ResonantLive Sound Archive

Equipment file · Large-format analogue live console

PM4000 console

Yamaha · 1992 (Yamaha museum date for PM4000-40C)

Evidence status · documented

Identity and core specifications are documented; some historical fields remain unavailable.

The Yamaha PM4000 carried large-format analogue mixing into the 1990s with eight VCA masters, eight group buses, a stereo bus and a mix matrix. Yamaha's Innovation Road collection dates its PM4000-40C exhibit to 1992 and records its extensive concert use. It belongs alongside, rather than after the disappearance of, the Midas XL and Soundcraft touring-console traditions.

Introduced
1992 (Yamaha museum date for PM4000-40C)
Category
Large-format analogue live console
Intended use
Concert front of house and complex output distribution
Production
Yamaha PM series; 24, 32, 40 and 48-input frame configurations

Equipment photographs · 1

Yamaha PM4000-40C analogue mixing console in the Innovation Road collection

1 / 1 · Yamaha PM4000-40C — Innovation Road collection

Yamaha PM4000-40C — Innovation Road collection·Yamaha Corporation·Manufacturer museum photograph reproduced for historical identification and commentary (fair use)

Why it mattered

  1. 01

    VCA grouping allowed an engineer to move related channel levels together while keeping their individual audio paths separate; groups and matrices served different routing jobs.

  2. 02

    Its physical controls and external inserts show what digital desks such as the PM1D later consolidated into recallable processing and routing.

    Pictured in this passage
    Yamaha PM1D V2 digital mixing consoleYamaha PM1D© Yamaha Corporation (via Wikimedia Commons)

Engineering record

Mix architecture
Eight VCA masters, eight groups and a stereo bus, with matrix routing for combinations of group and stereo signals.[2]
Frames and power
24, 32, 40 and 48-input frame arrangements are documented; the console uses an external PW4000 supply.[2]

Original pricing

No reliable period price located

2026 equivalent

Not calculated without a reliable original price.

Public price evidence was not sufficient to publish a defensible original figure.

Use in the field

Yamaha's museum describes the PM4000 as highly regarded by engineers in Japan and abroad and used at many concerts; no specific tour is inferred from that statement.[1]

Manuals & original documents

Sources

  1. 1PM4000-40CYamaha Innovation Road · reference
  2. 2PM4000 Operating ManualYamaha · manual

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