'20 years with you' by David Bisbal used eMotion LV1 from Waves

For both FOH, monitoring and television production, the concert with which David Bisbal celebrated his twenty-year career in Almería featured the eMotion LV1 live mixer from Waves.

The concert, broadcast andn direct by Movistar Plus+, had the FOH engineer Fabrizio Piazzini (Maluma, Calvin Harris, Tiesto), the monitor engineer Ian Alvarez (Deep Purple, I am Morbid, Fernando Costa, Joaquín Cortés) and the broadcast engineer Marc Llopis (Shakira, Alejandro Sanz, Fuel Fandango, Miriam Rodriquez).

Piazzini comments, on choosing the Waves LV1, that "a few years ago we started using the LV1 on fly dates, and we quickly realized, even the artist!, the exceptional quality of the mixing engine. No other console comes close to the sound quality of the LV1; it is so powerful and big, and has a huge stereo image with a virtually infinite headroom. I used to have two consoles, one for the programs and one for preparing the program files at home, but now I only need one LV1 console and I can take it home in the taxi. Furthermore, power record multitrack without the need for an added interface It is a great advantage; All the operators had a recording computer, and if anyone forgot to record, they just had to plug in one of the other laptops on the network and switch to input B, and that was it! After rehearsals, I would put the console away rather than cover it with a tarp. How about this simple setup! The other advantage was scalability. The broadcast plan was only clear a week before the rehearsals. After designing the system with the help of Waves' incredible team of file applications specialists, it was very easy to integrate it into our plan; You just had to add a fiber and LV1!”

The Piazzini configuration includes the eMotion LV1 Live Mixer - 64 stereo channels with a DSPRO StageGrid1000, and DiGiGrid IOC, a Waves Titan SoundGrid Server, some outboard, a controlador Waves FIT for eMotion LV1 and a screen.

As Waves plugins are an integral feature on the LV1, Piazzini notes that "my must-haves include the F6 Floating-Band Dynamic EQ; it's such a versatile plugin that I use it on all inputs that require more than one band of EQ. The Manny Marroquin Delay puts the fun back into mixes, and its reverb and distortion help me fill in any gaps I may have in the mix. The eMo D5 Dynamics is the most powerful dynamics processor out there. You can set up a gate with a threshold of +/- 0.1 dB, and it will literally always open or never open at all! The graphical response is fantastic. You can also crush your signal in a destressed way or in a totally clean way. The TRACT System Calibration plugin from Waves has changed my setup drastically. I always had to have a drive rack with me just to equalize the system and all the speaker feeds, but now I only bring one instance of TRACT on all my outputs.

Ian Alvarez, monitor engineer, points out that "I still remember the first time I saw the LV1. The artist was more than fine with all his previous mixes, so I tried to get as close to him as possible... A/B testing the mixes made me instantly notice how wide the stereo image can be, and believe me, I was absolutely amazed by it. Also, the feeling of clarity in the digital process It allows me to hear details, especially in FX like delays or reverbs, that I had never heard before. Its DSP possibilities, scalable options and sound quality, of course, tipped the balance in favor of LV1″.

"I've been using eMotion's LV1 systems for a couple of years, mainly because of their portability. David Bisbal is an international artist who tours the world regularly, and both Fabrizio and I were looking for a portable system weighing less than 32 kg to be able to take on the plane. Using the LV1 me allows you to use exactly the same console everywhere, not only the same model, but the same hardware and preamplifiers. This may not be essential for everyone, but David has incredible hearing; Believe me, it's from another world. He is also an artist who has a crystal clear vision of what he wants to hear in his mixes. The consistency of mixing on the same system around the world is priceless. Plus, being able to take the console back to the hotel room and improve my mixes while we're on tour makes it really quick to develop quick, precise changes, whatever and whenever needed.”

Alvarez adds that "what has surprised me the most is how good the conversion is and how wide your mixes can sound. Coming from another console, the first thing I noticed was the incredible stereo image it was able to develop. Having all the Waves weapons at the touch of a finger, ready to use, allows you to be as creative as you want and quickly solve problems if necessary."

Television production

Broadcast engineer Marc Llopis states that "FOH and MON were already using this system that they had prepared for the artist's tour. Instead of using a passive or active split system, I found that integrating a third LV1 into the network was the most comfortable and practical. Integrating fiber optics into the system made it comfortable and practical. Furthermore, I was able to use the same FOH session as a starting point, with the patch already made and a structure similar to the one I needed for broadcast. Literally, in ten minutes it was already playing, and From there I was able to start working on it to achieve a more compressed and packaged mix than the FOH. I also like that the structure of the console is very clear, with the channels, groups and auxiliaries organized as in an analog console, despite its real flexibility.”

Llopis adds that "the sonic quality of the LV1 surprised me from the first contact with it, astounding me with the quality of the summing and separation of frequencies, giving enormous space and dynamic range. Despite being a purely software solution, it is one of the closest analog summing experiences I have had on a digital audio platform."

“The eMotion LV1 has an advantage over other platforms and that is that it uses the same protocol both to move the audio and to process it, in such a way that there are no intermediate conversions as in most live audio platforms, and that influences the final sonic quality. “When I understood this, it gave me a clearer explanation of why the LV1 sound was so different,” he says.

Llopis' setup included an eMotion LV1, a host computer Waves Axis, a server Waves Extreme SoundGrid, and Waves FIT controller para eMotion LV1, un DSPRO StageGrid 4000 for connections to the mobile unit and a MacBook Pro for virtual sound check.

Regarding his favorite Waves plugins, he comments that "the Scheps Parallel Particles is a Swiss army knife. I use it on both the mix buses and the vocals to give them air or on the drum buses to increase the weight and punch. Indispensable. What I like most is that it is simple; with two or three adjustments, you get what you want without problem and without hours of prior learning. The Waves Smack Attack is an essential plugin. You can precisely shape the hits of percussion or even the attack of a bass beat without much complication. It is another of those Waves plugins with simple controls and enormous results.”