First there were rumors. Then, a couple years back, prototypes started showing up at industry trade shows. Now it's here. Waves Audio, famed for its must-have processing plug-ins, is finally shipping its eMotion LV-1 mixing – what? Console? Solution? Assemblage? Let's face it, when you redefine how something is done, you need new terminology.
The Waves press release calls the LV1 a “revolutionary live digital mixing console.” But for me the word “console” conjures images of a big hardware unit with faders, knobs, switches and, more recently, screens. Well, with the LV 1, only the screens are mandatory. The rest is optional.
Whatever you call it, it's a new way of thinking. In the past, digital consoles designers started off with the analog console hardware concept and then developed software to make their new digital versions function. But here, the starting point for Waves was to develop sophisticated, high-quality software for live mixing – software custom designed for seamless integration with their acclaimed processing plug-ins. Then, once you have the software on your computer (Mac or Windows), you assemble the hardware – input/output devices and user interfaces – best suited to do the job at hand and to accommodate your own mixing preferences.
So, since software is at the heart of the concept, we'll start there.
The eMotion platform comes in three configurations: 64, 32 or 16 mono or stereo input channels. Depending on configuration, it also offers up to 36 stereo bus/return channels, 16 auxes, eight audio groups, and eight matrix mixes. It also accommodates 16 DCA faders, eight mute groups and eight user-assignable function controls.
The software-based nature of the system allows greater freedom to configure everything to meet your particular needs and expand as you grow.
Each mixer channel strip is nicely equipped with Waves eMo plug-ins, including the D5 dynamics, F2 filters and Q4 equalizer. And if you want more, the virtual rack for each channel can accommodate up to eight Waves or compatible third-party plug-ins, all running inside the same mixer platform with the same seamlessly integrated control.
In other words, this is premium audio processing that previously was reserved – in the live domain – for users of high-end digital hardware mixers. Now you can have it in your church for as little as $749, the cost of software for the 16-channel version.
That is, once you've assembled the hardware needed to make the eMotion LV1 do its magic. Ah, therein hangs the catch!
The LV1 is designed to work on the Waves SoundGrid audio network and DSP platform. And that means, in addition to your software, you also need a SoundGrid-compatible server, a Gigabit network switch, I/O boxes for stage and FOH, and a MADI to SoundGrid interface to get the audio from the stage boxes into the SoundGrid network.
Side note: In case you were wondering why you need the server, it's because the application host computer simply doesn't have enough processing horsepower to do all the heavy lifting with the near zero latency (delay) required. Processing delay in a recording mixdown is irrelevant. Working live, it can drive you nuts.
So, that takes care of the audio chain. Now all you need is your user interface. Yes, you could control everything just using the PC or Mac that runs the application. But that would be awkward. In their booth at the 2016 Winter NAMM Show, Waves used two Dell touchscreens, about 22-inch diagonal, with one flat and the other angled up in front to look like a you-know-what console. That way, the lower screen can function as the fader bank with associated virtual controls, and the upper screen can be used to control channel plug-ins, set up matrix feeds or do other chores without leaving your basic mix
Now, big question #1: Do you still need some kind of tactile hardware controller? Tough to say. There's no question that having larger faders on a wider screen makes it easier to track moves than when using a small tablet. Waves also programmed the faders with a “capture and hold” capability that retains control even if your finger drifts off the centerline. But if “losing touch” gives you the willies, then you can connect an external hardware controller to the computer as the LV1 works with the standard control protocols.
Big question #2: How does it sound? Waves used an LV1 for mixing its demo stage at the recent NAMM show, and to my ears it was easily one of the best-sounding booths. For one thing, they deployed premium Meyer Sound loudspeakers, which helped reveal sonic subtleties when tweaking plug-in parameters. Alas, there was no live acoustic music through the system, but the voices and recorded instruments all sounded superb – as you would expect with a 32-bit floating point mix engine running at 96 kHz.
So, what does this mean to churches? Certainly it opens the door to a new era of high-end audio mixing that is, literally, outside the box(es). Rather than spending $10,000 or more on equivalent functions in a fixed system, you could configure your own LV1-based system to suit your current needs and expand it as you grow. Certainly the software-based nature of the system inherently allows greater freedom to configure everything to meet your particular needs.
On the other hand, this is a do-it-yourself, a la carte approach. Expertise is required. True, you can get the core networking, DSP and I/O package from Waves and thus benefit from their excellent support. But the host computer and user interface is up to you, along with the physical packaging.
And on that note, this is certainly an opportunity for third party manufacturers to provide complete packages built around LV1. Peavey's Crest division had their system at the NAMM Show, dubbed Tactus, which included a fully equipped control surface designed specifically for LV1 along with I/O boxes for both stage and FOH. Crest expects to have this support package ready mid-year, and I would not be surprised to find others scrambling to follow suit.
