Yamaha’s Flagship PM Console: A Rupert Neve Designs Collaboration
This February, Yamaha began shipping its new flagship live sound mixing console, the Rivage PM10. This console marks the first time that Rupert Neve Designs’ Silk circuit has been emulated and integrated into a live sound console, representing a huge step forwards for Rupert Neve Designs into the world of live sound.
The collaboration began several years ago when the Yamaha design team, led by Toshifumi Kunimoto (known as “Dr. K”), visited Rupert in Wimberley, TX to discuss emulations of the Portico 5033 5-band EQ (discontinued) and Portico 5043 compressor. In 2011, after 2 years of critical listening and development, these very first Rupert Neve Designs plugins were approved by Rupert and released by Steinberg to much acclaim. These plugins were also integrated into Yamaha’s CL Series consoles, and thus made available to live sound engineers working entirely in the digital realm.
Also discussed at that initial meeting were Rupert’s classic modules – specifically, his 1970’s and 1980’s EQs and dynamics processors – and their hallmark transformer saturation properties. With the release of the Rivage PM10, emulations of these vintage EQs (the Rupert EQ 773 and EQ 810), compressors (the Rupert Comp 754 and Comp 830), and the Silk feature from Rupert Neve Designs’ Portico II Series have been integrated into a digital console for the very first time.
From the Yamaha website:
“The transformer circuitry and SILK processing incorporated in high-end analog devices from Rupert Neve Designs, designed by the legendary Rupert Neve himself, have been precisely modeled using original Yamaha VCM (Virtual Circuitry Modeling) technology. These extraordinary preamplifiers are available for use on all RIVAGE PM10 input channels.”
“Rupert Neve himself is impressed with the capabilities of VCM technology, saying ‘at last a digital technology is able to create the superb sound that has previously only been available with analog circuitry.’ Previously released in the form of plug-in versions of the Rupert Neve Designs Portico series processors, that same technology is now part of the RIVAGE PM10 Hybrid Microphone Preamplifiers.”
The Rivage PM10 is now shipping as of February 2016, with the USA’s first two PM10s currently out on Carrie Underwood’s “The Storyteller Tour”.
For more information on this flagship console and the Yamaha / Rupert Neve Designs collaboration, please visit the Rivage page on Yamaha’s website.
