Front of house and studio engineer Wayne Trevisani is mixing Jenifer Hudson’s tour performances, TV show and recordings using Waves plugins, via a Waves SoundGrid Rack for Venue, on an Avid VENUE | S6L console.
Trevisani, a GRAMMY Award-winning engineer and a two-time nominee as FOH of the year at the Live Production Summit Awards (formerly “TourLink”), has also been engineering for the Jennifer Hudson Show, which has received multiple Emmy nominations this year as well, including “Outstanding Live Sound Mixing and Sound Editing.” His most recent studio recording, “Boundaries,” featured in the Tony Award-winning musical album A Strange Loop, incorporated Waves plugins as well.
SoundGrid Rack for Venue enables running Waves plugins directly within the VENUE | S6L, with tactile control from the console’s surface knobs. The SoundGrid Rack for VENUE is a plugin that runs within the VENUE S6L environment and loads up to eight SoundGrid-compatible Waves plugins per instance. All standard VENUE plugin features apply, including “Config” and “Show” modes, delay compensation, snapshot automation, and detailed tactile control of plugin parameters. Trevisani’s live setup includes a S6L alternating between a Waves One-C SoundGrid Server and a Waves Extreme SoundGrid Server.
“These Waves servers are so easy to connect. In my New York studio, where I employ a 977 Quad Eight Console into ProTools with Waves plugins installed, the One-C server is part of my setup there as well, and its performance is truly remarkable for its cost!” he says.
On working with the plugins with the S6L, he adds, “Really, in one word: seamless. Perhaps another description would be ‘dependable’, because in the live world, you really only get that one shot to make it right, and with Waves plugins on board an AVID S6L, it is as stable as it can ever be. Not to mention ease of use and the sonics, which are incredible on the S6L along with the Waves platform. It is simply unparalleled. Having tried the others, I find no need to go any other way.”
His plugins include the C6, CLA-2A, CLA-76, SSL G-Master Buss Compressor, the Abbey Road Saturator, F6, WLM Plus and Submarine. “In the studio, my typical vocal chain for Jennifer includes the Scheps 73, the C6 Multiband Compressor, CLA-76 Compressor/Limiter and the CLA-2A Compressor/Limiter. When mixing live, my typical vocal chain for Jennifer includes Waves’ Q10 Equalizer, C6, CLA-76 and the CLA-2A. When digital consoles were introduced, the ability to chain effects like compressors without any degradation was huge. I would never be able to take an 1176 and run it internally to a LA-2A live. Way too much could go wrong, and there would be no time to troubleshoot.
“Being a longtime fan of frequency-dependent compression, the C6 Multiband Compressor is probably my favorite. I have yet to find a better one,” he continues. “I use it on lead vocals, BGVs and horns. It allows me to sweeten the sound and place something right in someone’s face without it being abusive in any way. Jennifer possesses a commanding vocal presence, and the C6 allows me to expand lower frequencies and compress higher ones, helping me to faithfully present her powerful voice. The CLA-2A Compressor/Limiter has amazing similarities to the original hardware, offering warmth and smoothness unlike any other plugin like it. I use this on vocals consistently. Also very similar to the original analog device, the CLA-76 Compressor/Limiter, with its attack and release times, make this a go-to not only for vocals, but for bass guitar, parallel drums, and many more.
“The SSL G-Master Buss Compressor’s punch is amazing; this is a go-to on the master buss and even on the aux buss as well. I tend to favor analog emulators, and the Abbey Road Saturator is just amazing to have a lot of fun with, aggressively or even just for sweetening; I like to use it on a few instruments, especially on acoustic instruments and especially on acoustic guitars. The F6 Floating-Band Dynamic EQ, as well as being an amazing frequency dependent compressor/expander (only with an RTA and it acts more like a parametric), comes in handy in a live space for similar reasons as the C6, but it is more finite.”
