Knoxville, TN — Front-of-house and monitor engineer Cooper Davis (The Regrettes, No Vacation, The Happy Fits) has chosen the Waves eMotion LV1 Live Mixer and Waves plugins for American singer songwriter Gus Dapperton’s 2023 world tour.
Cooper explains why he chose the Waves eMotion LV1 for this tour: “Superb sound! This is a club tour carrying audio and lights in a single trailer, so the audio package had to be compact, yet powerful. And this LV1 is definitely powerful.”
He continues, “Another advantage of using the LV1 mixer is the ease of use and its advanced engine. Operating the LV1 is quick and effective. The console is very user-friendly and the layout is customizable. Working on the console is like a free-flowing movement of listening, decision making and executing. Furthermore, the ability to scale the size of the system up or down depending on the needs of the show really adds extra value.”
Cooper, who is controlling both the FOH and monitor setup for the Gus Dapperton tour, is using Waves’ LV1 64 Live Mixer – 64 Stereo Channels housed in an OCD-Labs LITEFLY® surface case, holding a Waves FIT Controller and a single Dell 24-inch touchscreen plus an additional touchscreen for quick access to floating plugins. His main server is a Waves Extreme-C SoundGrid Server with an extra one for redundancy, plus a One-C SoundGrid Server for “offloading some DSP of my FX processing” he adds. “I also have a few analog pieces I have been collecting in my FOH rack that I use via inserts within the LV1.”
Waves plugins, seamlessly integrated within the eMotion LV1 interface, play an essential part in Cooper’s workflow. “My top Waves plugin is the F6 Floating-Band Dynamic EQ and then the API 2500 compressor, PSE (Primary Source Expander), SSL E-Channel strip, the CLA-76 Compressor/Limiter and the CLA-2A Compressor/Limiter. The F6 is a workhouse plugin and my go-to EQ. It’s set as the default EQ on all my input strips. The dynamic features of this plugin grant it exceptional power and enable me to resolve a wide range of issues.”
He continues, “In this production my primary challenge has been achieving a harmonious balance of tonality in Gus’s voice throughout his wide vocal range. His voice exhibits varying harmonic characteristics, depending on the specific range he’s performing in throughout the show. That’s where the F6 comes in. This dynamic EQ has been the solution to balancing these different tonalities from song to song. After using the F6 static EQ on my main vocal channel, I apply dynamic processing to balance the tonality across the vocalist’s entire range. My final vocal snapshot group is scoped for recall with some more subtle EQ changes, tailored to each song, ensuring the vocal tonality remains consistent. Automating key parts of the song is crucial for quickly reaching the desired starting point at the beginning of each track.”
Cooper provides additional insights on the advantages of the F6: “Try putting it on your snare top mic, find the frequency range where you may have hi-hat bleed issues, dial in a band and cut it 3-6 dB. Now, on the dynamic section of this band, set the SC mode to ‘Wide’ so it listens to the full bandwidth of the snare. Then set the range to +3 or +6 and dial the threshold down so it starts expanding that band upwards when the snare hits. The goal is to shoot for the band to reach back to 0 dB when the snare hits, but use your ears and decide what is right. In the end you’ve cut down your hi-hat bleed by 3-6 dB while maintaining its dynamic character so you don’t lose any snap.”
He continues, “The PSE, which instantly reduces mic bleed in live shows, is my go-to for cleaning up stage bleed from my vocals. It’s always my first insert slot. The API 2500 compressor is the king of drums for me. My kick, snare, and toms groups have the API2500 comp on them, which has been a staple on my drum kits for so long that I know it like the back of my hand. I can achieve a variety of sounds with this comp, and can either add transient material, or take it away, but with attitude. Besides drums, the API 2500 also lives on my master bus adding the perfect amount of glue to the band as they chug along.”
“The Waves SSL E channel – a classic channel strip known for its punch – sits on all of my drum input channels,” he adds. “I default the plugin to be in its classic mode dynamics to ‘CH OUT.’ This puts the EQ in line before the dynamics. Dial in some additive EQ, hit it with some compression and the drums sound magical. The CLA76, a classic compressor, is useful on vocal, bass guitar, and sometimes on drums. It has a super-fast attack time. This can reel in the unruliest transients, and in the process add some saturation goodness that brings the source signal to life. Another classic, the CLA2A which doesn’t need much introduction, features an Opto compressor, which provides very smooth and slower attack and release timings. This can be especially great on vocals, bass, and acoustic guitar. I love the way a bass sounds once it’s buried 10-12 dB into compression. There is a tonal change that is very harmonically pleasing.”
Describing his monitor setup, Cooper notes, “On stage, the Dapperton tour includes a DSPRO StageGrid 4000 and a DiGiGrid IOX. The total IO count from stage is 44 Inputs and 22 outs. I use NETGEAR GS110TP switches on each end of the snake. The GS110s are running a fiber lag configuration offering redundant fiber lines from stage switch to FOH switch. I also have a Midas M32C with a Waves DN32-WSG Card installed, and that acts as a headless rack mixer for the band’s IEMs. All inputs are patched device-to-device from my SoundGrid IO into the M32C input channels. Then, the mixes are patched back out device-to-device to the stage IO to drive the IEMs. It’s a very sleek way of integrating a small rack mixer monitor console.”
Summing it up, Cooper remarks, “Selecting the LV1 mixer was an easy choice for this tour. This live mixer enables me to mix fast and effectively, with all the tools I need right at my fingertips.”
Photo caption: Front-of-house and monitor engineer Cooper Davis pictured in front of the eMotion LV1 Live Mixer. Photo credit: Tré Davis/ Instagram – t3px_
