Ideal Yammie?

My ideal Yammie would be a PM5 or similar, in a box no bigger or heavier than my laptop, with at least 10 toslink in/out connections on the back, at least 10 ethernet connections on the front, at least 10 usb connections on each side, a power input (90-240V) and maybe some firewire connections for legacy equipment. It would have no expensive bits - screen, knobs, moving faders etc. so it would cost under $2000. It could have a led on it somewhere that confirms that it works, and wireless it would have to have too. It would have an ultimate version of SM that could set up and talk to anything connected to it. That’s probably some kind of a distributed processing device, and I sure would find it easier to carry. It could be called the “YUMMIE DME”.

Interestingly MOTU have ‘sort of’ made one, with a pretty awful computer interface, and not a huge amount of DSP. I might write up my experiences later. The 828 Hybrid at least has a USB2 interface as well as firewire, which means that it could be reasonably futureproof. It also means that it can be ‘remoted’ for it’s cuemix fx application, and even for it’s ‘soundcard’ function with the use of a dedicated USB extender.
I am using one as a small mixer at the moment, with an 8in 8out adat mic pre unit attached. I have split the adat signal from the mic pre unit to both of the adat inputs on the 828, as any DSP applied to an input also affects the recorded signal. It is a bit complicated, but, using a BCF2000 as controller I have a 10 mic + 6 line input mixer with stereo out and 4 monitor sends. At the same time I am able to record the 10 mic inputs without any processing, and the mix out, and the reverb seperately. I can choose jack or xlr outputs as required depending on the multicore.

The whole lot weighs in at 9.6Kg for the macbook pro, the 828, the adat 8in/out on xlr, and the bcf2000. It’s quite a lot, but I can take it as carry luggage even on budjet airlines.
The power cables have to be checked in, or stuffed in my pockets. Difficult to replace toslink plastic fibre I carry.
If I want a better reverb then I take a PCM80 as well which I connect via the spdif connectors. Monitor setup I am doing with my tablet by VNC.

I have been trying to achieve such a setup for a while. I would really like the mixer setup to be completely cabled, with a headphone amp (for in-ear) or radio xmitters in a case that I can just place on stage. One ethernet cable to my laptop and BCF2000. I would love to have a lighter version of the BCF2000. New touch screen laptops are already here, which means that I only really need the faders.

I bought an Iconia 6100 last year, but it was unreliable, and unfixable (by Acer). Until it proved unreliable I was in heaven. I could have the whole control surface of a PM5 or a Vi6 or a Digico spread over the two screens… faders and all. Never mind. It will come!

The new rackmount Behringers are interesting. I would sincerely like to see other audio manufacturers follow their lead and build the same product in different form-factors.

Yes, they are moving in the right direction. I am always looking for a back-pack transportable solution. The very nice MOTU people kindly offered to put me on a beta testing program, as their 828Hybrid is very light. But while I was waiting I was asked for a totally clean wireless stage. And I thought… true… lots of the weight I am carrying is copper.

And then I was totally side-tracked. 7 days later I have a mixer (as many in and outs as the soundcards I can carry will provide) running on my laptop with 2ms latency (the same as Yamaha I believe).

Full testing on Wednesday in Prague when the band get to go totally wireless on stage, and can each control their own in-ear from their I-pad, I-phone, Droid… whatever touch device they possess. They will have faders and switches only for what they require (or I decide they should have) access to. They have 440Hz tone on demand for tuning… full persistence of all settings… auto log-on… etc.

Looking for a better understanding of OSC I had stumbled across “PureData”, and I cannot believe that I had never heard of it before. It has been around for quite some time, is open source, stunningly powerful and EASY. I start up the patch that I have built for the show, and EVERYTHING can be automated. Start a backing track… the track “start” routes the audio and sets the levels… routes the click to monitors… sends the track to the PA… no possibility that I will ever make a routing mistake or forget to adjust a level ever again. I hope, for my sake, in Prague on Wednesday, that it is also as stable as it seems!

I might blog about it later, but I think I will be having just too much fun programming more features.
And within a month (of free time) I should have my ideal Yammie!

Sounds like an exciting new system.
Please do blog it up when you have time. I’d love to hear more, as would others, I’m sure!