— With his Waves SoundGrid®/Allen and Heath iDR64 setup, Orrison has found the right workflow
for this challenging live gig —
TEL AVIV, ISRAEL, June 6, 2013 — Waves Audio is seeing a growing number of young cutting-edge live engineers turn to Waves Live tools, including Brett Orrison, Front-of-House engineer for The Black Angels, and a Waves Audio/Greg Price Young Gun. On The Black Angels’ 2013 Indigo Meadow tour, Orrison is traveling with the Waves MultiRack SoundGrid® System with two DSP servers and an Allen and Heath iDR64, equipped with an M-Waves card and the iLive T112 surface. He uses a Dell Precision Laptop to steer the SoundGrid DSP servers while multi-track recording with PreSonus Studio One.
Orrison is a big fan of what Waves has helped him accomplish: “I’m running 39 channels of Waves plugins. There are 23 instrument channels, 3 stereo groups, 8 Aux and the Stereo Buss, all routed through Waves. Having so many tools to choose from is pretty wild and has without a doubt made my mixes more consistent. The Q10 Paragraphic EQ and C6 Multiband Compressor on the master buss makes things bigger, and that helps me dial in a room a lot faster than using only EQ. The Waves InPhase plugin helps align my lead singers’ three vocal lines. InPhase, takes care of the slight issues a polarity flip won’t fix. Waves IR-Live convolution reverb has taken over my drum reverbs. Having so many effects is really beneficial when mixing psychedelic music like The Black Angels.”
He continues, explaining his workflow: “I’m enjoying the Allen and Heath system and its easy integration with Waves SoundGrid. It’s as easy as setting an insert IO to Waves SoundGrid and pushing the insert button in on the channel. My favorite part about the setup is the virtual sound check. With a few very quick configuration changes, the system can be changed from live processing and recording to virtual sound check playback of pre-recorded multi channel files, directly through the same SoundGrid MultiRack processing. This allows me to adjust each channel’s dynamics, EQ, etc. in exactly the same way I would with a full band on stage. It’s pretty cool to have soundcheck well on its way before the stage is pinned. I’ve found myself designing sound rather then trying to control it, which has been the biggest change in my day-to-day mixing. The rig is set up in 30 minutes with all the settings from last night’s mix ready to go. Starting from where you left off the night before leaves more time for creative ‘manipulation.’ This is a great rig!”
Brett Orrison is part of the growing trend among live sound professionals who are making the move to the next-generation workflow with Waves plugins and Waves Live SoundGrid. For an extended conversation with Orrison, visit http://www.waveslive.com/html/gregs-list/young-guns-brett-orrison.aspx. Visit www.waves.com and www.waveslive.com for more information.
