Yamaha M916: Crap/Not Crap?

[dontfearthringo]

So, as I am building up the B room at the studio where I work, I have been harvesting some of the good will I have put out into the world over the years. A 16 channel snake w/4 headphone lines was given to me the day before yesterday. It needs a little solder here and there, but other than that, it's ready to rock.

A FOH engineer who is a very close friend offered me a very fair deal on a rack mounted pair of dbx 161s, customized with XLR jacks on the back. Still, even a fair price on that is more than I have budgeted for outboard compression right now. Several people have advised me to save my pennies for the Fatso and/or the Distressor.

Also, a carpenter friend has offered to help me do some of the building (drum platform, some gobos, etc) and sound proofing.

It's been a good couple of weeks. Karma works both ways, apparently. (For years, I have been the guy who would fix your car for kicks, throw your bike in the back of my truck and give you a ride when it was raining, or fix your computer in exchange for an espresso drink... It seems to improve my luck, y'know?) (The line for Mac repairs and advice forms to the left, folks... auto repairs on the right...)

Anyway, the bass player in my band pipes up tonight and says "Well, I have an old Yamaha console in my closet. You think you might want it?"

Maybe?

It's a Yamaha M-916 with no mods that he is aware of.

I did a search and saw that a couple of Gearslutz have this board or experience with this board. I was wondering what the overall opinion of it is. Is it worth the time and effort if it needs some soldering and a serious cleaning? What if it has bad channels? How far would you go to make this thing a part of your rig?

Here is some qualifying information:

Most of my experience up to this point has been mixing in the box and live sound. The B Room has a Digi 002 console and no analog board. I will be going into the Digi through a Presonus Digimax FS or (more likely) an M-Audio Octane. The B Room at Pigpen will be known as the Pig Sty. It is going to be the fast and dirty room for punk/metal/hip hop and other noisy genres. If I am lucky, by the end of 2008, I may be ready to tackle some more subtle stuff, but out of the gate, it's going to be the tinnitus and tattoos crowd. Some of what I have read suggests that the pres in this board may be perfect for that.

Your opinions, slutz?

[homestudioguy]

Yamaha site says it was "new" in 1980.
History of Products - Yamaha Professional Audio: Yamaha Manual Library
eBAY
YAMAHA M916 PROFESSIONAL SERIES INPUT CHANNEL STRIP. - eBay (item 310008827198 end time Jan-15-08 20:11:27 PST)
Forum comments:
Yamaha M916 - The Womb
PICTURE (scroll way down)
B S Sound; Surplus Sale

[Sounds Great]

I had a Yamaha M916 for many years and mostly used it with a Fostex E16 / 30ips tape machine. No it isn't crap. It was actually designed as a theater mixer so it has a matrix system that may be a bit confusing but no big deal. It isn't an in-line monitor type board, but does have two balanced inputs on each channel with a switch (A/B input) so it works fine for recording and switching between monitor and record. The eq and pres' sound pretty good from what I remember but it has been a few years.

Oh and the input level is stepped, so you may find yourself needing more control to whatever you record to unless it has a way to adjust it's own inputs. I ended up building my own rack of 16 attenuators between the board and tape machine.

I bet the whole thing wouldn't get you 200 bucks on the open market these days, though.

Certainly a very quiet mixing board, at least it was 20 years ago.

[dontfearthringo]

Originally Posted by homestudioguy

Yamaha site says it was "new" in 1980.
History of Products - Yamaha Professional Audio: Yamaha Manual Library
eBAY
YAMAHA M916 PROFESSIONAL SERIES INPUT CHANNEL STRIP. - eBay (item 310008827198 end time Jan-15-08 20:11:27 PST)
Forum comments:
Yamaha M916 - The Womb
PICTURE (scroll way down)
B S Sound; Surplus Sale

You have to love a review that starts "Noisy. Goes downhill from there."


Sorta interesting trying to figure these guys' perspective on the gear... are the naysayers people who have regular access to higher end pieces and their disregard is based on a finer tuned sensibility? Or would the M916 actually be a LIABILITY in the studio?

esp. considering the price...

[dontfearthringo]

Originally Posted by Sounds Great

I had a Yamaha M916 for many years and mostly used it with a Fostex E16 / 30ips tape machine. No it isn't crap. It was actually designe as a theater mixer so it has a matrix system that may be a bit confusing but no big deal. It isn't an in-line monitor type board, but does have two balanced inputs on each channel with a switch (A/B input) so it works fine for recording and switching between monitor and record. The eq and pres' sound pretty good from what I remember but it has been a few years.

Oh and the input level is stepped, so you may find yourself needing more control to whatever you record to unless it has a way to adjust it's own inputs. I ended up building my own rack of 16 attenuators between the board and tape machine.

I bet the whole thing wouldn't get you 200 bucks on the open market these days, though.

Certainly a very quiet mixing board, at least it was 20 years ago.

IN-teresting.... another precinct heard from.

well, I guess we'll just hook it up and see what happens.

I have a good boss. He's got good ears. He won't let me go too wrong.

[Podgorny]

I owned one for a while, and used it in a small-studio setup. It was interesting.
I don't think it will make you happy in long-term use. But if it's free, and you need a console, it will work just fine.

When I had it, I thought it would be a good candidate for modding, but after closer inspection, it lacked the inductor-based EQ and other miscellaneous bits that make the older small yamaha boards interesting.

If nothing else, it looks kind of cool in a garage-studio kind of way.
I've got a 24-channel Soundcraft 400b I'd sell you pretty cheap...

[dontfearthringo]

Originally Posted by Podgorny

If nothing else, it looks kind of cool in a garage-studio kind of way.
I've got a 24-channel Soundcraft 400b I'd sell you pretty cheap...

I was gonna pounce on that Ghost that was in the For Sale list around New Years, but my budget is TIGHT right now.

I'll probably get this thing cleaned up if it needs it, use it to do some learning and make some money in the process, then upgrade to something cool and fun. I do love the look of the old Soundcraft boards, but i have heard the 800 is the cat's pajamas.....

On the other hand, there's a taco joint on Harding Place in Nashville that I sometimes lie awake and dream about...

[lang_dave]

Lots of people will write that this is crap and that is crap. Sometimes things are crappy and sometimes they just aren't popular, know what I mean?

I bought an M916 to kick around and ended up liking it. Would I like a Neve, Trident, or SSL board? Sure. Does that mean I hate the Yamaha? Nope.

Here's a thread from the Prodigy Pro forum where one of the moderators reviews the board for me based on the schematics. In my opinion, the guys there focus on the actual gear, not the gear's 'cool' factor.

Prodigy Professional :: View topic - Yamaha M916 Mixer Refurb Questions - schematic included

After I recapped it and changed the EQ section chips, I prefer the sound of the built in EQ to most of the plugins I have for my ProTools HD system.

So, for the price, the fun of learning how to recap something, and the "asteroids game case" the whole thing comes in, I'd give the M916 a thumbs up.

But it'll never get as much 'forum' buzz as a discussion about turning an Ampex 350 into a mic pre!

good luck,
dave