Yamaha TF series consists of three desk top mixing consoles with differing number of faders and I/O connectivity; and a 19-inch rackmount version. This series of mixers has been designed for small events and halls, large-scale outdoor concerts, music production, and commercial installation applications. Employing ‘TouchFlow’ operation, these consoles are said to give the engineer more speed of operation via the optimised colour touch panel control display. When connected to a wireless router, the TF series consoles can be controlled via iPad or computer using Yamaha’s downloadable software.
The rear facing panels of the TF1, TF3, and TF5 offer the same I/O connections, only differing in number of input connections. The AC mains input is vie IEC connection with associated rocking power switch. A 6.35mm TS jack socket allows connection to a foot pedal such as Yamaha’s FC5 to facilitate the bypass of effects, muting, or tap delay time. A RJ45 connector can be used to link the mixing console to a computer or network router via CAT5e or higher Ethernet cable, whilst a USB 2.0 to host connector can be used to input and output up to thirty-four channels of 48kHz, 24-bit audio. Analogue audio input is via a number of balanced 3-pin XLR/6.35mm TRS jack combo inputs, with +4dBu omni outputs 1-16 on balanced 3-pin XLR, and stereo in channels 1 and 2 both having dual unbalanced RCA (phono) connections. An expansion card slot is also positioned on the rear facing panel for use with the optional NY64-D Dante expansion cards. This adds the benefit of primary and secondary Dante connections to connect to remote equipment such as the TIO1608-D2 I/O rack. As standard this slot is covered with a metal plate.
The main surface of the mixing consoles house an unbalanced 6.35mm jack headphone socket and all operational switching. Each of the analogue input channels has an independent 100mm fader, channel on/off button that illuminates when ‘on’, cue button, and channel select button. Each of these channels also has three-stage (-40dB, green; -20dB, orange; peak, red) input referencing LED tree. Above the faders is a channel strip that enable the user to name, icon, and colour code the channels for easy reference. To the right of the main control surface there are sixteen buttons that allow the user to apply auxiliary sends on faders, FX1 and FX2 selection buttons, and also a tap control button for delay effect programming.
Above the fader and channel selection area, and on the fixed angled section are selection and rotary controls for stereo channels 1 and 2, along with the large colour touch display with associated control buttons and rotary controllers, six user defined keys, effects selection buttons and rotary controllers, headphone output, input mute buttons, and L/R 12-stage VDU.
Eight software effects processors including delay, chorus, reverb, flanger, and multiband compression can be assigned to channels or globally, along with parametric 4-band EQ and 31-band ‘Flex12’ graphic EQ. Dan Dugan automation is built in as standard, giving the engineer more control over input channels 1-8; useful for reducing feedback in speech applications such as talk shows and interviews.
TF1 is compatible with the Yamaha RK1 rackmount kit by removing the side pads.
This is a 19-inch rackmount version of the TF1 mixing console, offering the same features including sixteen XLR/Jack combo inputs, however the omni outputs are by way of 8x 3-pin XLR and 8x 6.35mm jack; and there is only one L/R stereo input channel on RCA (Phono). TF-Rack also doesn’t have any channel or master faders therefore control of levels is expected from a compatible source such as iPad when connected.
Specifications:
Common specifications:
| Mixing Aux Buses |
20 (8 mono, 6 stereo) |
| Mixing Stereo Buses |
1 |
| Mixing Sub Buses |
1 |
| Input channel functions |
8 DCA Groups |
| Outputs |
16 |
| Expansion slots |
1 |
| On-board DSP |
8 Effects, 10 GEQ |
| Sampling frequency rate |
48 kHz |
| Signal delay |
Less than 2.6 ms, INPUT to OMNI OUT, Fs=48 kHz |
| Fader |
100 mm motorized, Resolution = 10-bit, +10 dB to –138 dB, –infinity dB all faders |
| Total harmonic distortion (1) |
Less than 0.05% 20 Hz–20 kHz at +4 dBu into 600ohms, INPUT to OMNI OUT, Input Gain = Minimum. |
| Frequency response |
+0.5, –1.5 dB 20 Hz–20 kHz, refer to +4 dBu output at 1kHz, INPUT to OMNI OUT |
| Dynamic range |
110 dB typical, DA Converter, 107 dB typical, INPUT to OMNI OUT, Input Gain = Minimum. |
| Crosstalk (2) |
–100 dB, adjacent INPUT/OMNI OUT channels, Input Gain = Minimum. |
| Power requirements |
100–240 V 50/60 Hz |
Notes: (1) Measured with a -18dB/octave filter at 80kHz. (2) Measured with a -30dB/octave filter at 22kHz.