Under the leadership of Pastor David Blunt, Church on the Rock (COTR) in St Peters, Missouri, considers its online community a distinct campus, with its own unique needs that go beyond the church’s physical space. Keen to deliver its services in high-quality streams, the church has chosen a Waves eMotion LV1 live mixer as the backbone of its audio infrastructure.
Mixer, producer and audio consultant Yamil Martinez – who has served as FOH engineer for Luis Fonsi, Alex Campos and others – worked with the church on this project, recommendation the eMotion LV1: ‘LV1 is based on integrated Waves plug-ins, so it helps me tailor the sound to any requirement in ways that most regular consoles can’t,’ he explains. ‘Because Waves’ plug-ins are so accessible from within the mixer, eMotion LV1 enables us to achieve an extremely polished studio sound in a live situation. We’ve been able to accomplish processing chains that make miracles happen, especially when dealing with unwanted noise. To me, the LV1 is a chameleon-like console that I can personalize to achieve any colouring palette needed.
‘Our decision to adopt the LV1 was driven, first of all, by our need to improve the church’s online experience,’ Martinez continues. ‘Before the LV1, the church’s broadcast system was quite convoluted. It was based on a combination of groups and direct outputs from the Avid Venue D-Show console at FOH, plus a few direct analogue splits that fed an analogue Midas Heritage mixer. Drums were fed from a premix, as were the brass and half of the vocals. Lead vocals were received individually from a processed direct-out feed. Secondary sources, or less frequent sources that aren’t used day-to-day, derived from a split of a split, out of the main splitter.
‘But the biggest drawback prior to adopting the LV1 was that not all the decisions made for the FOH mix translated properly into the broadcast. This was because of the physical sound of instruments in the auditorium, and because each of the church’s mix engineers or mix volunteers had different criteria. Just imagine all the inconsistencies that the former system had… This is why our big LV1 project was born.’
The initial idea was to extract unprocessed individual audio channels from the FOH console to a dedicated TV mix in a single eMotion LV1 mixer. ‘We quickly discovered that interfacing with the existing consoles just wasn’t cost-effective, nor did it provide the flexibility needed or the necessary channel counts,’ Martinez says. ‘Neither did we want to replace the analogue splitter with another one with a third output, or to invest in connectivity for outdated consoles; these were not viable solutions. So, in the end, we simply replaced our Midas Pro digital console at monitors with an eMotion LV1 mixer and shared its inputs with broadcast. But that was just the start…
In due course, three high-end consoles were replaced with eMotion LV1 mixers – two Midas consoles, one analogue and one digital (which reached their limits) and a Yamaha PM1D that was outdated technology.
‘With the Waves eMotion LV1, we are able to have full console control from different locations at the same time,’ Martinez says. ‘This has been absolutely crucial to the church’s TV broadcast, 2D streaming and 360 VR operations. To provide a better online experience, Church on the Rock has content variations that include online hosts who interact with the online campus community and inform them of COTR’s wide variety of activities. Those hosts move around the facilities, depending on where the activities are being held. No matter where you are within church facilities, if there is a network connection, all you have to do is assign the specific port to the proper subnet to send and receive audio.’
A significant advantage of the LV1 is the integration of Waves SoundGrid technology, an Ethernet network-based system with minimum operator interaction that simplifies networking. ‘You just assign the network ports and then select, update and enable the devices, assign the clock master – and you’re done, your network is ready,’ Martinez says. ‘Church on the Rock already had in place a solid Ethernet network infrastructure that allowed a dedicated network for SoundGrid: this made it easy to implement SoundGrid as the central hub for all the audio connections from anywhere in the buildings. All this has been a big plus for COTR’s Creative Arts team. Now they can generate content without boundaries within the buildings, or anywhere an Ethernet cable can reach. Our network covers two physical campuses across a street, with ten audio working areas. Any corner can be a creative spot.’
The system comprises an audio network that covers two buildings on opposite sides of a street, and includes three LV1s, one Avid Venue D-Show, one Pro Tools HDX DAW, two Behringer X32 mixers, one Zilia 3D ambience microphone, and 14 Waves SoundGrid devices (excluding various DAW computers), including four DSPro StageGrid 4000 stageboxes, three DiGiGrid IOC audio interfaces, one DiGiGrid IOX high-count interface, two DiGiGrid DLIinterfaces, two DN32-WSG cards for Behringer, one Waves DMI interface and one DiGiGrid D portable desktop interface. ‘The DiGiGrid D interface moves all over both buildings, depending on where the TV hosts are placed,’ Martinez says. ‘The latest addition to the system is 3D immersive audio mixing that complements a 360-video content sent to the COTR VR campus. Virtual Reality is the best way to remotely be part of the experience.
