Yamaha N12

Designed to integrate with Cubase, and featuring new preamps and compressors, Yamaha's N-series digital mixers have been causing quite a stir. Could the N12 be the centrepiece of your project studio?

Yamaha and Steinberg have a relationship that goes back to long before the Japanese corporation bought Steinberg in 2004. Many of you will probably remember the support included for Yamaha products (such as the DSP Factory card and their XG synth standard) in earlier versions of Cubase, and more recently functionality to make the most of Yamaha's 01X.

So when Yamaha acquired Steinberg, it seemed only a matter of time before we would see them releasing hardware products that enjoyed a deeper level of integration with Cubase and Nuendo. The Yamaha N-series digital mixers are the first such products to emerge from this partnership.

Mixers For Musos

The design philosophy behind the N-series, which comprises the N8 and N12, is simple: digital mixers that integrate seamlessly with your DAW (see the 'Soft Centre' box elsewhere on this page), but feel and sound like an analogue desk. So there may be no fancy moving faders, but there are lots of buttons that are (at least when in the same mode) dedicated to a single function. It is about as far away in concept and feel from the 01X as a digital mixer could get... a musician-proof digital desk, if you like.

While the N12 may be a mixer for musos, it is also a serious piece of kit that's capable of being the heart of a home or project studio. When it is hooked up to Cubase via its Firewire interface, you can record up to 16 simultaneous signals, using sample rates of up to 96kHz at 16- or 24-bit resolution. Perhaps more significant is its ability to mix up to 16 channels sent to it from Cubase via Firewire, and add processing via its on-board channel dynamics and EQ before returning a stereo mix back into the sequencer for recording. All this takes only a few button presses and, of course, as the mixer is digital, it requires no additional A-D/D-A conversion. You get full 5.1 surround facilities (although Cubase AI 4 doesn't support this, so you'll have to upgrade to take advantage of these features) and quite a number of separate signal buses. For monitoring all this, there's also a comprehensive Control Room section and a multi-bus meter display.

Overview & Features

The N12 is fairly large, measuring 561mm front to back and 517mm across, which allows for a nice, spacious distribution of the controls. The layout is fairly conventional, with all the I/O (apart from the two headphone outputs, which are sensibly positioned alongside their level controls on the top right-hand corner), found on the rear panel, and all the controls on the top surface. The channel strips are on the left, with the Control Room and DAW Remote controls to the right of them.

Of the available 12, channels one to seven are identical. The eighth differs only in that it sacrifices a phase-reverse switch for one that allows you to select a hi-Z input for connecting electric guitars and basses. Each of these channels can be fed via an XLR or quarter-inch jack socket, and includes an insert point on a standard jack connector. There's also 48V phantom power (applied in two banks of four) via the XLR input sockets, a 26dB pad switch, and an amplifier control capable of providing 44dB of gain.

The N-series mixers have the privilege of being the first Yamaha hardware to benefit from a new class-A preamp design, based on the highly musical-sounding inverted Darlington Circuit. Most Yamaha preamps (as found on their DM- and O-series products) are clean and accurate, but are sometimes criticised for lacking character. Those found here have been engineered to provide more colour.

A-D conversion occurs after the gain control but before the 'phase' (polarity invert) switch. A high-pass filter rolling off 12dB per octave from 80Hz is next, immediately before the point at which signals sent from the DAW enter the circuit. Next in the chain is the new 'Sweet Spot' morphing compressor section, which features a five-point Morph knob and a Drive dial, and is described in more detail elsewhere in this article.

The first eight channels of the N12 include a new approach to compression, based on that used in higher-end Yamaha desks. There are only two controls, but despite the simple approach it seems to be very effective.

The remaining channel features are also found on paired channels 9/10 and 11/12, which don't have the insert points, compressors, pad switches, XLR connectors or phantom power that is available to the eight mono channels, but they retain the high-pass filter. These channels' inputs are on RCA phono and quarter-inch jack.

The EQ section is a simple three-band design with a sweepable mid, ranging from 100Hz to 10KHz. All three sections provide up to 18dB of cut/boost. As is so often the case in smaller mixer designs, there is no EQ bypass switch. Of course, as this is a digital desk a neutral setting effectively bypasses the EQ, but you can't A/B your EQ'd and dry track without losing your settings. After the EQ is the direct out to the computer (which means that the status of the remaining controls does not affect recording for that channel).

