Yamaha DM 2000VCM manual Team and the Technology Behind the Sound

The Renowned DM2000 Plus

an Extraordinary New Range of Effects and Simulations

Yamaha’s top-of-the-line DM2000 Digital Production Console is already well established as a standard in the professional audio production field.

It has become the first choice of discerning audio professionals worldwide because of its unsurpassed audio quality, superior versatility, outstanding reliability, and advanced surround monitoring capabilities that made it one of the first digital consoles in the world to win THX pm3™ approval.

The new DM2000VCM is the DM2000 Version 2 plus a formidable array of state-of-the-art processing technologies that provide all-new production power. You now have extraordinary recreations of classic compression and EQ units from the 70’s, simulations of several legendary analog open-reel tape decks,

a complete suite of unmatched REV-X reverb effects, a surround post-production package that is second to none, and even a selection of vintage stomp boxes to spice up your mixes. And all of this is right at your fingertips, with no need to patch in external processors.

The technology that has made all of this possible is some of the most advanced in the world, and the sound is simply superb. In short, one of the world’s most popular digital production consoles just got a lot more powerful.

The Team and the Technology Behind the Sound

“Modeling is a means to an end, not the final goal.” Mr. Toshifumi

Kunimoto, the central figure of Yamaha’s physical modeling

technology team, has a fine track record when it comes to meeting some very challenging goals. The division known at Yamaha as “K’s Lab” (“K” for “Kunimoto”) was established in 1987 to develop new modeling technology that would become the next phase in synthesizer evolution after the FM and PCM tone generators that were the mainstay of the synthesizer world at the time. The result was the world’s first physical modeling synthesizers – the VL1 and VP1

–released in 1993. Research and development has continued relentlessly ever since, and in 2001 the K’s Lab team began aiming it’s formidable technological capabilities at physical modeling for effects, and that’s when Mr. Kunimoto’s goal began to take on primary importance. The goal? In a word, “musicality.”

The K’s Lab team were aware that the earliest effect modeling technologies were focused more on superficial reproduction of specific characteristics and tonalities than on actually making music, and it was clear that by applying the same physical modeling technology that was used in the original VL1 and VP1 synthesizers, although in a significantly more evolved form, it would be possible to deliver truly accurate, eminently musical effects. And rather than relying on frequency response graphs and other “precision” measurements to evaluate final performance, many critical performance decisions were made using the trained ears of top-level music and sound specialists.

The Birth of VCM

It took more than two years of concentrated work, but by 2003 K’s Lab had refined and re- purposed physical modeling to the point where it was ready for practical implementation … in the form of Virtual Circuit Modeling. VCM is the cornerstone of Yamaha’s Add-On Effects,

and achieves it’s stunning sonic and musical performance by actually modeling the individual characteristics of the multitude of parts and components that contributed to the final sound of the original analog circuits: transistors, tape, tape heads, etc. Even subtle saturation effects have been painstakingly modeled to bring the warmth and richness of the

■VCM Technology

VCM technology is responsible for the classic compressor, EQ, analog tape deck, and stomp-box effect simulations in the DM2000VCM. VCM (Virtual Circuitry Modeling) technology actually models the characteristics of analog circuitry – right down to the last resistor and capacitor. VCM technology goes well beyond simply analyzing and modeling electronic components and emulating the sound of old equipment. It’s capable of capturing subtleties that simple digital simulations cannot even approach, while actually creating ideal examples of sought-after vintage gear.

■iSSP Technology

iSSP technology is the key to the DM2000VCM’s incredible selection of surround post-production effects. iSSP stands for “Interactive Spatial Sound Processing,” and is Yamaha’s original new spatial sound effect system. Designed through extensive research and exhaustive testing, this technology offers unparalleled reality, operability and originality for surround processing applications. It delivers unprecedented sound-field positioning precision and versatility, as well as realistic sound source movement effects with simple operation that allows simulations of an almost unlimited variety of spatial environments.

■REV-X

“REV-X” is the advanced algorithm behind Yamaha’s newest generation of reverb and ambience programs, offering unprecedented reverberation depth and realism with smooth decay. REV-X technology takes full advantage of the 24-bit 96-kHz processing capability of the DM2000 for reverb and ambience effects that have the reassuring warmth and reality of natural acoustic environments.

original analog gear back to life in stable, easy-to-operate digital form.

Making Space

A new addition to Yamaha’s powerful Add-On Effect arsenal is iSSP (Interactive Spatial Sound Processing). This innovative effect takes surround sound to new levels of reality and creative control. iSSP is actually a combination of two advanced modeling technologies that add up to the most realistic spatial simulation available anywhere:

•Room acoustics modeling that both predicts sound reflection patterns based on room shape, and actually models the decay of the reflections based on source directivity and room surface materials.

•Matrix sound processing that converts source position data to parameters that precisely control the output of each matrix channel, and simulates distance-related decay through delay and filter processing.

It sounds complicated, but all this powerful technology is packaged in a way that makes it easy and in intuitive to operate.

Musikmesse International Press Award	2002-03 Best Mixing Desk - High End
	2003 Best Mixing Desk - Live

19th Annual Technical Excellence & Creativity (TEC) Award

Sound Reinforcement Console Technology