Mastering the Craft of Live Sound: Yamaha Music India's RIVAGE PM Series Panel Discussion

Yamaha Music India (YMIN) recently organized a one-day hybrid event in Mumbai, fostering stronger connections with industry leaders. The event brought together prominent mix engineers from both rental and recording sectors for an informal panel discussion.

Moderated by Mr. Warren D’Souza from Sound.com, the panel featured Mr. Alok Punjani (known for his work with Rekha Bhardwaj), Jovian (currently mixing for Kailash Kher), and Nitish Ahuja (an experienced mix engineer and Yamaha Business partner). The discussion covered a range of topics, including preferred plugins, routing strategies, and the innovative Rivage system.

Andy Cooper, Manager of R&D at Yamaha UK, joined remotely via Zoom to address technical queries about the Rivage system. Notably, Mr. Shigenobu Namikawa, AGM of the Audio Marketing Department at Yamaha Music India, provided a historical overview of Yamaha digital consoles—from the PM1D to the latest DM7—highlighting the flagship Rivage system.

The engineers shared insights into their favorite tools. Jovian Soans relies on the Bricasti plugin for vocals and drums, while Alok Punjani favors Yamaha’s delay plugin for channel versatility. Nitish Ahuja emphasized the importance of tools like the Rupert Neve Designs 5045 Primary Source Enhancer and multiband compression, especially in challenging acoustic environments and noisy stages.

The conversation also touched on the red and blue buttons on the Rivage consoles. Alok highlighted that patching in the even or the odd of the frequency spectrum is just amazing. Andy explained that Silk adds musical harmonics (typical of high-quality analog circuits), while Red and Blue buttons enhance harmonic content in different frequency ranges.

The engineers agreed that artificial intelligence (AI) would gradually handle manual tasks, freeing them to focus on creative mixing elements. Andy introduced the “assist” feature in the DM7, designed to streamline routine tasks like gain adjustment and channel labeling.

Following the panel discussion, Andy Cooper addressed questions from both the live audience and online participants, delving into technical details and Rivage series features. The event concluded with Jonathan James, Product Specialist at Yamaha Music India, demonstrating the console, followed by a dinner.

This successful event reflects YMIN’s commitment to knowledge sharing and business growth in the professional audio industry. We extend our gratitude to the panelists and audience, eagerly anticipating similar events in the future as we continue to foster innovation and collaboration.

Reported by & Joel Dsouza, Product Specialist, & Pallav Jerath Marketing Manager