The first of the two Aux send controls is permanently assigned to the internal reverb, and therefore has no physical output. The second bus is monitored via its own Aux headphone socket (and associated level knob), and on the rear is a pair of jack sockets carrying the signal to connected devices such as headphone amplifiers and effects units.

The pan/balance knob acts conventionally, as does the solo button, the channel On switch and the 100mm faders. Alongside the faders are some helpful four-stage signal-input LED meters. Below these are three routing buttons, each with its own status LED. The one labelled Wet is used to arm the Monitor button for the corresponding Cubase track, and becomes active when the Monitor Remote Rec Bus switch (found in the DAW Remote Control section) is on. In simple terms, this function switches direct monitoring of the channels from within the mixer to a situation where the signal feed is routed via Cubase, and therefore includes any insert effects and processors on the Cubase channel.

The remaining two buttons determine whether the signal is routed to the ST (stereo) or Rec (record) buses, both of which are available for recording via the Firewire connection alongside the 12 main channels.

Master Section & Buses

The stereo bus, as one would expect, has its own fader, metering display and rear-panel outputs. Like the Aux bus, its signal is output via quarter-inch jack sockets but it also offers the choice of RCA phono connectors.

The stereo Rec (record) bus differs from the other channels in that it is specifically intended for routing channels to the computer, so it doesn't have any physical outs. The metering for the Stereo, Rec and Aux buses is handled by a large 72-LED display, providing stereo information in 12 stages for each bus. When the 5.1 Surround system is being used, these meters can be switched to provide feedback on the six mono speaker outs. Of course, the N12 has the necessary outputs for connecting to a surround-sound speaker setup, and it also has an array of Speaker select buttons.

The Control Room segment of the desk also contains several buttons for checking what's going through the various buses. Other useful features include a dimmer switch for instantly dropping the monitor level, a monitor mute button, and a built-in talkback function (there's a small mic just below the Yamaha logo) with its own level control.

Almost all of the connections (bar the headphone outputs) are located on the rear panel. As well as the usual jacks and XLRs you'd expect to see on a mixer, the N12 includes MIDI and Firewire connectors to link to your PC or Mac.

Also found in this section is a simple digital reverb processor, with settings of Hall, Room and Plate, which offers control over level and time. There are no figures to indicate the bit-depth of the processor, but Yamaha inform me that these RevX reverbs are based on those in the DM2000 and PMID mixers and the SPX2000 effects unit. The reverb can be sent to the Aux, Rec and ST buses completely independently, when the relevant buttons are pressed.

There's also a pair of RCA phono inputs with their own ST bus routing, level control and monitoring (intended for connecting tape/CD/MD players), MIDI In and Out connections, and an external power adaptor with a screw-lock cable.

Moving on to the DAW Remote Control section, you get a set of basic transport controls, plus some Cubase-specific ones for scrolling through tracks and arming them, entering Cycle mode, adding markers and navigating between them. It also includes a click-track level control and 'on' button, and some handy work mode controls for switching the mixer into a mode where the channels are commandeered by the outputs from the Cubase channels. When used with other DAW software, such as Sonar, the N12 will connect using the usual Mackie protocol: you get the transport controls, but none of the Cubase-specific functions.

Build & Setup

Overall, the build quality seems fairly good. From the outside the pots look to be mounted directly on the circuit board, so they won't be as robust as panel-mounted ones, and the faders in particular seem a bit wobbly. On the plus side, the buttons all feel well engineered, as does the chassis. The most obvious weakness is the flimsy plastic lip at the front, which I suspect could easily get broken.

The manual is generally well written and is quite in contrast to many I have seen, which have obviously been badly translated into English. It begins by explaining concepts such as the decibel scale and balanced cabling, before carefully tacking the various purposes of each section of the mixer, but although the effort is appreciated, it appears to have been at the expense of some really vital information, such as where in the channel paths the signals are sent to the computer. I had to do some tests to find out for certain, as the manual's written operation examples seemed to contradict the schematic.

The setup procedure, as tested on my PC, has so many stages that an adult mayfly probably wouldn't live long enough to see its completion... That said, it's a reasonably straightforward process, requiring you to click a series of OK buttons and choose the occasional option before powering up the mixer and following a few more prompts. When all is complete the host PC acquires an mLAN manger program (this mixer isn't exclusively an mLAN device, and will work over a standard Firewire connection), through which the Driver Setup is managed and sample rates and bit depths are set.

