If you pay any attention to the current pro-audio market space, you are already aware there’s is no shortage of full-featured audio consoles available. However, Waves recently introduced a new mixing system for live sound reinforcement that is bound to get some attention in the house of worship market. Yes, Waves released the EMotion LV1 console more than three years ago. And while it’s evolved significantly since then, the real news is that Waves is now selling it as a part of a complete mixing with a computer, server and touchscreen that are optimized to work with the LV1 mixer. Previously a sound engineer would have to cobble together all of these components to build their own complete system, and then hope for the best.
The EMotion LV1 is a software-based console. It’s a software package, rather than a hardware-based device with faders and on-board DSP--not exactly a mainstream, conventional approach in this day and age, but it could be the wave of the future. This new system also includes a fully integrated Waves SoundGrid system that provides real-time networking and audio processing. All I/O (inputs and outputs) for the system is provided by outboard interfaces on the SoundGrid network. This is akin to connecting I/O expander packs via Cat6 cable to a more traditional digital console. As a continuation to all of this integration, the LV1 mixer is also fully integrated with the Waves plug-in effects topology. With LV1 you can run Waves plug-ins natively within the mixer screen simply by placing plug-ins into the desired channel strip of the mixer. The mixer window will render the plug-ins right there in the channel controls and will allow you to manipulate them like you would any other channel strip parameter. On the backend the LV1 will manage all of the plug-ins, assign them to an appropriate SoundGrid server, and route the audio for you. It takes care of all the management for you, so all that you have to do is think about your mix.
The LV1 comes in 16-, 32-, and 64-input options with the number of auxes, groups, and matrixes increasing respectively. The system Waves provided to us for evaluation was a 64-input mixing solution comprised of the EMotion LV1 mixing software, a Waves Axis One computer optimized for LV1, a SoundGrid Impact Server for hosting plug-ins and performing the necessary DSP, and a SoundStudio STG-1608 interface providing 16-in/8-out I/O.
In action
It’s quite a powerful system, using a 32-bit floating-point mix engine for audio processing that supports up to a 96K sampling rate. The LV1 software can be run on both Windows and Mac operating systems and supports the patching of up to 16 SoundGrid servers (hardware or software-based servers) and can facilitate up to eight plug-ins per channel, which is a lot of audio processing for a single strip. All processing is done on the networked SoundGrid servers which ensures that the system continues processing audio in the case of an LV1 failure. The system also provides automatic latency compensation for the internal mix busses allowing you to, again, think more about what processing to do rather than how to do it. Remember it’s a specially designed component system, as opposed to a set of software and computers that a user hopes will be compatible.
System set-up of our review unit was very straightforward, which was especially impressive considering how complex a fully software-based architecture could be if it’s not well planned. A few small questions came to mind during the process, but they were very quickly and efficiently answered by Waves’ excellent support staff. In retrospect, the largest part of the set-up was unboxing the system components and wiring them together. Once everything was powered up, configuration was as simple as selecting the desired system devices from a graphical menu (it found them automagically) and indicating that you wanted them to be part of the system configuration. From there, a very intuitive matrix screen allows you to map system I/O to the mixer’s inputs and outputs.
Audio used for much of our testing was provided by pre-recorded performance tracks played back using freely available playback software hosted on a laptop. Here again, the Waves ecosystem proved to be robust and easy to use. By simply installing Waves’ SoundGrid drivers on the playback laptop, the laptop was easily identified as a SoundGrid device on the system network. Audio routing was set up via the LV1’s matrix routing screen. In short, we per pushing audio quicker than expected. Waves obviously spent some time considering how to put together system workflows and user interfaces.
While we are on the topic of user interfaces, the LV1 mixer supports the simultaneous use of up to four touchscreen displays allowing you to create a very customizable layout. The console software itself allows you to have two mixer screens configured with each one supporting up to eight layers (customized if you choose) with each layer holding up to 16 channel strips. With this amount of flexibility users should not have any issues setting up a workflow that suits them.
The LV1 also supports all of the major workflow constructs that you would expect from a modern digital console such as DCA’s, recall, recall safe, mute groups, etc., along with a few other nifty tricks. For example, link groups, which are something akin to DCA’s, allow for the simultaneous manipulation of parameters on all of the channel strips associated with the link group simply by adjusting only one of the channels in that group. So, if you had multiple inputs associated with a single guitar and they were in a common link group, turning an EQ knob on one of them would adjust the same EQ knob on all of them, allowing you to adjust the EQ as a group. This could effectively be used to emulate bus processing without actually taking up a bus. Another interesting feature is the ability to control pan as well as width and rotation for stereo channels.
And still more action
From the moment we started pushing audio, it was clear the system sounded quite good and didn’t demonstrate any bad habits. Additionally, due to the tight integration between the DSP, the LV1 application, and its plug-in capabilities, time spent putting a mix together was really about the mix and not about how to route audio or how to get the system to do what you wanted it to do. With specific comment towards plug-in integration, plug-in usage becomes part of the normal workflow with LV1, rather than something that’s bolted onto the side as with many other consoles. I found this to more beneficial than expected when I realized I was adding plug-ins as a normal course of mixing a channel strip, rather than stopping my flow to add the plug-in via a different screen or a different computer. The distinction is a subtle one, but for some users I expect that it will also be a freeing one. Ultimately, mixing with the LV1 is really more like mixing with a DAW than a traditional console, except that you are “printing” to a PA rather than a file. Though you could do that pretty easily too if you wanted to simply by routing to a capture device. The system is quite flexible.
This DAW-like interaction, ironically, may be the one area to cause some engineers pause. While Waves has done a very good job at creating an intuitive interface that is easy to understand, LV1 is much more like driving a computer than it is like driving a console and I suspect that for some users this will be difficult getting used to. Though it should be noted that LV1 does support external control surfaces such as Waves’ Platform M control surface, which may make the transition easier for those cases.
Waves has done an excellent job at putting together the Waves eMotion LV1 live mixing system bundle and it opens some new, interesting and perhaps great possibilities for churches. We are now entering a time when engineers can throw their consoles into a backpack (LV1 on a laptop) and simply plug into the campus’s SoundGrid network when they arrive for service. Do you have two computers? If so, now you have console redundancy, something many churches have never been able to afford. This is pretty cool stuff.
