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Audio Review: Waves MultiRack Live Effects Plug-in Host
Take Waves audio plug-ins from the studio to the live venue without filling racks full of expensive gear.
Ask anyone with a digital audio recording background about Waves plug-ins, and you'll likely get a smile and a hearty endorsement. Waves plug-ins are among the best-and most expensive-audio effects out there. In addition to creating new and useful plug-ins, Waves' meticulous approach to modeling every aspect of vintage hardware has earned them many fans in high-end studio circles. Waves has partnered with many of these top recording and mixing pros to create signature plug-in bundles that deliver unmatched character. In short, Waves' plug-ins are positively drool-worthy.
If you're recording with ProTools or Logic or SONAR or any number of other digital audio platforms, Waves plug-ins are as close as a credit card transaction and a five-minute download. If you labor in the live sound world, however, all those juicy plug-ins were the stuff of futile dreams. Now live sound engineers have MultiRack ($620 list), which is designed to take Waves audio plug-ins from the studio to the live venue. This means you can use models of the best hardware effects on the planet live (as well as plug-ins with no hardware equivalent), without filling racks full of expensive gear.
MultiRack requires just a Mac or PC laptop, an audio interface and Waves plug-ins. The software is essentially a lean-and-mean "host" for the plug-ins, one designed to run the effects with as much efficiency and stability as possible. MultiRack allows you to run as many instances of plug-ins as your computer can handle, which should be dozens for most newer laptops.
In MultiRack, plug-ins are dropped in series fashion into virtual "racks." Each rack can hold up to eight plug-ins, and the software allows up to 64 racks. You can do the math to figure out that should be plenty of plug-ins for any user.. The rack overview shows you all your racks, color-coded by groups if you've set them up. Indicators show at a glance if racks are enabled and if any clipping is occurring. Double-clicking on a rack opens the rack view, which shows individual plug-ins, input and output meters and clip indicators. Double-clicking on any plug-in opens its editing interface. From this view, you can click any effect in the rack to edit its parameters.
Rack It Up (Virtually)
Racks come in three varieties: mono, stereo and mono in/stereo out. Configuring your racks requires some forethought, as well as a clear understanding of your audio interface. The more inputs and outputs your interface has, the more flexibility you'll have with your virtual racks.
A higher-end FireWire interface can sport up to eight analog inputs and outputs. You could allocate those to four mono inserts and two stereo sends (or a similar combination). Need more I/O? You can add additional converters to the LightPipe ports on many interfaces, or run a second FireWire or USB interface. Options abound, and you'll likely need them if you hope to use all the plug-ins your computer will run.
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Loren Alldrin is a regular contributor to Church Production Magazine.
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ADD NEW COMMENTHello, can we get to talk more abt the multirack thing, my church plan to get sth like this soon and I’m in charge of it. All i need you to do for me is to give me a full briefing and little tips and tricks to get this thing running. I have read all that is needed to be read but I still have issues with some stuffs. I dont mind you mailing me ur mail,my mail is .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). I will be so much grateful if u can get back to me. Thanx
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