Sign of the times. I just bought this for $1,300.

Marsellus Fariss

Marsellus Fariss

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Oct 25, 2011
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A PM4000c 48 in like new condition with dual psu's, lights, case, cover. Big analog is nearly dead!

Photo Jul 27, 5 38 21 PM.jpgPhoto Jul 27, 11 42 33 AM.jpgPhoto Jul 12, 1 42 35 AM.jpg

Don't worry it's in my club where nobody will ever have to move it!

It sounds great and I honestly don't know why it catches so much hell other then the EQ being a bit crunchy when your turning it. And it's not purple. I've not heard any desk sound better in here and only a few have even come close. Profile and the new Venice come to mind. It was $65,000 over a decade ago which is $84,000 adjusted for inflation so I don't know why I was surprised. But haters gonna hate. Ill take one any day. Me and Dave Natale.

/flame on.

edit: 180 views and no replies. I guess this should have really been in the basement my apologies.
 
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Re: Sign of the times. I just bought this for $1,300.

thats a steal for $1300 for sure....

Analog is not dead because of sound quality, its dead because people who are actually in the audio 'business' (as opposed to consumers in the industry) realise that once you're above a minimum threshold, sound quality isn't the reason people spec/buy desks or PA.

The profile won out agains't the PM4k because its smaller, lighter, cheaper to run, and more flexible. Simple. All of those things affect a business's bottom line a lot more than sound quality
 
Re: Sign of the times. I just bought this for $1,300.

If we are raving about the sound of a PM4k, it makes quite a statement about the threshold shift we have undergone with the takeover of digital consoles. Digital consoles are about size and convenience. It is what it is. $1300 for a pristine 4K certainly drives a nail through the heart of analog. I hear the final death toll ringing loudly. Bravely forward into the future I march.
 
Re: Sign of the times. I just bought this for $1,300.

I've been predicting the death of analog consoles for a while, and that is personally painful for me as an old analog guy... but guess what, it didn't just happen, while some people are just now noticing the evidence of the decline.

I suspect there will be more bargains like that around. Reminds me of the price collapse surrounding 2" tape recorders when digital recording technology eclipsed them.

Time stands still for, no man... This old legacy gear will end up about as attractive as a refrigerator sized computer.

JR
 
Re: Sign of the times. I just bought this for $1,300.

Brandon Blakeney said:
Laziness........I read 2 or 3 of these forums and rarely does a week or day go by that somebody is not complaining that a digital console crashed.
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X32 Failure an Hour Before Wedding Job

We had enough analogue Soundcraft issues that we abandoned them entirely, selling off every unit we owned. It's taken 10 years for me to come back around to them as a brand.

As for digital crashes, most of them are related to failures of mechanically coupled electronic connections - memory slots, ribbon cables, SD cards, etc., much like many common analog failures - or due to low voltage operation. The rest are legitimate failures of components or software.
 
Re: Sign of the times. I just bought this for $1,300.

And I was close to pitching all our FOH gear out and getting a cheap medium format digital for this venue myself but we would have had to sacrifice a lot and given this kind of option is around we'll be analogue for a while longer. PM4K's don't crash, sound great and are simple and rider friendly.

It does in fact sound better then all the guest desks that have been through except the Profile (which will be back in in a month or so so I can A/B) and possibly my own Venice f that I may bring out to play just out of curiosity And because I want to play around with using it with waves Multirack for some upcoming road work. We've not had any Digico's or Midas Pro's through yet however. I suspect they'd best this beast.

The 4k does have a bit of a sound. It's super clean, fast and hifi. A bit sterile. But hey it's a live gig not Abby Road. When you move the needles and drive it hard you really start to hear it. Instantly reminded me of so many big shows I saw as a kid. Clean with a shiny top, a deep image and a certain character in the midrange. But it's sound isn't near as obvious as the Yammy digitals which have no balls and I can pick out a mile away. It sounds better then an M7 and people don't talk shit about those near as much. It sounds better then so many other desks people prefer over it I tend to think the PM hate was either leftover from the PM3k days or was just a lot of people blathering on about something they didn't really know about. If you only ever mixed on XL's Heritage or Gamble then I could see disliking it. Or if you had to case it and pack it every day.

If I where on the road for a living though.. I'd never deal with analogue again. I'd be an pro2 for me literally all day long twice on Sunday. Desk, laptop, Ipad.... done.
 
Re: Sign of the times. I just bought this for $1,300.

Definitely a nice score!

I'd love to be able to get something like that for my club gig. That would be a hell of an upgrade from the A&H GL-2400. Of course, I was also looking at an MH-4... it is too bad the mix booth is only 8x8 and I need to fit lighting and DJ in there, too.
 
