Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Hi potential Yamaha N12 buyers. I've been recording for about 30 years and have pretty good ears. Here's what they're hearing:
1)The N12 is a great value. Sheez, its only $1500 for a digital mixer with a 14 input audio interface and pro recording software. Pair it to a Mac Mini like I did and you have a complete DAW system with a REAL mixer for under $2500. Wow!
2)The Mic Preamps are awesome. Unbelievably clean, with no coloration, just as good as my Focusrite. Having phantom power, pads that are just right, and phase reversal on each mic preamp shows attention to detail that is much appreciated.
3)The N12 board overall is so quiet you have to watch your control room volume or you might unexpectedly blow your ears out. It's great that pretty much all the ins and outs on the N12 are balanced, +4 levels. Very pro!
4)Love the EQ - I hate digital mixers w/o knobs! Very smooth curves, not "digital" sounding.
5)Love the faders' awesome feel. Very even, with just the right amount of resistance.
6)Love the built-in talkback mic (not always found in this price range), the reverb, transport controls, metronome, even the understated, compact appearance.
7)Kudos to Yamaha for the Firewire interface & built-in MIDI. One cord to the Mac and you're done! It all works flawlessly (for me, anyway).
N12 COMPLAINTS & WHINES:
1) You can't use a patchbay, because the ¼" channel inputs on Channels 1-8 override the mic preamp inputs when something is plugged into the ¼" jacks. For now, I leave the Ch1. and 2 ¼" inputs off the patchbay so I can easily use those preamps...
2) It's nice having inserts on the 8 main channels, but (and I should have realized this) they are analog only, so you can't insert compressors or FX on tracks coming from the DAW.
3) Only 1 stereo Aux send?! What about all those cool old FX in my racks? Nope, you can only use 1 in mixdown (or 2 if you go mono).
4) Those great faders are "out of the loop", since they are after the pre-direct out (to the DAW). So you can't use them for tracking unless you assign the channel to REC or Stereo Buss. Worse, ya can't use them as a "control surface" to automate a recorded DAW track, like, say, "riding" a vocal level and saving it into automation on Cubase. A real shame.
5) The channel compressors, well, they work fine and sound OK, but I wish there were more controls for them. Compressor controls aren't THAT hard to learn for the amateurs out there.
6) No digital I/O (except Firewire).
As for Cubase AI4, (the software it's bundled with): I'm not crazy about it, but it's not a crippled or demo version, and it's FREE. I had budgeted to buy the full version of Cubase and/or Digital Performer, but didn't need to! The Included plug-ins are enough to get started with, and all sound good.
Don't let the size of this mixer fool you. It CAN record 12 or more tracks at once - in fact, I did a session with 14 tracks recording at once by using two ART Tube mic pre's into the 2-trk input, assigning it to the stereo mix and recording that as an input. Yes indeed, with a few ext. mic preamps you can easily record a band with live drums.
This is one deep and sophisticated unit. Just buy the Yamaha N12 - you won't regret it.
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