Favor Church in Manila, Philippines has chosen Waves eMotion LV1 live mixers joined by an assortment of plugins to mix the church’s live services at front of house. They’ve also chosen monitors as well as for streaming its live online broadcasts.
Why They Chose eMotion LV1
“eMotion LV1 and the integrated plugins help us achieve top sound quality and major control over our live sound,” says Dan Blaza, FOH/Broadcast Engineer for the church. “This mixer gives us pristine, world-class sound, both for our live audience in the room and for our online viewers. The LV1 enables us to create the right sonic pressure and energy in the finest and most crisp way possible, and it produces a clean sound with higher reproduction accuracy.
“An additional crucial feature,” he continues, “is that the LV1 is exceptionally quick and easy to set up. We are able to do multiple splits without using an analog splitter, with easy networking using common LAN connections. Another key feature is the LV1’s amazing portability. Imagine having a great-sounding 64-channel mixing console – that you can bring as a hand-carry when traveling by air to church conferences and events! We may be moving between venues in the near future, so the LV1’s small footprint and portability gives us a future-proof setup. Another benefit is that our musicians can easily mix their own IEM wirelessly through Waves’ MyMon Personal Mixing App, which gives them independent on-stage direct control of their monitor mix.”
Senior Pastor James Aiton adds, “We pivoted quite quickly when COVID-19 hit. We had to take our church online, and we are also planning to try and get into a larger venue once the pandemic is over. Choosing the eMotion LV1 was a simple decision. In contrast to other large-brand mixers, the LV1 is fully integrated with Waves plugins. We saw that other people were bringing the power of Waves’ plugins into their live mixes, but with large and expensive desks as controllers. We thought, why not just go for a sound mixer that is actually built around these plugins and is seamlessly integrated with them? LV1’s networking ability and flexible setup were key factors as well.”
Installation
The specific installation includes three LV1 consoles in a shared network setup. Waves Application Specialists helped the church’s technical staff plan the design. “We’re using three sets of 64-channel eMotion LV1’s for FOH, broadcast, and monitor mix,” Blaza says. “Two DSPRO StageGrid 4000 I/Os situated at the monitor position beside the stage, are shared via IO Sharing on the SoundGrid network connected with Cat-6 80-meter LAN cables to our FOH and broadcast mix LV1 systems, with 40 inputs and 24 outputs. We’re also using a Waves SoundGrid Extreme Server-C for redundancy, with a DSPRO StageGrid 1000 for added I/O and headphone monitoring, as well as for our separate broadcast mix. The DSPRO StageGrid 1000 is also being used for additional inputs and outputs for nearfield speaker monitoring and final mix output for our broadcast.”
He concludes by noting that Waves plugins, controlled directly from the LV1, are also an important part of the sonic. “We use the CLA Classic Compressors to add more character and control on all our instruments. These compressor plugins also help vocals float on top of the mix. The SSL E-Channel and SSL G-Channel are used on most of our input channels to give an analog feel to the mix; the F6 Floating-Band Dynamic EQ enables more control on the vocal mix bus as well as on the PA output. We use the NS1 Noise Suppressor on our vocal mics in order to minimize or eliminate stage bleed providing additional clarity to the mix; and we place the L2 Ultramaximizer on the final mix for added security for our output levels.
“The Renaissance Vox is also on all our vocal mics to ensure that the vocals always sit well on top of the mix. We also use the Greg Wells VoiceCentric to enhance all worship vocal mics and to handle effects for our singers. Last but not least, we use the WLM Plus Loudness Meter, which is especially valuable in keeping our signal level on track on all our streaming platforms when broadcasting.”
