## Decision A decision was made to change. From the Avid S6L to the Yamaha Rivage Consoles for both FOH and Broadcast. My first reaction was... nah... why? I had become good with the Avid S6L. I know how to get around! I knew how to mix on it! After understanding the challenges the media/production team faced at Princeton Pike, I understood. But selfishly for me, it would mean learning a new desk. New workflows. Out of my comfort zone for a while as I worked through the nuances and differences between the two desks. ## Comfort Zone Yeah... we all want to stay there! BUT... If we stay there... we stagnate. I found myself in a routine when mixing. I guess we all want routine when working on a level where you need to minimize the chance of making a huge mistake with another entities product/brand. For one, it gets you uninvited. And your reputation takes a dive. Not things you want if you want to have opportunity to keep getting the calls. So, truth be told, it becomes a limiter in some cases. You become less interested in new approaches, thinking outside your box. So ultimately, you stagnate. ![[20250302_074613.jpg]] ## Discoveries I found myself in that very slot. Routine. Patterns that don't change much. Safety. All good things, but at what cost? In hindsight, minimal improvements were being made by me over the course of three years of mixing. Yeah, I had good mixes and everyone was happy and content with those mixes. But did I learn anything new? Not really. With the change forces new discoveries, new potential paths. It also puts risk into play. Risk of not knowing if the desk is configured correctly for scalable workflows, consistent sound, and great full bodied, wide mixes. ![[dave-yamaha-rivage.jpg]] ## Approach If you want to be good at something, you have to learn the equipment. Become good with the tools! I have always struggled with Yamaha consoles. Workflows, patching, buried layers of important things needed during a mix. Digging several pages deep in the middle of a mix is a disruptor. So a level of knowing the tools and planning your mix approach to how the tools work and where they fit into your workflow is key. ## Leadership Sometimes, you find yourself in a tight spot, making unpopular decisions. Eric was in that spot. There were budget approvals involved. That is the really hard part! Then the REALLY, REALLY hard part is once approved, he now has to be accountable for the decisions and execute the implementation in a flawless way (human nature always finds the faults with decisions others make). But Eric, kept his cool! Faced some daunting "all eyes" challenges that he had not faced before, but remained cool on the outside, even though you new he had to be totally coming apart on the inside. We did all you could do to help him. Sometimes, we could do nothing but wait. Eric was a solid rock during this. A great leader for this organization! My advice! When you work on a huge project, work on a project with a great leader! Align with that leader and focus on helping that leader to be successful. Eric proved himself as a strong leader through this entire process. From idea, to execution and deployment. Continual improvement on a daily basis after the deployment! Follow those types of leaders! ## Find Yourself A Brad A long time friend and engineer also mixes here. I have known him since the late 80's, I think. We were both kids then... mid late 20's, each on the opposite side of the console. I sometimes played for a TV show called Night Songs. It aired LIVE on Friday nights! Well the live show was once a month. Re-runs aired the rest of the month. Brad was usually the mix guy and I was usually part of the band in some capacity. But I would always listen to his mix and tell myself, he has great sounding mixes! I should pay attention to him! And I did! Fast forward to March 13, 2025. We found ourself setting up the PM3 and learning about all of its nuances and configuration details. He was really good at quickly picking up on the subtleties of how the Yamaha consoles work. We collaborated on setting it up so that we could maintain a level of mix consistency as well as articulate the setup to future mix engineers that will sit in that seat. Brad is incredibly talented and his years of experience showed up several times as we muddled through the setup. Between us, we were able to have a pretty scalable and consistent setup for future events, and input/output changes. **Brad was really the key to that being successful**. No ego, no spotlight. Just humble life and work experience and deeper knowledge! And some great jokes and humor! We laughed a lot! Always a pleasure to work with! Anyway, we have what we feel is a great setup! Find yourself a "Brad" to connect with! Someone who is passionate, knowledgable and fun to work with! ## Conclusion The change has happened. The tools are in place and configured, I took part in the configuration to better understand how the tools work, where the "bodies" are buried, if you will. After working with the rig for a couple of days and hearing the sonic differences, I feel like this was a great decision, even though I was not for it in the beginning. The workflows become learnable through repetition and use. The routines now change and the focus is to develop new routines to fit the tools while maintaining consistent deliverables. The big win was getting to work with two good friends on something bigger than us, making it successful! Such a great experience! ## Mix Day I will mix the first time on this rig on Sunday March 23, 2025. I am expecting great things! And occasional mistakes while on the path to becoming expert on the Rivage PM series consoles. ![[Dave-Matchack-v2_white_high-res.png]]