Japan's Live Date chooses the eMotion LV1 mixer and Waves plugins for streaming

Live Date has turned to Waves' eMotion LV1 live mixer as a key solution in its quest for better audio for live-streamed productions.

The sound engineering company Live Date, based in Tokyo, chooses the eMotion LV1 Live mixer and plugins Waves for live streaming of events such as Yorushika, My first story, Survive Said The Prophet and Ms.Ooja, to name a few.

COVID-19 has seriously affected Japan's live music industry. Budgets for live entertainment have decreased dramatically, as large music events have given way to smaller venues. Current restrictions on all live events allow for a maximum capacity of 50%. As a result, it is becoming extremely difficult for event organizers to be profitable with low capacity.

As a resource, the concerts are performed partially live, and partially via streaming. Concert organizers are now selling two types of tickets: more expensive tickets for the live experience, and cheaper ones for the online broadcast of the same live concert.

The growing demand for live streaming has also reinforced calls for better streaming sound quality. Live Date has chosen the live mixer eMotion LV1 from Waves as a key solution in their quest for better audio for live-streamed productions.

The CEO of Live Date, Shigeo Aoki, comments that "we were looking for a mixing console that could be carried and operated by a small number of people, with the same (or higher) level of sound quality that we are accustomed to, but with a minimal footprint. The Waves eMotion LV1 was the first solution that came to mind. The footprint of a complete LV1 system is less than half that of a live mid-console, so you can place the LV1 system in any space such as a hallway or a dressing room. Our complete LV1 system includes the Waves Axis One computer, the Extreme Server-C plugin DSP server and the SoundStudio STG-1608 and STG-2412 audio interfaces (40 in/20 out total). We also have an MGB DiGiGrid interface The interfaces are connected to each other via a network switch and a RED Link10 digicom with a LAN cable. That's all! It's a very compact system that can go anywhere.”

The monitor engineer Takuro Sawada He adds that “the LV1 is inexpensive, but it's also very flexible in the way you can use custom layers and user keys.”

However, the first and most important consideration of Live Date is the sound quality. “Our PA team uses Waves plugins to mix live shows anyway,” says Aoki, “so the eMotion LV1 was the first option that allowed us to deliver the same great sound quality – just smaller in size, and with the Waves plugins running inside the LV1 mixer.”