FOH Engineer Lloyd Williams (Against the Current, The Fray, Trixie Mattel) has chosen the Waves eMotion LV1 Live Mixer and Waves plugins for the 2023 UK/EU tour of the American pop/alternative act PVRIS, formed by multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter and producer Lyndsey Gunnulfsen (aka Lynn Gunn).
Williams comments on choosing the eMotion LV1, for live mixing the tour: “I had been using the eMotion LV1 since 2021 on headline, support tours, festivals and one-offs with the band Against the Current. When the opportunity to work with PVRIS came around, my immediate choice was to bring in the LV1. I worked from a pre-prepared, rock-solid show file that I could adapt over the course of a few fly festival shows at the end of last year and then jumped into a few PVRIS rehearsal days for the headline tour in the UK this year.
Sonically, the LV1 is warm and punchy, and the preamps sound excellent. We take a lot of time A/B-ing mics per source pre-rehearsals, and the LV1 provides the results I am looking for, even flat before building my plugin chain.”
“On this tour,” he adds, “we are going from 500 cap clubs to 5,000 cap theaters. The LV1 is hyper-portable – an all-encompassing solution in itself, especially from a tour and production management point of view, since with PVRIS, I tour manage the band as well as do FOH. As such, a lot of my day is away from the console. So having the LV1 be such an efficient setup without any additional techs/hands to assist is hugely important. I can arrive, load in and set up the LV1 in ten minutes, continue with daily TM duties, then return ready to go for a soundcheck later in the day after a quick virtual. Usually, it takes a lot more console real estate to get an equivalent quality that I get with this smaller setup, and the sonics continue to turn heads at every venue I’m using it in. Most importantly, it’s been rock solid for me. In addition, having so many great plugins to play with and interchange so quickly and easily in virtual soundchecks for A/B testing, even in real time, continues to prove invaluable, even though nine times out of ten I’ll stick with what I knew already.”
Williams’ current setup for the PVRIS tour includes running 48 inputs from stage via their own split and six local at FOH. All hardware is racked in custom fly cases from Circle Three Designs.
Williams’ favorite plugins to use within eMotion LV1 include the dbx 160 Compressor / Limiter on guitars, “as I always used the original 160s on pretty much everything, touring with analog gear back in the day. The plugin is such a good emulation, from sound to response time. I love slamming the BSS DPR-402 on bass. Hits as good as the original. The F6 Floating-Band Dynamic EQ is the only EQ I use, and I insert it on just about every input. It has an extremely accurate RTA, and the sonic responsiveness is second to none. For snare, my go-to is Waves Torque. The ability to fine-tune a drum sound without having to turn a lug has been irreplaceable to me, and it acts as a major time-saver. I always use InPhase – kick in and out mics, snare top and bottom, bass DI and bass mic. It is the only perfect phase alignment tool for me, apart from my ears… Also, I insert the SSL G-Master Bus Compressor on my kick, snare and tom groups. It’s so transparent. I love this compressor.”
Williams summarises: “The LV1 system flies everywhere with me in two Pelican Air cases and one additional sidecar that supports my recording laptop, and local StageGrid IO at FOH. There isn’t another ‘desk’ that I have encountered so far that is this portable, manageable and sounds this good. I trust my files, and the excellent preamps. The only thing that ever changes from country to country and venue to venue is the PA.”
