RIVAGE PM7 Impresses Indonesian Engineers On Pre-Launch Tour

Bali Blues Festival

On 21st May, Yamaha Indonesia held its official launch event for the new RIVAGE PM7 digital mixing system. Before this, sound engineers in different cities were able to work with the system on a pre-launch tour of four specially-chosen showcase events. Their response? Very impressed!

Taking place during two weeks in late April and early May, RIVAGE PM7 was able to demonstrate its flexibility and reliability in Indonesia’s tropical climate, being used at the International Kampoeng Jazz Festival in Bandung, the Bali Blues Festival, a concert by popular Indonesian R&B singer/songwriter Glenn Fredly and the annual Surabaya Music & Multimedia Expo (SMEX).

The comments from engineers who were able to get ‘hands on’ with the system were extremely positive, with the audio quality, premium plug-ins, ease of use and price point all the focus of particular praise.

At the International Kampoeng Jazz Festival, the RIVAGE PM7 was working with a RIVAGE PM10 system to mix a variety of different jazz styles, from very traditional to modern. Audio engineer Irham Bilal enjoyed his first experience with the system, saying “I was very pleased to experience RIVAGE PM7. The plug-ins are remarkable, overall I thought it was fantastic. I hope to spend more time on it to really get to know all the features.”

Two days previously, the system had been used to mix the Front of House sound for Glenn Fredly at The Pallas, a spectacular live music venue and restaurant in Jakarta. Although it was the first time Fredly’s FoH engineer Eddy Jacobus had used the system, his verdict was “It’s the best - the sound is great, very natural and the workflow is identical to RIVAGE PM10. I especially like the emulations of the Rupert Neve Sound Designs processors, which are a great shortcut to a really good sound.”

The audio rental company for both shows was Jakarta-based DSS Sound System, whose owner Donny Hardono added, “Over these two events it quickly became obvious that the features, premium plug-ins and the 96kHz sampling rate of RIVAGE PM7 mean that it easily satisfies the needs of sound engineers.”

The next stop on the Indonesian tour was four days of hands-on demonstration at the annual SMEX expo, which attracted 15,000 visitors. Here comments included “The DSP resources are amazing, you can insert the plug-ins everywhere on the input and output channels”, “The workflow is completely familiar”, “It has such a musical sound” and “RIVAGE PM7 is really cool to use!”

The final pre-launch showcase was the Bali Blues Festival, where it was deployed with a Yamaha CL5 on FoH, mixing a variety of Indonesian and international blues / rock artists.

“Like other Yamaha digital consoles, the RIVAGE family is really user friendly and easy to operate. The premium plug-ins are really very helpful for every sound engineer,” said engineer Teddy Sapta. Fellow engineer Agus Bim added, “The sound is great and I was really impressed by the number of plug-in options that can be used on every channel.”

With the promotional tour over, the official Indonesian launch of RIVAGE PM7 took place in Jakarta, with 80 audio professionals from rental companies, broadcasters, houses of worship, sales companies and other businesses invited to a comprehensive demonstration and hands-on sessions.

Once again, attendees were very complimentary about the system, with many positive comments made about the sound quality of the RPio and RioD2 preamps, the Rupert Neve Sound Designs Silk processing and plug-ins, the advanced Centralogic user interface, the channel capacity and the collective benefits of the sound quality, hardware quality and features compared to the system’s price point.

“As soon as the RIVAGE PM7 system was delivered, we headed straight out on the ‘test drive’ tour,” says Chihaya ‘Chick’ Hirai, Senior General Manager at Yamaha Music Indonesia. “Even under the boiling sun in Bali, RIVAGE PM7 did a great job without any problems whatsoever. Throughout the tour, engineers had no trouble operating it, even though they had never seen it before. The tour proved that RIVAGE PM7 is an exceptionally reliable system, both in terms of its durability and ease of operation.”

He continues, “It also received a very enthusiastic welcome and many enquiries at the official launch event. We are certain that RIVAGE PM7 will be chosen for many Indonesian concerts and other live events in the near future.

Indonesia