The Unlimited Fire Conference is an interdenominational youth network in Indonesia connecting various churches, businesses, governments and communities and building relationships and networks with youth leaders. Leading this year’s event in Solo City in Surakarta, Indonesia, were the Unlimited Fire band, comprising five vocalists, four musicians, a pastor and two hosts.
ASIIS (Acoustic, Sound, Image, Integrated, Solution), a high-end audio provider based in Indonesia, provided supported live streaming of the conference including the internet system, broadcast system, tracking and mixing for the Unlimited Fire band’s main worship sessions.
‘Our set-up is centred on direct-from-stage to Waves eMotion LV1 Stageboxes,’ says Andy Mulya Sutikno, production director, mixing engineer and owner and Director of ASIIS Indonesia. ‘We used two SoundStudio STG 2412 Stageboxes for the stage, one STG-1608 for monitor mixing and an additional one for broadcast mixing, feeding our nearfield Amphion One18 monitors.
‘When working with the SoundStudio Stageboxes, we are able to get very clean and controlled high frequencies, solid and tight low frequencies, and warm yet articulated mid and mid-low to get the hi-fi feel of a live mix,’ he continues. ‘We supported the venue’s existing backline via a Waves SoundGrid network that connects the broadcast mixer with the monitor mixer – with gain sharing from the various Stageboxes in the SoundGrid network.’
The conference was presented as into nine sessions that involved chat, a music video, hosts, worship and sermon. ‘The chat was recorded elsewhere, and I recorded and mixed the worship and sermon. The music video was shot separately by the church,’ Mulya Sutikno says. ‘The church’s media team took the worship and pastor sessions that I mixed and then combined it with the other bits and streamed it. We used the eMotion LV1 for tracking and direct mastering for sermons that go direct to a multimedia team for video editing. So, we had materials that were recorded at the moment, together with materials to be sent direct, mixed and mastered, minus sound editing.
‘The sessions were recorded beforehand with the Waves eMotion LV1 live mixer, and we then supplied the band’s six sessions for the playback tracks using a Waves SoundGrid Driver to send data over a Cat6 Ethernet cable. We received their prerecorded tracks and prerecorded multitracks which included bass synths, TR808s, claps, pads, synths, brass, strings, backing vocals, effects, clicks and guide vocals – less than 20 hours before they are supposed to be on air. There were 30-plus channel sequencer tracks that we had to manually arrange in time, together with the existing tracks that we already recorded.’
On the LV1, he comments: ‘Simply speaking, Waves’ eMotion LV1 is the most effective and efficient system that exists today. More often than not, we are not familiar with the venue that we are going to work at. We only receive photos of the room, which is usually very small, and it is almost impossible to bring our other huge consoles into such a room. The eMotion LV1 fits really well in terms of size and power.’
Using Waves’ plug-ins is an integral part of the workflow: ‘I constantly used the Scheps Parallel Particles to optimise the bass sound, which originally lacks presence and tends to be too boomy, and EQing does not really help. This plug-in enhances the harmonic distortion causing the bass to stand out through the complex mix, and it also adds a thick bite. Using this plug-in, you can shape the body in a very controlled way, yet it sounds as if the bass had on it an expensive pick up, went through expensive preamps and an expensive DI.
‘I used Waves’ Smack Attack and Torque plug-ins for kick and toms, since the acoustic drum kits tend to lack accurate tuning and they sound quite hollow. Smack Attack adds the much-needed attack and also the precise transient needed for fast-paced/upbeat songs to give it more dynamics and excitement. The Torque plug-in enables precise tuning and provides added body to the kits, making them sound bigger and richer.
‘I insert the F6 Floating-Band Dynamic on almost all channels. We like to do EQ and dynamic EQ all in one window. With most vocal microphones, the F6 helps to reduce the mid-low and low proximity effects by using dynamic EQ, especially when the singer suddenly gets too close to the mic; or alternatively, when they sing quite distant from the mic and the dynamic EQ processing does not trigger, the F6 ensures a full-bodied vocal. I also inserted the F6 for the whole vocal group, particularly when they hit on the same threshold, specifically on the 250Hz when they sing together. It can sound muffled and at 3kHz-4.5kHz it successfully reduces the harshness of the vocals. An additional benefit is that it also helps in reducing ear fatigue during those times where they tend to shout. Overall, the Waves F6 helps the whole signal to glue them together and create a balanced and pleasant vocal sound.
‘For the bass and drum group I put on the Waves Abbey Road TG Mastering Chain to first bring forth a very pleasant low saturation and warmth, something which we normally don’t hear so much in a pure clean digital recording,’ he continues. ‘Also, the TG somehow just glues the drum and bass together. And again, the F6 also comes in handy here, to trigger the side chain of the dynamic EQ for kick and bass, to ensure that that they don’t close each other and to guarantee that they sound balanced throughout the songs.
‘For me, the Waves L2 Ultramaximizer is a must for the master bus, to enrich and make the mix sound much more revealing on the mid-high. And it adds more transient impact on the mid-low and low. I prefer to add clarity to the mid for these new modern mixes, considering that most people listen to mixes on a hi-fisystem or a lo-fi one as well. The L2 makes sure that the mix never crosses the line of 0dBu and adding a little dynamic EQ after that makes the mix sound as what we intended it to be and at a loudness level that we expect.
‘The Waves eMotion LV1 enables smooth tracking, mixing and mastering on the fly in a very effective and efficient way,’ he summarises. ‘We are able to get the sound we desire effectively, with not only a correct tonal balance, but a correct tone and proper colour for each instrument, including a proportional image size with certain harmonic acoustic characteristics. And equally important, using the LV1 helps us make sure that all the instrumentalists, worship leaders and singers are comfortable.’
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