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M3’s John Harris Mixes Montreux Jazz Festival 2015

Harris Uses Waves SoundGrid, Waves Plug-Ins to Mix Montreux Jazz Festival 2015 on Music Mix Mobile

John Harris is pictured in the Le Voyager broadcast truck.

John Harris, Music Mixer for the Stravinsky Hall at the Montreux Jazz Festival and partner in Music Mix Mobile, along with Head Technician Jerome Blondel and Technician Rene Weis, use Waves SoundGrid technology and Waves plug-ins for mixing the Montreux Jazz Festival 2015 in the Le Voyager broadcast truck.  

“The configuration we used in Le Voyager for mixing the Montreux Jazz Festival’s broadcast for the Stravinsky Hall was a SSL C200 HD console, and in order to run Waves plug-ins we used the DiGiGrid I/O devices that handled the MADI/analog-to-SoundGrid conversion with a SoundGrid Server One that enabled us to run 32 inserts of plug-ins in low latency, all controlled via the Waves MultiRack plug-in host that was running on an iMac,” says Blondel.

“We used the Waves CLA-76 Compressor/Limiter, Waves Renaissance Vox and Waves Renaissance DeEsser in some combination on pretty much everything: kick, snare, bass, guitars, keys and vocals,” Harris says. “I used the Waves SSL G-Master Buss Compressor and the Waves L3-LL Ultramiximizer on the master output.”  

“The Waves H-Reverb Hybrid Reverb is really fantastic,” Harris adds. “I was really taken with the 224 preset; I owned an analog 224 back then, and the H-Reverb is so like it, it’s scary. I am a big fan of drum rooms, and the H-Reverb has a bunch. It is now a permanent part of my sessions.  

“I needed a solution to getting Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga’s vocals to both ‘pop,’ separately of course, but it was more important to get them together for the Montreux Jazz Festival mix,” Harris continues. “They have different styles, volumes, microphones, monitoring, everything, but it had to sound like two halves of one whole. Combining the Renaissance DeEsser, Renaissance Vox and the CLA-76 Compressor/Limiter, with just a few tweaks, did the trick. I have the Waves SSL G-Master Buss Compressor [set] at a ratio of 2:1 before it, just touching the signal, and the L3 set at -10, just tickling it. It’s how I know my TV broadcast will be spot-on -24 on the DialNorm. Great packing for the music!  

“The SSL console, Waves MultiRack, and the Waves Mercury plug-in bundle are a winning combination,” Harris concludes. “My mixes are 98-percent Waves, and the ability to bring my sound anywhere in the world on any mixer via Waves MultiRack is the key for me. It’s now the sound of the Montreux Jazz Festival, and I couldn’t be happier.”

Learn about Waves SoundGrid.

Learn about the Waves MultiRack plug-in host.

Visit Music Mix Mobile online at musicmixmobile.com.

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