Front of house engineer Harold Rubens, who is known for his work mixing dozens of Christian acts, recently found much success using the new Yamaha CL5 Digital Audio Console on several tours in 2012 and early 2013.
“CTS Audio (Franklin, Tenn.) has been my preferred audio provider,” states Rubens “They provide us with racks and stacks and any additional audio support we need.
“For the shows I’m doing now the CL I’m using is owned by musician, Brandon Heath, who purchased the console through CTS for his “Blue Mountain” Tour.”
“Once I mixed on the CL5 for Brandon’s national tour, I liked it so much that I turned right around and took the same console out to mix the Andrew Peterson “Behold The Lamb of God” Christmas tour.”
“The networking capabilities of the CL Series using Dante makes everything easier,” Rubens said. “On the “Blue Mountain” Tour, it was easy to just plug in a computer and instantly record and playback all 64 tracks for both virtual sound check and recording.
“On Andrew Peterson’s tour, we were touring with one CL5, but with two sold-out shows at the Ryman, we added a second CL5 to accommodate additional instruments and guest performers.
“The console’s networking made it really easy to add the second CL5 and also be able to sound check everything using the playback from the previous show.”
“I think that the CL5 sounds incredible,” adds Rubens. “It has exceeded any expectation I had for the console. I’ve used Yamaha digital consoles extensively at one point or another on tours and/or installs, and I was anxious to see how the CL5 was going to perform.
“I knew about the long list of new features, but I still wondered how it was going to sound. Needless to say, I was very impressed which is why I recommended that Brandon buy one along with two Rio3224-D boxes to use as part of his own touring system.”
“When Harold came into the Ryman with Andrew’s annual Christmas show, it was the first time anyone had brought in a Yamaha CL5,” notes Les Banks, Ryman Auditorium Tech Supervisor. “I had previously attended a demo but had not yet seen one in action.
“As soon as Harold powered up the CL5 and played the previous evening’s show (using Virtual Soundcheck), I instantly commented on how clear the console sounded. The top end was clear and the bottom was tight…no smoke and mirrors here; great mic pre’s and plug-ins.
“As the Ryman’s audio supervisor, I am in the unique position to audition every type of console on the planet through the same PA, and this console rocks! For its price and size, the CL is jammed-packed with performance and features. It gets all A’s on my report card!”
Rubens said that while out with Heath, things were sounding so good that opener, Matt Maher, decided to release a live project using the tracks acquired during the tour from the Nuendo Live function of the Yamaha CL.
“Yamaha digital consoles all have different feature sets that are not always available on other Yamaha consoles; i.e. the USB recorder on the LS9, the touch screen on the M7CL, and the direct to matrix send on inputs on M7s and 5Ds.The CL is a culmination of all those features plus a whole lot more, and to top it all, it sounds really, really good. This is an amazing package at an incredible price point.”
