite an easy piece of software to use.  It does have the feel of an Microsoft Office piece of software, which can either be good or bad depending on your point of view.

Microlux Light available from Luxart

This is a 2D piece of software availa from Microlux. The reason it is free is that it does have adds in it. It does an adequate job of doing 2D lighting designs. I have had trouble getting it to work well, but that could be me and my system.

TurboCad available from Turbocad

This is the first CAD program that I started playing with. I found it a very good program. It did not have lighting symbols, but I created my own. I am sure you can import Autocad symbol files etc into this program and use them. You just need to keep an eye on the scaling or you might end up with symbols that are rather large. I think the new versions of this software are going to be much better than the one I first started using. You can often get a free older version of this software on PC magazines and also online. It is quite a good program that is fairly easy to use.

As you can see there is a variety of CAD software available to the lighting designer and I am sure there is some open source software also that will do a great job as well. The trick is to find the one that you are comfortable with. The more comfortable that you are with the software the better the result you are going to produce. You will also be more efficient.

so I suggest thsat you download demos and try before you buy. most of this software is expensive, so try before you buy.

Variety

As a venue tech you will end up working on a whole range of show types. So you need to a wide variety of skills. You also need to have an understanding of the various types of shows and clients that you would be dealing with. You also have to tailor your work style as well. Each client has different expectations, and they expect you to act accordingly. You need to be able read the person and act accordingly. Some clients stress out, and they are constantly worry and smetimes ask for very complex set ups, but you need to stay and reassure them.
But each type of show will bring it’s own set of problems. Some types of shows take longer than others to set up. You will find that shows with radio mics will take a bit longer to set up. You need to make sure that the radio frequencies don’t clash, and you need to spend a bit more time with the eq. This is especially true with lapel or headset mics. Dance shows require you to set up sidelights and probably lay a dance floor. I am sue we can all think of problems and issues that all shows can throw up. It is just a matter of learning and remembering what you did. It is sometimes a good idea to make notes, you can then use them as reference material the next time.