Yamaha AW4416- Features, flexibility, and quality combine in a competitive DAW

.Features, flexibility, and quality combine in a competitive DAW

By Mark Nelson

Yamaha’s impressive AW4416 Professional Audio Workstation takes portable digital studios to a new level. With features worthy of a professional recording studio—including an extraordinarily flexible 24-channel digital mixer and a 16-track hard disk recorder that can record on all 16 tracks simultaneously—it offers quality and control that are tough to beat for the price.

The AW4416 records 16- or 24-bit uncompressed audio at 44.1 or 48 kHz. You get stereo digital input and output, built-in SCSI for backup, dynamic and scene automation, motorized faders, and a bevy of handy sampling pads. There’s plenty of processing power, too, including two onboard multi-effects processors and 4-band parametric EQ and dynamics processing on each channel. If you fill the slot in the front of the unit with an optional CD-RW drive ($200), you can take your music from inception to CD without leaving your desk.

The machine does have its limitations, especially with regard to editing, but it is impressive nevertheless.

At First Glance

FIG. 1: The AW4416’s buttons and switches are grouped according to use, with utility and mixer functions on the left and recording functions on the right. Eight sample pads are directly below the central display. A second display for metering and counter functions appears in the upper right corner (click image for pop-up).

Right away, I was impressed with the AW4416’s appearance (see Fig. 1). Banks of buttons and knobs spread across the surface of an attractive silver wedge. A soft rubberized mat surrounds the faders and transport controls. Labeling is clear and easy on the eyes. Everything feels solid, too; the buttons offer a reassuring resistance, switches emit a satisfying click, and the knobs appear robust. This machine came to play.

I like to dig right in before cracking a book, so it was fortunate that Yamaha taped a note in a conspicuous place, warning of disaster if I powered up before installing the hard drive. Up to 64 gigabytes can be installed on easily swappable 2.5-inch IDE drives. Installing the drive and the optional CD-RW burner was not too much of a challenge, but give the job to a tech if you’re easily intimidated.

Around and again
Inputs 1 and 2 on the rear-panel jackfield sport both XLR and TRS connectors with insert points (see Fig. 2). The remaining inputs just have TRS jacks, but their levels range from –46 to +4 dB, still good enough to function as mic preamps. (Yamaha used TRS jacks to save space.) This arrangement works if you’re wiring up a room with a patch bay and the necessary cables, but I’d like the option of plugging all my mic cables directly in to the AW4416. In addition, the lack of full-featured microphone inputs meant that when doing multitrack remote recording, I had to use an auxiliary mixer to record a rhythm section, which was kind of a blow to the all-in-one philosophy.

FIG. 2: The AW4416 offers a pretty good package of inputs and outputs, including full-featured mic inputs with phantom power and inserts and six TRS mic/line inputs. Channel 8 has an additional high-impedance input. Any combination of inputs and outputs may be routed to the S/PDIF digital I/O
(click image for pop-up).

All channels feature dedicated trim pots and peak LEDs on the top panel. A rear-mounted switch handles phantom power for inputs 1 and 2, but I wish there was a status LED.

Input-channel 8 has a second unbalanced 1/4-inch jack for electric guitars, basses, and other electric instruments. Naturally, I checked this out right away. I plugged in my trusty Gibson ES-150 and inserted an amp-simulation effect from one of the onboard processors. The quick-and-dirty crunch sounded pretty good, though it wouldn’t fool a purist.

Directly below the inputs are a pair of RCA tape-out jacks, four unbalanced 1/4-inch Omni assignable outputs, and a pair of +4 dBu balanced TRS monitor outs. Why does Yamaha use both balanced and unbalanced connections? Is the unit intended for consumers or pros? The answer, of course, is that it’s suitable for both types of users.

Rounding out the rear panel are two option slots, a stereo headphone jack, S/PDIF in and out, word clock in and out, jacks for a footswitch and a 9-pin mouse, a serial connection for a pre-USB Mac or PC, and a SCSI port. There’s also a trio of MIDI jacks.

Reprinted with permission from

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