Yamaha Design “Synapses” NUAGE Series

2013 / DAW SYSTEMS

GOOD DESIGN AWARD
JIDA Design Museum Selection


A Next-Generation System for Postproduction.

Professional

With its sleek, streamlined shape, commanding black finish, and silver trim, the Nuage system features an exquisite design that combines sophistication and functional artistry. The black leather palm-rest extending across the entire desk gives the system a sense of unity as well as a comfortable feel.

Timeless

Yamaha’s Nuage system is made especially for audio-video postproduction. Its modular panels and controllers can be freely combined into a sleek user interface tailored to effectively handle any kind of studio application. Yamaha is continuously developing the system’s Nuendo software with a long-term outlook, so users can rest assured that their studio will be with them for a long time to come.

Intuitive

All of the system’s faders and jog wheels are meticulously inspected for the quality of materials and machining, as well as their movement and switch noise levels. The caps of buttons and knobs can be removed and labelled, allowing users to create an ideal operating environment to provide both the creativity and performance expected in a professional studio.

Reconstruction

The configuration and overall size of the system can be assembled from scratch by combining the basic modular components such as fader units and angled display panels, and then syncing with Nuendo. Fader units and mixing screens can be connected seamlessly, allowing users the freedom to set up and operate a large mixing console.


Eizo Amiya
Eizo Amiya
Designer
Yamaha Design Laboratory

Designing a sophisticated professional production system with an appealing look.

Nuage is a professional-use production system for controlling Nuendo DAW software. When developing this system, we decided not to base it on any existing models, and instead started from scratch in a quest to find the best solutions for adding sound to video in postproduction. We incorporated advice from leading professionals in Japan and around the world while creating mock-ups of various shapes, experimenting with the height and angle of the mixing desk, the angle of the video monitors, and other aspects.
As designers, our most important objective for the Nuage system was to make its op-erations fully compatible with the Nuendo software displayed on the screens, so that the software’s vast number of advanced functions could be used intuitively. To do that, we employed numerous techniques to give engineers the sense that the boundary separating hardware and software had practically disappeared. These techniques included matching the lettering and coloring appearing on the main panel with that displayed by the software, and reproducing the layout of the controllers on the software screens.
We also worked to make the physical controllers comfortable to operate. We tested the shape and movement of the precision-machined stainless steel jog wheels to make sure that resolution is high enough for video to be shifted frame-by-frame via delicate movements of the fingertips. We also equipped the unit with touch sliders that allow channels to be scrolled just by sliding the finger. The palm-rest is made with real leather, not only for the sake of texture but also to give an organic feel to the unit’s solid design. In this way, we designed this sophisticated professional production system with a cool, appealing look.

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