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[scottstephens]

Hey All,
  I am going to rant. The local music store called me a couple of weeks ago and said that there is a small church that has a bad mixer amp,  can you go check it out and do your thing.  So I go and find a 4 input Crate from the mid 90"s with a bad power supply. I also find one of the worst installs I have ever seen; splices everywhere,  a set of small Fender speakers sitting on L brackets, with twisted and taped together wiring using a wire nut and Gemini wireless systems. Which, surprisingly weren't working.  But the installation was "free".  But that isn't what set me off, because I knew who had done the install and  I actually expected something exactly like what I found.
  So I tell the guy at the church about the supply chain issues and how it could take a few weeks for the store to get a new mixer amp and it would either be a Peavey or a Yamaha but probably a Peavey. He was fine with that. In the mean time I give him an installation estimate of what he wants, a couple new wireless,  new pulpit and lectern mic and to try and get rid of the A M radio that they sometimes hear.  Then I win him over by pulling out an old,  6 input, 5 band main eq Crate Mixer amp that has to be from the mid 70's. It only has a "high and low" EQ  and verb setting on each channel, but it works. He is over the moon happy when I tell him that they can borrow this for a couple of Sundays for free because I can't guarantee that it will not stop working on any given day. But the old beast works.
  After about 7 days, the store says we have a Yammy mixer amp, an EMX 5 and the salesman called the guy and they have everything and I will install it all very soon. Which I did. Here is what PISSES ME OFF:  on the Yamaha EMX 5....NO MAIN EQ. No physical faders, no digital EQ.  Just a knob that says "speech & music".  There is still the 3 band eq on each channel thank God, but nothing other than that stupid ass knob for main settings. Talk about your stupid, cheap-ass ways to save a buck.  I guess the EMX 7 has the digital EQ, but not the 5.  Is that disappointing or what?!! It made it hard to remove the echo in the church because obviously they didn't have the budget to replace speakers or have them properly hung and aimed. In the end, I had them hang some banners on the back wall to tame the sound and they were really happy. I got paid immediately and the music store looked good. So maybe that is all that matters. But really Yamaha??  That sucks!!!

Scott

[John Roberts {JR}]

back last century I killed some brain cells thinking about entry level mixer that were smart enough to identify the probable signal sources (like speech, or instruments) then make a passable guess at EQ...

No respectable sound guy would ever buy/use one, and I saved the rest of my brain cells or at least some of them.

JR

[Tim McCulloch]

Chefs will cook.  Most people just want to eat.  Build your own analogy.

[Mike Caldwell]

I just looked it up to see what it was about.

In all fairness for the market that was more or less designed for it may still have
too many knobs and buttons, sorry you had to deal with it though.
Sometimes a simple strip mixer is too much.

I'm going to guess the EQ knob just applies a smile face curve the more you turn it
towards music.

[David Sturzenbecher]

Hey All,
  I am going to rant. The local music store called me a couple of weeks ago and said that there is a small church that has a bad mixer amp,  can you go check it out and do your thing.  So I go and find a 4 input Crate from the mid 90"s with a bad power supply. I also find one of the worst installs I have ever seen; splices everywhere,  a set of small Fender speakers sitting on L brackets, with twisted and taped together wiring using a wire nut and Gemini wireless systems. Which, surprisingly weren't working.  But the installation was "free".  But that isn't what set me off, because I knew who had done the install and  I actually expected something exactly like what I found.
  So I tell the guy at the church about the supply chain issues and how it could take a few weeks for the store to get a new mixer amp and it would either be a Peavey or a Yamaha but probably a Peavey. He was fine with that. In the mean time I give him an installation estimate of what he wants, a couple new wireless,  new pulpit and lectern mic and to try and get rid of the A M radio that they sometimes hear.  Then I win him over by pulling out an old,  6 input, 5 band main eq Crate Mixer amp that has to be from the mid 70's. It only has a "high and low" EQ  and verb setting on each channel, but it works. He is over the moon happy when I tell him that they can borrow this for a couple of Sundays for free because I can't guarantee that it will not stop working on any given day. But the old beast works.
  After about 7 days, the store says we have a Yammy mixer amp, an EMX 5 and the salesman called the guy and they have everything and I will install it all very soon. Which I did. Here is what PISSES ME OFF:  on the Yamaha EMX 5....NO MAIN EQ. No physical faders, no digital EQ.  Just a knob that says "speech & music".  There is still the 3 band eq on each channel thank God, but nothing other than that stupid ass knob for main settings. Talk about your stupid, cheap-ass ways to save a buck.  I guess the EMX 7 has the digital EQ, but not the 5.  Is that disappointing or what?!! It made it hard to remove the echo in the church because obviously they didn't have the budget to replace speakers or have them properly hung and aimed. In the end, I had them hang some banners on the back wall to tame the sound and they were really happy. I got paid immediately and the music store looked good. So maybe that is all that matters. But really Yamaha??  That sucks!!!

Scott

You're pissed off because you didn't check the specs on a product before you bought it?   One knob Master EQ is literally one of the main selling points of this thing.

[Jonathan Johnson]

Was it advertised as "wide-band rotary equalizer"?

[John Roberts {JR}]

I spent a couple decades in these trenches and you have to design entry level SKUs for the actual customers, and the salesmen, so they don't bad mouth the designs too much.

JR

[scottstephens]

You're pissed off because you didn't check the specs on a product before you bought it?   One knob Master EQ is literally one of the main selling points of this thing.

I didn't spec the system David. I was just asked to install it.  I have installed 2- EMX 7's and they have a digital Eq. And I wrongfully assumed that they both would. Even cheap $300 POS Behringers have faders!!!  Thank You for reminding me to double check the specs on everything.

Scott

[Bob Faulkner]

Well, Yamaha does have their 1-knob compressor control on their MGPX consoles as well as the EMX line.  When I first saw this, I questioned what Yamaha was doing and I sort of put Yamaha down a couple of notches because of it.  Since that time, I still don't care for the 1-knob control, but it sort of works for a "quick and easy" compressor.  This control seems directed at a certain demographic.

I just looked it up to see what it was about.

In all fairness for the market that was more or less designed for it may still have
too many knobs and buttons, sorry you had to deal with it though.
Sometimes a simple strip mixer is too much.

I'm going to guess the EQ knob just applies a smile face curve the more you turn it
towards music.

Exactly.

[Brian Jojade]

I didn't spec the system David. I was just asked to install it. 

Those kinds of installs are potential reputation killers.  I generally run away when people ask me to install stuff that I didn't at least have a hand in the design/selection of gear.  Now if you install it and it turns out it was garbage, you're still the guy that installed it and as such, it's your fault when it doesn't work the way you want it to.

[ProSoundWeb Community]