A Yamaha RIVAGE PM10 console will be mixing the front of house sound for the Jamiroquai world tour, beneath the experienced fingers of FOH engineer Rick Pope.
Pope has worked with the band and it’s frontman Jay Kay for 23 years, both live and in the studio, and with Yamaha digital consoles for almost as long. So he jumped at the chance to show the world what the company’s new flagship console can do.
“I grew up on the Yamaha PM1D and then the PM5D,” Pope commented. “I have always liked the workflow and the way that Yamaha digital consoles have their own operating system from the ground up. It makes them incredibly stable – I’ve never had a single fault in the 20-odd years I’ve been using Yamaha digital boards, which you can’t always say about other consoles.” Pope is happy that the RIVAGE PM10 will have almost everything he needs.
“The first thing about the PM10 is that it’s very user-friendly. I haven’t had to look at the manual once, which I think is always a really good sign,” he said. “It really is the easiest console I’ve ever used and I’ve used them all over the years.”
Alongside the reliability, user-friendliness and flexibility of the platform, it’s the audio quality and processing of the RIVAGE PM10 that many engineers have been extremely impressed by. Pope is no exception.
“Firstly the clarity on the top end is amazing, it’s got the clearest imagery that I’ve ever heard on a board,” he said. “Being able to put eight inserts on to a channel is insane, you can’t do that on most other desks. And you can EQ for days!
“On top of that, the effects really are the best available. Previously I always have to have at least some outboard, but the on-board processing on the PM10 is absolutely stunning. For example I always used to take a tc6000 out with me, but the emulation of it on the RIVAGE PM10 is spot on. I also really like the Open Deck circuitry emulation – I put it on the left/right busses and it sounds amazing at 96kHz. I even put it on Jay Kay’s vocals. It gives the sound real depth and adds a certain warmth.”
He continued, “I also love the Rupert Neve Silk emulation, which I am starting to blend on the drums, while the reverbs are absolutely stunning. With the quick keys you can quickly get to everything you need and I really like the USB recorder, which allows me to record the show in different formats/sample rates and I don’t need to use any external equipment.”
“Normally bands don’t say anything, but they all came into rehearsals and went ‘Wow, this sounds amazing’. They were over the moon with it; the first gig we did with it (in Paris) was absolutely stunning. We are all very happy and I’m really pleased to be taking it everywhere with me this year,” he said.
