Providing Great Sound and Serving Youth Ministry

Michael Martin, the proud owner of a new IM8-32.

GAFFNEY, S.C.—Michael Martin has been interested in sound reinforcement since he began attending church as a young child with his father, who manned the audio board during worship services.

He pursued his passion for sound and six years ago he founded Martin Video Productions in Gaffney, South Carolina, which provides comprehensive audio, video and lighting services. An intrepid businessman, Martin, now in his 20's, is often in the field, taking an arsenal of equipment on location for concerts, music festivals, worship events and spring-break programs.

The mainstays of his business include Christian concerts and spring-break retreats, said Martin. It was in church where his father first taught him how to operate a mixing console. In time, he was assisting—and then handling—sound, video and lighting duties for church youth rallies and other events, and continues to operate sound and video equipment at Sunday services.

In March, Martin upgraded his main Front of House board to a Yamaha IM8-32 analog mixing console. Consulting with a friend—who conveniently runs the pro audio department at a local music store—he zeroed in on the IM8-32.

For Martin, the 32-channel IM8 represents a significant upgrade over his previous analog mixer, starting with the mic/line preamplifiers. "The microphone preamps are real clean," Martin said. "A lot cleaner than the preamps on the board I had before."

Martin is also a fan of the IM8's eight discrete AUX sends, which allow ample routing capacity for his monitors, rack of compressors and noise gates. "It's set up real well," he said. "I'm doing a lot of live mixing of bands, so I like having the eight aux sends." All mono and stereo channels on the IM8 feature eight individual AUX send controls that can be switched for pre-fader or post-fader operation in pairs.

Another important feature was the output section, particularly its placement in the center of the console, as opposed to the right side. This was an oft-requested feature for consoles as large as the IM8. "I was a little worried about the console being, like, five feet long," said Martin, "but I can work around that pretty well, even on a console this big, with the master section in the middle."

Martin has also tried the IM8's innovative one-knob compressor, a feature on every mono input channel. "I've used it on a bass guitar and it sounds real good," he said.

As the summer festival season heats up, Martin is confident that he can provide better-sounding service than ever. "The board sounds great," he said. "I love it."

For more information write Yamaha Corporation of America, Pro Audio & Combo Division, Live Sound, P.O. Box 6600, Buena Park, CA 90622; telephone (714) 522-9011; e-mail infostation@yamaha.com; or visit ;www.yamaha.com/proaudio.