Yamaha Consoles on Unique Pop-Up Concert with Tyler, the Creator

	(l-r) Paul Wichmann and Landon Storey

Landon Storey (monitors) and Paul Wichmann (front of house), the engineer team responsible for Tyler, The Creator's concerts, faced a unique challenge when the star appeared in a pop-up show on a barge that traveled across the Narrows, the narrow channel between Staten Island and Brooklyn where the Hudson River empties into the Atlantic Ocean, with fans watching from the pier.

Given the constraints of the barge, Storey and Wichmann chose Yamaha's DM7C and DM7 consoles, capitalizing on their mid-sized footprints, power, and robust feature sets. "The DM7's workflow is so similar to the RIVAGE PM series, which made the transition seamless," Storey notes, referring to his go-to RIVAGE PM5 desk. "We were able to quickly get up to speed and deliver the same high-quality audio experience.

"We showed up and they just shoved those poles down in the mud and we did a show. The setup involved four storage containers stacked on the barge, creating a makeshift stage and control room. The PA was floated on the barge as well. The performance space was double-stacked shipping containers on the barge for him as a stage. Outside of that, they had built a platform for the speakers. All the control, monitor world, playback, and my front of house was inside one of the shipping containers."

Storey and Wichmann faced several challenges, including limited space for mounting antennas and crowd mics, and vibrations from the metal containers, which affected audio quality. "Being in a big metal container and then mixing inside of a container that's basically got the equivalent of a trunk rattle from when you're in high school," Storey says.

Wichmann adds, "The big challenge was: They were just storage containers with handrails, leaving very little to mount the antennas to. There was nothing to mount crowd mics to, and if there was a problem, how would you get up there?" Despite these obstacles, the team successfully set up the entire audio system on a 12' folding table, showcasing the capabilities of the DM7 console. "It was pretty impressive that you could fit Paul's DM7 compact, my full-size DM7, and then the playback guy in the middle with a couple of Dante switches and an analog whip feeding an analog split," Storey notes. The use of battery-powered generators eliminated the usual noise issues, allowing for a quieter and more immersive experience.

"There was no generator noise. It was just these huge generators, but they were just battery packs, so it was quiet," Storey explains. He mixed monitors from inside the storage container, relying on his technical skills and the features of the DM7 to deliver a high-quality performance.