Re: Sign of the times. I just bought this for $1,300.

Josh Millward said:
Definitely a nice score!

I'd love to be able to get something like that for my club gig. That would be a hell of an upgrade from the A&H GL-2400. Of course, I was also looking at an MH-4... it is too bad the mix booth is only 8x8 and I need to fit lighting and DJ in there, too.
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That's hillarious because when I stared at this venue years ago FOH was a GL2400. Ahh the salad days!
before we did 25-30 shows a month and had BE's and LD's in every week. I replaced that with a Crest VX and now this 4k. The GL served as a monitor desk until recently but it has some issues with sounding like your frying bacon the first hour or so it's on. That and it wasn't near enough desk for us. One show with 2 or 3 BE's and several reggae bands on those little things and you'll be ready to throw it in the river.

You can't find deals. These deals happen all the time on Ebay. Churches upgrading and listing consoles as "local pickup only." You have to arrange freight (I suggest Ubid) or jut get a truck and go get it. If your interested in a Crest VX for a serious deal PM me. Mine needs a good home. :)

My FOH is less then 8X8. Put the DJ on the floor! Or throw it in the river.
 
Re: Sign of the times. I just bought this for $1,300.

i mixed a LOT of shows on a PM4K; everything from reggae to orchestras. I got a LOT of compliments from patrons regarding how good the show sounded. i never once had someone come up and tell me that 'your mix sounded great, but that japanese console just doesn't sound good'.

the PM4K and 3.5K are good sounding desks and will live forever. i envy you being able to spend some time with one in such good shape.
 
Re: Sign of the times. I just bought this for $1,300.

Dying breed or not I will take a pro analog setup ANY DAY. Ive had the chance to be on most of the major digital boards at least once. Not enough to be fully familiar with them but analog is still my preference. On my current budget Id rather have a pro analog rig than a lower end digital. Just my opinion. One day I hope to go digital but not right now.


BTW, Good find!!
 
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Re: Sign of the times. I just bought this for $1,300.

Evan F. Hunter said:
Dying breed or not I will take a pro analog setup ANY DAY. Ive had the chance to be on most of the major digital boards at least once. Not enough to be fully familiar with them but analog is still my preference. On my current budget Id rather have a pro analog rig than a lower end digital. Just my opinion. One day I hope to go digital but not right now.


BTW, Good find!!
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If analog were not still better you would not see so many A-list artists still carrying them. And it seems to be the artists that really care about quality such as The Stones, RHCP, Fleetwood Mac, George Thorogood, Brad Paisley, Muse etc....
 
Re: Sign of the times. I just bought this for $1,300.

Brandon Blakeney said:
If analog were not still better you would not see so many A-list artists still carrying them. And it seems to be the artists that really care about quality such as The Stones, RHCP, Fleetwood Mac, George Thorogood, Brad Paisley, Muse etc....
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Well Brandon- this is a great time for you to be in business then. You have your pick of 600lb consoles, now being sold for $2.00/lb.

For the rest of us who could never afford a Midas Heritage or XL, Harrison, Paragon, Cadac, Studer, or Neve, even the cheap digital of today sounds and works a lot better than the cheap to mid-priced analog ever did.
 
Re: Sign of the times. I just bought this for $1,300.

Speaking specifically to the Rolling Stones: the Yamaha PM4000 belongs to the engineer, it's his personal console and his choice. FWIW, the last time I worked a Stones show the "B stage" (the stage that traveled out into the 'cheap seats') mixer was a Mackie Onyx...

Most of the time, the mixer is picked by the person hired to mix the show, and perceived SQ is but one factor out of about a dozen criteria. The band/artist usually have zero consideration as to what console is used, that is left up to the person who is hired.

As for "so many..." I'll call bullshit there. Out of the last 20 or so arena or stadium shows I've worked as a stage hand or provided systems for, I can count only 1 analog FOH mixer, and that was Paisley. Going back a few more years, I recall Elton John/Billy Joel's "Face to Face" tour which had a PM5000 for one artist and DiGiCo for the other. I couldn't hear a difference that could be attributed to the mixer itself.

You need to grow out of the archaic idea that analog is somehow inherently superior to digital. It's not.
 
Re: Sign of the times. I just bought this for $1,300.

Tim McCulloch said:
You need to grow out of the archaic idea that analog is somehow inherently superior to digital. It's not.
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When I walk up to an analog console - my thoughts are "I can't save and recall this band/channel strip/EQ/whatever", "I want a dynamic EQ on ___ channel - oh wait, I'm on analog", "I have to look in a rack to find comps/gates?", "where's the visual indications of EQ/gain reduction/routing/etc?". With the cost of a Pro2c where it is - analog is a big step down to me.
 
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