Front of house engineer Lloyd Williams (Against the Current, The Fray, Trixie Mattel) is working with a Waves eMotion LV1 live mixer and Waves plugins on the 2023 UK/EU tour of the American pop/alternative act PVRIS, formed by multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter and producer Lyndsey Gunnulfsen (a.k.a., Lynn Gunn).
“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,” Williams says. “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.
“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 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.
He notes that plugins he’s employing 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.”