‘This set-up is wonderfully modular and expandable – as your audio needs evolve, the system can grow too. Our project is proof: we started with a single LV1 as a simple broadcast mixer, and evolved to an entire audio network that covers two multi-story buildings.’
As there is no dedicated monitor mix engineer, each musician controls their own mix wirelessly with an iPad running the Waves MyMon personal mixing app, which communicates with the LV1. ‘Having the MyMon app was indispensable in the selection of the LV1,’ Martinez reports. ‘The monitor LV1 can be fully mixed and cued from the stage, FOH and broadcast positions, with the latter two having absolute control over the monitor console. The more experienced FOH and broadcast engineers can assist musicians from their own position.
‘The LV1/SoundGrid system allows us to have an elaborated internal communication system through a dedicated matrixing system that receives 15 talkback/communication inputs and distributes to seven destinations throughout both buildings. Before the LV1, there was no way of getting completely rid of the sinful mono IEM mix. Now, every IEM mix is stereo. Any instrument can have its own stereo reverb without complicated routing or mixing procedures. Having reverb as part of the channel signal flow keeps the relation between dry and wet at every monitor mix.’
Regarding the use of Waves plug-ins, Martinez says: ‘Church of the Rock has always invested in top-notch gear since the analogue days, but the results achieved with the LV1 are unprecedented. The wide selection of plug-ins from the Waves Mercury, Abbey Road, SSL, Dugan Automixer and DTS Neural Surroundbundles gives us solutions for every need. We use many plug-ins; however, there are what I like to call MVPs – most Vvaluable plug-ins – that make an especially huge impact on the final result. First, the Waves Playlist Rider plug-in is great for content that alternates between music and speech and has a broad dynamic range. We don’t want people constantly adjusting their volume and getting bothered by level inconsistency. Playlist Rider stabilises all pre-recorded material, speech and broadcast master output, providing smooth transitions without distraction.
‘Another situation where Waves plug-ins are lifesavers is stage mic bleed. Having many instruments and numerous vocal mics open at the same time can result in a lot of stage bleed that clutters the mix and compromises intelligibility. Waves’ Primary Source Expander (PSE) plug-in eliminates stage bleed, especially when using automatic pitch correction for broadcast. With its sidechaining capabilities, PSE can be placed after a few layers of EQ, saturation and compression and still track properly. We replaced all the filters and EQ that we used to use with the extremely flexible and low-latency F6 Floating-Band Dynamic EQ. With its different slopes, the F6 filters are more adaptable. The dynamic low- and high-shelf bands allow you to expand those frequencies as needed instead of using fixed gain, reducing bleed when a direct source is not present enough. The narrow parametric bands, with a Q of 60, make the F6 perfect for surgical needs. It’s like a crossbreed between a Swiss Army Knife and a scalpel.
‘When it comes to reverbs, the OneKnob Wetter and GTR Reverb plug-ins are great for mixing with simplicity and consistency. We need good-sounding, low-latency and CPU-friendly reverbs to insert on a great deal of individual channels. With these two plug-ins, we cover all our bases for channel-inserted reverbs on instruments, and even on vocals in monitoring duties. Another plug-in that deserves special mention is the eMo D5 Dynamics, which is part of the eMotion LV1’s channel strip. It’s a wonderful-sounding dynamics plug-in with extensive side chain capacity – the only plug-in inserted on every single input and output of all three LV1 consoles. It handles all the heavy lifting in terms of dynamics. The church’s latest plug-in addition has been the Waves Dugan Automixer for auto-balancing multiple talkback mics. We throw at it constantly changing combinations of 15 possible inputs, and it keeps them all totally balanced, automatically. Talkback screamers are welcome since the Dugan will take care of them – easy.
‘The consistently great sound quality we’ve achieved with the LV1 exceeded our expectations,’ Martinez reflects. ‘With Waves’ eMotion LV1 mixer, Waves plug-ins and Waves SoundGrid real-time processing and networking technology, we’ve been able to achieve more polished results, faster and more easily, delivering better broadcast services to Church on the Rock’s online campus community.’
More: www.waves.com
