For a long time, I’ve been looking for a way to expand on the Yamaha Scene management system. I made some software way back which did some things with MIDI control of the desks (called Change Recorder), but it was pretty clunky and didn’t really do what I wanted. But I learned a lot writing that and other software, and as programming is just a hobby of mine between tours, it’s taken me many years to write this new software for the Yamaha desks and to get it to the point of being fairly functional. It’s different than QLab or Palladium in that it’s only for Yamaha mixers, doesn’t do it’s own playback and doesn’t control other devices. It’s also a lot cheaper. (Free!)
I’m now reaching out to the community once again to see if there are any like-minded folks who have a need for more control over their Yamaha desks or are simply interested in doing more with their mixers. It’s called YammieQ, and no, I’m not that excited about the name, but so far haven’t come up with a better one.
This software in it’s current state is certainly not for everyone. It’s for digital mixing experts who already are very familiar with scene management, cueing software and who regularly run shows with multiple scenes and cues. It’s written for Windows and I don’t know how to make it work reliably for OSX. Furthermore, at this point the software is not even Beta ready, more like Alpha. I’m looking for help from people who are comfortable with Windows, know very well how to use Studio Manager or the CL Editor with their mixer, and are comfortable testing beta-type software. Even more than that, I’d like to connect with people that find this sort of software interesting and useful enough that they’d like to contribute to it’s creation by offering suggestions of ways to make it better, clearer, simpler and more powerful. Everyone will have different ways of using the software that I’m sure I have never tried, so the more the merrier!
I’m sure at this point, most will have no idea what the software I’m talking about is for, so here’s some highlights. Basically, though, it seems to me that this platform is powerful enough to do many things that I haven’t even thought of, even though at it’s simplest it just records and plays back MIDI. It’s the control over that functionality that’s taken the years of work so far!
Stuff you can do with YammieQ
- Store/Recall things that are not saved in Scenes. e.g. Outport delays, UDK settings, screen colours, preferences, channel cueing, etc.
- Create “Macros” that will change a parameter or a bunch of parameters when triggered, e.g. from a UDK.
- Store/Recall single parameters that cannot be saved using the scene system separate from it’s parameter group. e.g. Pan of a Mix separate from it’s level. HPF On/Off separate from it’s frequency. Eq On/Off separate from the EQ settings.
- Delayed actions. e.g. a parameter changing after a certain amount of time has passed after a trigger or changing a parameter slowly (i.e. cross-fades)
- Change one or many parameters from a single trigger. e.g. Turn off the direct out when a channel is muted, change the custom fader layout when a mix is cued, fade out the music and then lock the console, cue certain channels at the start of a scene change, etc.
- Recall settings without them being over-written when saving a scene. e.g. A channel is unmuted when you recall a scene, then you manually turn it off while in that scene and store it. Using the built-in Scene management of the Yamaha desks, if that parameter (channel on/off) is safed, it wouldn’t turn on when you recall that scene. If it’s not safed, it will be off when you recall the scene since you saved it that way. You’d need to recall the scene, turn the channel back on and re-save. YammieQ can make that easier by working outside the Scene Management system in the desk.
- Link Cues to be fired from different Triggers
- Auto-Update Cues so that new values will update the current cue while running the show
- Trigger from external MIDI. e.g. use a MIDI controller or a smartphone app to recall cues. Triggers can also be done from hotkeys on the computer.
- Only specific parameters that are in the cue will be affected when fired. Cues can be edited to remove or disable parts of the cue or add new parameters to the cue.
- Normally you would use the software connected to a Yamaha mixer, but Triggers and Cues can also be created offline using the console editor. There are some limitations to the console functions that exist in the editor, of course.
- Triggers and Cues are created by “learning” the parameters from the console or editor. From there they can be edited as needed. Very fast workflow.
YammieQ works with all modern Yamaha Digital Mixing consoles, starting at the DM2000 and up to and including the CL/QL series. No PM1D, PM10 or TF series. Sorry!
I believe the complete list would be DM1000, DM2000, 01V96, 01V96i, 02R96, PM5D, M7CL, LS9, QL (all), CL (all).
Check out the demos below for some examples.
If any of this sounds like something you’d be interested in and would like to help, please click on the Contact Us link at the bottom of this page.
If there are general questions about the software, fire away here and I’ll do my best to answer them.