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I was surprised to learn that the automation didn’t extend to the inputs.

A glance at the front panel reveals the AW4416’s heritage. If you’re familiar with Yamaha’s digital mixers, particularly the 02R, you should feel right at home.

Measuring approximately 3.5 by 4.5 inches, the main display handles anything from waveform displays to information about routing to silly little graphics. Kudos to Yamaha for getting so much information into such a small space. There are three ways of accessing different pages: pressing a selection button repeatedly, pressing function keys immediately below the main display, or using the optional mouse. A second display is dedicated to showing levels for the recorder tracks and main outputs, counter location, clock source, and other useful details.

The AW4416 has more than a hundred buttons and knobs, including four knobs dedicated to hands-on control of pan and parametric EQ. Some buttons control seemingly unrelated functions; for example, the EQ button also accesses pages for fader and mute groups. Likewise, the Dynamics screens contain pages for channel polarity and track offset. It may take a while to get used to this sort of multilevel functionality.

The 60 mm motorized faders serve a variety of functions, operating inputs 1 to 24, aux sends or returns, and returns from the recorder. Change a scene or mode, and the faders instantly jump into position, eliminating any doubt about their settings. Watching while they magically retrace a complex mix is downright hypnotic.

FIG. 3: Any combination of analog and digital inputs can be assigned to the faders. The 16 recorder tracks accept signals from channel direct outs or buses 1 to 8. Information about the current song, counter location, and scene is displayed at the top of the screen (click image for pop-up).

Flexible Routing
Flexible signal routing is the AW4416’s key strength. Mixer input choices include those you’d expect—analog ins, S/PDIF in, the sampling pads, the option slots—and one you might not: an internal metronome (see Fig. 3).

The multiplicity of output routing options conjures up some interesting scenarios. You can use the option slots to transfer all 16 tracks to a pair of ADATs, which lets you archive your tracks to inexpensive S-VHS tape and to send them to another studio, for example. You can route an aux send through S/PDIF to and from an outboard effects processor and use the main outputs as an extra headphone mix for that picky banjo player.

Up to 20 routing maps can be stored for instant recall. This is handy if you’re faced with numerous patching situations in your daily routine. Unlike user patches for scenes, EQ, dynamics, and effects—which are saved as song data—the routing libraries are always available.

Reprinted with permission from

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