Here’s a recording from a rehearsal/jam-session, equipped with some nice video footage: https://youtu.be/ZOFmYdWWKoA
Recorded over a Yamaha 01V96i into Ardour. Video done with Kdenlive. FX include Voxengo Dynamics, LinuxDSP reverb (except for the vocals, which exclusively use the TC FX stuff from a VoiceLive unit.)
Enjoy.
How did you get audio from the 01V96i into Ardour, since you appear to be on Linux? Just analog from the mixer?
The USB doesn’t work on Linux, but still, the 01V96i has built-in Adat Lightpipe. I stuffed some more Adat into the console’s expansion slot and in my PC I got this old RME Digi card. Makes altogether 18 channels in and 18 channels out. (2x8 ADAT + Stereo SP/DIF). Of course, this only works well up to 48khz. Above, you’ve got only have the channels available in one Adat connection. One fine day I will go for 26 (24+2) channels. The USB thing in the 01V96i only does 16 channels, btw.
24 channels would be perfect, so I could just have the inputs on the console 1:1 with the inputs in Ardour. A bit like in the old tape days (which I only know from stories and documentaries). A simple 24ch machine during recording. And a powerful DAW during mixdown. 
The console has 40 channels, of which 8 (the 4 stereo channels) are by default used by the internal FX returns. I use 8 channels as “returns” from Ardour and the rest for all the instruments floating around here. And 8 spare for spontaneous recording with some mics. The channels from Ardour are usually Main Out from the Ardour mixer, but also some bus outs that I feed into the Yamaha REV-X engines. The click on a dedicated channel. This way, I could, if needed, also send out some signal from Ardour into the analogue world, e.g. into some tube overdrive or whatnotever.
I really like the 01V96i for its preamps and routing flexibility. Though the Focusrite OctoPre I have additionally also sounds great, a tiny bit warmer maybe. However, I’d never use this beast live,e.g., FOH, I’d just go mad with its menu structure etc.
The O1V96i is MUCH better than the original O1V for live, you can even fake some DCAs on it these days. I do agree it is far from ideal, but it can be used in a pinch now. I do typically do my setup on a mac though. But I used to hate how many of the old O1Vs I would see put in installs for live sound.
SeabladeAh, ADAT. Of course. My extension slot has a Waves SoundGrid card installed, rather than ADAT, hence my confusion. It is a formidable beast, but yes, oh so easy to get lost in the menus/screens. It took me several hours once to figure out why my routing (analog->output) wasn’t working. It was all my fault, but wow, remembering what I had done months before and then finding it … sheesh.
The 01V96i no doubt is a great console, but live I’d just go crazy with the handling. I can’t do without something like a fat channel. In one of my bands, we got this Allen & Heath Qu-16 which is great. The pre-amps seem not as superb as those of the 01V96i, but you’ve got 24ch USB (also on Linux!) plus an 18-track USB-storage recorder. And it is really easy to use. I also do live mixing jobs in a club, we’ve got a Soundcraft Impact there. The Impact is really consequent: No screen use required for live operation, only for setup. It also has class-compliant USB audio, but for some reason I didn’t get any signal from it into Ardour yet. Even though I had 32 input channels showing up. But I’ll figure this out one fine day.
Oh and btw, another huge drawback of the 01V96i is that you can’t store setups to USB memory. Just imagine getting into your venue and some clueless person has messed up the routing inside of that beast and stored it as your default scene… say farewell to your show that night. 
For the Impact, we got our basic setup backed up on a memory stick.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying the O1V96i is a great live console(Far from it), just that it is MUCH better than it used to be, and there is more power hidden inside of it for this purpose now than is obvious. At least with the ‘i’ I can squeeze through a live theatrical musical, it used to be VERY difficult. Fun fact is that along with mixing, I have also used it to control a software light console to get through said musical when I was the sole person responsible for lights and sound. Mapped MIDI faders to intensities and channels of colors, and a couple of user buttons to Go, Back, etc.
Now all that being said, even for the above situation I would take a GLD in a heartbeat, but that is much more expensive. I think even the Qu can do this, but I can’t remember how MIDI is laid out on it off hand. Or half a dozen other consoles. The O1v series is a studio console first and foremost, if you want a live console from Yamaha look at their other series, though they don’t have anything in the same price range for a digital live console. The CL5 is a nice console for theater though, my students just mounted their first musical on one that was purchased recently, and they barely scratched the surface of what was possible.
SeabladePS Always save your shows to a computer, and use the software to load the show as needed for the O1v. ALWAYS a good idea to have a backup.
SeabladeThe Qu does not have a real MIDI socket and also there is no remote layer. It talks MIDI over TCP/IP. In the end, this brought me to constructing a MIDI foot switch that talks the right way, based on a Raspberry Pi. So in each show, I literally kick a Linux machine! http://zwei.drni.de/archives/1553-Kick-the-Qu-A-DIY-Foot-Switch-for-the-Allen-Heath-Qu-Series.html
The remote layer no doubt is a nice feature in the 01V96i, it also works with the Ardour mixer. I don’t use it, because I’m fine with “mouse mixing” in Ardour but some people might enjoy it.
