14 DAY TRIAL // I guess I'd be close to ridicule whether I asked if there is anyone who hasn't heard about Yamaha, no matter what kind of Yamaha could it be, from motorbikes (the R1 kicks a**!) to speedboat engines, stage pianos or highest-tech electronic keyboards, guitars and some of the world's best drum sets and from the finest audiophile gear to the large mixing consoles on the largest stages around the planet.
Now, since I am an audio editor, it's obvious I won't tell you about the world champion YZF-R1 motorbike, even though I am a biker as well. Instead, I will gladly inform you that the 2007 Technical Grammy Award went to Yamaha Commercial Audio (CA) on February 11th. Yamaha Commercial Audio's marketing manager, Carl Christmas, declared, for Pro Sound News at that time that "Having worked for Yamaha all this time, I'm lucky enough to know most of the product managers and engineers who have developed these products over the years.
They work extremely hard and are all genuinely dedicated to moving music technology forward; always looking for that extra something that'll improve a recording engineer's sound and work flow. It's good to see an organization such as the Recording Academy making the effort to recognize the more technical aspects of the recording industry, and I know their award will make a lot of deserving people very proud."
Now, many may have said that it's unsure whether Yamaha CA really deserved this highly esteemed prize or not. From my point of view, especially that I am no Yamaha fan (I ride on Kawasaki and play Jackson guitars), this particular Japanese company really deserved this award.
Not only for all the years the team has been offering top-shelf products but also for the outstanding, history-making products in audio industry like the DM2000 digital mixing console, the NS-10M studio monitors or the REV series reverbs.
Who gave them this award? The Recording Academy's Board of Trustees and its Producers & Engineers Wing, that's who. And I guess you'll agree with me as I state that a whole lot of happy customers and Yamaha gear owners would have voted the same way, should need be.
Funny thing, just a little later than a week after the prize, Yamaha confirms (was it really necessary?) that the series of bestseller gear hasn't come to an end: the LS9 digital mixing console is selling like crazy! The proud descendant of the "classic" of the M7CL, the new LS9 sports either 16 or 32-channel configurations all packed in a light frame and designed for the middle-sized environments such as clubs, worship places and the like.
While soon the new firmware update for the DME (Digital Mixing Engine) will be available for download for free, the new possibilities and new added functionality will make of the LS9 even more demanded. The LS9 can record in MP3 format and play MP3, AAC and WMA files up to 192kbps and it sports a built-in USB memory recorder/player - I guess at least these extra features raised your interest in this beauty :)
Photo credits to Yamaha Commercial Audio.
