Sage Anthony, tour manager and front-of-house engineer for Buddy Guy, has chosen the Waves eMotion LV1 Classic console for a recent series of Buddy Guy concerts. Legendary blues artist Buddy Guy, winner of eight GRAMMY Awards, a GRAMMY Lifetime Achievement Award and the Kennedy Center Honors, as well as an inductee into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, recently performed a series of concerts at his own Buddy Guy’s Legends in Chicago.
“One of the biggest challenges in mixing Buddy’s live sound,” Sage noted, “is capturing the delicate nuances of his playing when he’s quiet, while seamlessly managing the massive shifts in stage volume when he turns up the intensity. One moment, he’s quietly picking his guitar, delivering soulful ballads as soft as a whisper. The next, he’s unleashing powerful, sustained notes, filling the room with intense rock and blues.”
“This contrast is a signature element of Buddy’s show,” Sage added “and his audience is incredibly attuned to the nuances of his tone. He plays a custom Fender Stratocaster through two vintage tube-wired ‘59 Fender Bassman amps—both cranked up to 10. When he wants it loud, it gets loud. But preserving the depth and authenticity of his tone, from the softest touch to the most electrifying solos, is absolutely critical.”
“This is where LV1 Classic comes in,” Sage said. “The console’s preamps are very responsive and natural-sounding, which allows me to achieve this balance with ease. The quality of these Waves Signature Preamps far surpasses many other consoles, making it possible to capture an unparalleled dynamic range—without having to constantly ride the faders or risk pushing into distortion.”
“For my mixing style, there is no better desk. In my opinion, LV1 Classic is the best-sounding live console on the market today, period. There are many mixing systems of significantly higher cost that cannot begin to touch the sonic quality of what is available inside LV1 Classic.”
In addition to the console’s overall sonic quality, Sage singles out seamless plugin integration as a major draw: “Waves plugins have always been part of my workflow. In the past, I’ve toured with other desks and used a Waves SoundGrid I/O card and server to get my Waves plugins integrated into the mix path. This was nice, but not seamless. Now, with eMotion LV1 Classic, I’m able to simply turn on my desk, grab any type of plugin I want, and easily insert it anywhere. This opens so many doors: it allows me to rethink how my signal flow can be routed differently to be more effective. It’s very easy to add in bus compression, parallel compression, dynamic EQ, or dedicated effects,” he said.
“LV1 Classic comes with many mixing tools right out of the box,” he noted, “including the Waves eMo plugins, which let me achieve high-quality gating, parallel compression and EQ very quickly without any latency issues. F6 Floating-Band Dynamic EQ is also among the included plugins—so I can use that anywhere I want. There are so many tools at your disposal to shape, soften, colour, and add warmth or emphasise the nuances with incredible ease. Then, on top of the plugins the come included in LV1 Classic, I’ve added a lot of my favourites as upgrades—for example, the CLA-76 which I love for crushing my drums.”
“For Buddy’s guitar chain. I use the F6 Dynamic EQ and the API 2500. The F6 helps control the high end with a very fast attack and release, using a wider Q on the upper frequencies to shape and soften elements that might otherwise be harsh or fatiguing to the ear. Then, I use the API 2500 to keep the entire guitar in the pocket with a slower attack and a moderately fast release. To maintain vocal clarity, I rely heavily on the Waves Primary Source Expander (PSE) and the F6. These tools ensure Buddy’s vocals are intelligible and present, even with powerful stage volume and drum bleed,” he continued.
“Mixing for an icon like Buddy Guy is all about preserving the raw energy and emotion that make his performances legendary,” Sage summed up. “With the right tools from Waves and careful attention to detail, I can ensure that every note resonates exactly as he intended.”
He also singles out LV1 Classic’s rugged design: “The first thing that stood out when unboxing the console was its incredibly solid build quality. It’s clear from the start that this is a well-constructed mixing console—it feels sturdy, rugged, and built to last on the road. And when it comes to portability, let’s just say this: everything you need fits inside one case, and the desk is only 38 pounds! I don’t know of any other desk that is so powerful in such a small frame.”
“This console is perfect for bands in club, theatre, and festival circuits,” he continued. “When I’m not on tour with Buddy Guy or mixing albums at Abbey Road Studios, I am also the FOH engineer for several up-and-coming artists, including blues guitarist and singer Christone ‘Kingfish’ Ingram and singer-songwriter Leonardo Giuliani, and I will be going out on tour with them using the LV1 Classic as well. For example, we are recording an album for Leonardo Giuliani at Abbey Road’s Studio Three. During that process, I used their physical TG12345 console to achieve specific sonic elements on the drums. With LV1 Classic, I have an array of new toys and tools at my disposal, to incorporate real studio mixing techniques into the live environment. Once the album is mixed and released, I will be able to emulate those same sonic elements live using the Waves plugin system, integrated into the eMotion LV1 Classic console.”
He concluded: “Following my exceptional experience with the LV1 Classic at the Buddy Guy Legends club, I decided to adopt this setup for our upcoming shows. With just the LV1 Classic, my USB key, and a MacBook, I can literally do everything: virtual check, mix the show, mix monitors, create a broadcast mix — all while multitrack recording. We also use the Waves console connected to a MacBook Pro M3 running Pro Tools for multitrack recording. Our monitor engineer, Eli Vonk, is about to switch his monitor desk to the LV1 Classic as well. This setup works well for our club run, and we now plan to use two eMotion LV1 Classics on the road — one at monitors, one at front-of-house — when Buddy Guy goes on tour this spring and summer with the Tedeschi Trucks band, at larger venues like the Beacon Theater in New York City. I’m really loving this desk. Waves have done an excellent job—they are literally changing the industry!”