The benefits of the long setup procedure become clear when work begins on a song in Cubase: as soon as the software opens, the Cubase Ready arrow symbol on the N12's meter panel illuminates brightly to inform you that the devices are linked, and that all the controls in the DAW Remote Control section are ready to work the software.

In Use

I tested the N12 on a project where I was recording and mixing an entire track. There was a moderate learning curve, but once you get your head around the various buttons and the routing rational, integration with Cubase is really very good. Recording is fairly straightforward, and flipping between using the mixer for recording and mixing is a simple matter of one or two button presses.

You may be wondering how the 16 Firewire inputs are achieved, given that the N12 has only 12 channels. Well, the figure is reached when the L/R Rec (Record) and ST (stereo) buses are used. Sadly, there are no aux inputs, which would have been useful for routing further signals to these buses, and outputting from Cubase also has its limitations, as there are only 12 channels to route signals through. The options are to either group multiple signals, using a single channel or pair of channels as a group, or send the 'spares' to the Aux and Monitor buses.

The N12 features a transport section that will work with a number of software sequencers, alongside other controls specifically for use with Cubase.

Perhaps the greatest example of the N12's simplicity is the way in which buttons in the DAW Remote Control section make it possible to instantly switch from monitoring the mixed output sent from Cubase (St Mix), to a situation where the individual recorded tracks are output to the matched desk channels (Hardware Mix). This is achieved by the press of a button, although the routing can be done channel by channel if required, as each has its own DAW button. There are also some really handy remote functions, the Click controls being good examples, but what I really would have liked to see here are the tools for setting up and controlling auto-punch-in recording remotely.

The preamps are of a high quality, (certainly the best I've heard on a Yamaha product in this price range) and they provide an up-front, detailed sound without being harsh or thin. They worked extremely well on vocals and definitely exuded 'character'. The EQ is also very useable, managing to do its job without colouring the sound. The control arrangement of the desk's 'Sweet Spot' compressor is novel (see 'Sweet Compression' box for more information) but proved very easy to use, and should be of great benefit to those wanting fast, reliable results. It's a shame that it is not possible to mix and match different compressor programs across channels of the N12, but as the process of writing them into the mixer's memory only takes a few seconds, it is easy to swap back and forth between favourites.

The best results come from using this mixer with Cubase, but it does work with other DAWs too. For example, getting the N12 recognised as a remote in Sonar was achieved simply by opening the Controllers/Surfaces window, adding a new Mackie Control to the list and making the appropriate mLAN MIDI I/O selection. The Cubase-specific link functions were unavailable, not unreasonably, but the five basic transport keys did work.

Conclusion

For those who like computers for editing and composing, but prefer tweaking mixes using physical faders, the N12 is well worth a look. For me, personally, it's an attractive option, especially as it's so fast and easy to set up.

Yamaha have taken full advantage of their relationship with Steinberg to come up with a whole recording system that blurs the boundaries between hardware and software. Control surfaces may have been doing something broadly similar for a decade now, but the N12 is much more than a set of remote controllers or A-D converters — in fact it would represent decent value as a digital mixer alone, given this quality of preamps, EQ and compressors.

There are a few minor points of criticism. While it would be possible to use as a live desk, given the flexible monitoring and bussing options, the N12 is perhaps not as robust as you'd want for such work, so it is better thought of as a studio mixer. Other issues are the lack of channel EQ bypass and the desk's relatively large footprint. Arguably the one thing the N12 really lacks is a fader automation and recall system. Admittedly, this would be tricky, given that the knobs are not motorised, so their positions would not match recalled parameters. Dedicated software control surfaces get around this by having banks of assignable continuous controllers that have no fixed positions, so they are always correct, but Yamaha could have employed the often-used workaround whereby a knob remains inert until it is turned through the recalled point during its travel. Yamaha's own 01X is a good example of a product offering fader automation, scene recall and extremely good hardware/software integration. This is really beyond the scope of the N12 and might detract from its simplicity and ease of use, but there may nonetheless be a gap in the market for this type of product.

When compared with some other mixer/interface solutions, the N12 may at first seem a bit pricey, but when its unusually wide range of features are considered it begins to look like great value. Anyone who buys the N12 and owns a fairly modern PC or Mac need only add a modest controller keyboard with a bank of assignable knobs, and would find themselves with a pretty decent recording studio that is capable of achieving professional-quality results.