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Plugins from Waves Audio were employed by live-sound engineers for a variety of performers in diverse setups and consoles throughout Lollapalooza 2019. Prominent FOH engineers provided a peek under the hood of their productions, sharing which essential plugins help them create a tight, remarkable-sounding show under challenging festival conditions.
Conceived in 1991 by Perry Farrell as a farewell tour for his band Jane's Addiction, the first iteration of Lollapalooza ran through 1997; but it wasn't until a partnership with concert promoters C3 Presents in 2005 that Grant Park in Chicago became the festival's permanent home. Now one of the longest-running in the United States, the iconic festival brings in close to half a million people each year, taking place over four days in the heart of Chicago's lakefront, right at the height of the Second City's sweltering summer heat.
2019 was no different, with a lineup featuring the world's biggest artists across hip-hop, electronic and every flavor of rock. As these top-billing acts all descended upon Chicago's historic front yard, so did their world-class sound teams.
The sound engineers for festival headliners Childish Gambino, Twenty One Pilots and J Balvin, plus top-drawing acts like Janelle Mon e and Kacey Musgraves, have come to rely upon Waves plugins for their live mixing needs. With some acts and their teams flying in and out the same day, engineers depend on the reliability and stability of their rigs to make any show seem effortless and sound exceptional.
Live sound engineers at this years Lollapalooza explained how Waves tools help them stay one step ahead of tight festival requirements and deliver sensational sound.
Mixing the sundown set on Friday night at Lollapalooza, Janelle Mon e's right-hand woman, front-of-house engineer Amanda Davis, has been touring for over six years and a Waves user for as long as I can remember, and she delivers a polished, brilliant sound. Davis likes to keep it concise when it comes to effects processing: Running the Waves MultiRack plugin host with a SoundGrid Impact Server-C through DMI cards on her trusty DiGiCo SD10, she works hard to find the right amount of sheen she can get from a plugin, and when she does, she runs with it.
For a lot of inputs I've been sticking to my regulars like the H-Comp. On the bass, I've also incorporated the dbx 160 compressor. And on my L/R I have the API 2500 - there's something about it that just pushes my mix out past the PA. I barely touch any parameters on the API 2500, but as soon as I engage it everything just comes to life!
For Mon e's vocals, Davis uses the Renaissance plugins: R-EQ, R-Compressor and R-Vox. On my background vocals, I also use the PuigChild Compressor along with the R-Vox. For one song only, I add the GTR onto the vocal chain to give me a distortion effect. Lately, I've been trying this with the OneKnob Driver as an alternative. But the main thing is the R-Vox - it just puts the vocal right where I need it in the mix. I go pretty aggressive on it, almost to the point where it's too much; but I'd rather have to dial back than have a mix without the main attraction being heard!
FOH engineer Phil Gornell is on a mission to recreate the precision sound of a studio recording in the live setting. If you've heard Bring Me the Horizon on tour, you might be convinced that this is more than an ambition - it's a reality. Concerned for many years about the ability to replicate that amount of DSP processing in a delicate live environment, Phil now says how improvements in technology along with Waves tools have helped him reach that goal of not compromising quality for resources.
The F6 Dynamic EQ is first in my chain for a lot of channels and groups. It's essential for cleaning them up before I can process them further. Finding what resonates in an ugly way in each room, and then cleaning it up so I can amplify it, without becoming too harsh or out of control in each room - that's key to me. Besides the F6, I'm using the C6, H Delay, Torque, SSL E-Channel, H-Reverb, TrueVerb, the OneKnob Series, the MV2 comp, some of the CLA signature plugins - CLA Vocals, CLA Effects, and CLA Bass - as well as the Primary Source Expander (PSE).
Gornell remarks, about uncommon uses of plugins, Waves Torque is a drum pitch shifter, but I'm using it on vocal effects to give each effect a little pitch shift, and really thicken up the returns. Also MV2 on snare to retain those triggered' drum velocities that people are so used to hearing. I've started using the SSL E-Channel after my reverbs to sculpt the sound of the returns coming into the console. The CLA Deep Snare' preset gives a thick consistent return on snare drums and makes the snare pop.
He adds, about plugins that he had not used in the past but have become go-tos, The Waves MV2 is a new addition for me. It's very light and low latency, but it does a LOT of heavy lifting. Using it on kick/snare and bass gives my mix a solid and consistent foundation to build my mix on.
A 17-year veteran in the live sound business, Charles Izzo has been using Waves tools professionally for over a decade. I like the consistency, the comfort of knowing that no matter where I am in the world, no matter the type of show, no matter if I'm on FOH or monitors, when I put my settings into these plugins, they will perform exactly as I expect them to.
Mixing monitors for Donald Glover a.k.a. Childish Gambino, Izzo is constantly optimizing his effects chains, going for that solid dynamic sound that he feels only studio classics can deliver. The Studio Classics Collection bundle, with the Waves SSL and API plugins, is used on pretty much any show that I mix. Having the coloring and responsiveness of those p
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