If you should ever have the bucks to go for a A&H GLD, or perhaps on a smaller scale to for something like the Soundcraft Impact, you will most likely also have the money to buy a simple DMX controller. (Or a MIDI controller/fader box, Behringer as inexpensive ones, perhaps you could get one used.)
Back up on the computer works with the 01V96i software, which runs in VirtualBox on some Windows. But I don’t like this option. This computer world changes so rapidly and operating systems come and go much faster than good consoles, so in the end you might always run out of support for your solution. That’s why class-compliant USB (which the 01V96i does not have) and USB-storage are so important.
If you should ever have the bucks to go for a A&H GLD, or perhaps on a smaller scale to for something like the Soundcraft Impact, you will most likely also have the money to buy a simple DMX controller. (Or a MIDI controller/fader box, Behringer as inexpensive ones, perhaps you could get one used.)
Problem is there is no ‘simple’ DMX controller that does a good job in my experience, for example find one that you can do something as simple as set a crossfade time between cues in a cue list. Most are set up for DJs where that type of functionality is not needed. The cheapest ones out there are probably the smartfades from ETC, a smartfade ML is still a few thousand USD, so even in the GLD price range that is not a given. I find some of the software options much better in many ways for this, was running LXConsole at the time on Mac, with an OpenDMX interface from Enttec I had, so it was something quick and easy to throw together. There are other software options. I have been curious about the Python version of LXConsole, but haven’t had an opportunity to really play with it yet.
While I agree that computers are always changing, I do find that is exactly why I like to keep a VM or two around for software like this. I do system design for clients, and often have to run specialized software, so I run it in a VM dedicated for the purpose as a result, that way I can always know it works. But I do agree that class compliant USB is important in the long run, and thankfully many people do seem to be moving towards it.
Seablade(my) ALSA does recognize and work with the MIDI side of the USB connection. Damien Zammit was working on support for the audio side a couple of months ago, because someone else had already got it working via a standalone program that used libusb.
See the last two cards. Loopback allows to be opened multiple times and then does some mixing. Actually it is used by KXStudios alsa2jack bridge, that I use to route “consumer audio” into my RME card (ALSA into jack, back into ALSA)… most consumer programs cannot really deal with the RME digi and also not with my wish to route output to ch 25/26. Which is SPDIF, simply for the reason that I ran out of TOSLINK cables, otherwise I could also use ADAT.
no@atreju:~ > aplay -l
**** Liste der Hardware-Geräte (PLAYBACK) ****
Karte 0: Loopback [Loopback], Gerät 0: Loopback PCM [Loopback PCM]
Sub-Geräte: 7/8
Sub-Gerät #0: subdevice #0
Sub-Gerät #1: subdevice #1
Sub-Gerät #2: subdevice #2
Sub-Gerät #3: subdevice #3
Sub-Gerät #4: subdevice #4
Sub-Gerät #5: subdevice #5
Sub-Gerät #6: subdevice #6
Sub-Gerät #7: subdevice #7
Karte 0: Loopback [Loopback], Gerät 1: Loopback PCM [Loopback PCM]
Sub-Geräte: 7/8
Sub-Gerät #0: subdevice #0
Sub-Gerät #1: subdevice #1
Sub-Gerät #2: subdevice #2
Sub-Gerät #3: subdevice #3
Sub-Gerät #4: subdevice #4
Sub-Gerät #5: subdevice #5
Sub-Gerät #6: subdevice #6
Sub-Gerät #7: subdevice #7
Karte 1: R15 [RME Digi9652 (Rev 1.5)], Gerät 0: RME Digi9652 (Rev 1.5) [RME Digi9652 (Rev 1.5)]
Sub-Geräte: 0/1
Sub-Gerät #0: subdevice #0
Karte 2: Y01V96i [Yamaha 01V96i], Gerät 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
Sub-Geräte: 1/1
Sub-Gerät #0: subdevice #0
To add something here: Meanwhile I installed KXStudio 14.04 and the Yamaha 01V96i seems to work out of the box via USB. It is a lovely console for a little studio. But I still use ADAT since I got 26ch I/O now via the RME Digia which gives me a 1:1 mapping of console channels to inputs in Ardour which is just so much easier. No patching around in the 0196i any more. However, if you insist on recording 96khz, the USB would be your choice. Although I didn’t try it in practise yet.
Interesting. I have k3.16.0-4 on Debian Jessie, and the audio side of the Yamaha does not work out of the box here.
Well I haven’t tried it yet in practise, as said, so I don’t know how stable it is. Perhaps this is a KXStudio modification, I don’t know.