Rammstein guitarist Richard Kruspe’s had the luxury of his own monitor engineer for the band’s recent stadium tour. Using an Avid Venue S6L 32D console, Waves’ SoundGrid Rack for Venue, Waves Extreme SoundGrid Server and Waves plug-ins on the tour, Sky Van Hoff has also produced guitars for the last two Rammstein recordings, the two latest Emigrate – Kruspe’s solo records, and recently wrote and produced Till Lindemann’s ‘Ich hasse Kinder’, as well as writing his own original material.

‘We have such a high bar on this production that we try to avoid any issues ahead of time by going with as decent of a signal as possible into our chains,’ Van Hoff says. ‘Since I work with Richard inside the studio a lot, I am also involved in his live guitar tones/Kemper amp profiles, so we made sure that everything is hitting the desk sounding like Rammstein do – huge and top notch!

‘We also have one, if not the best audio and tech crew in the game, so everything – guitars, drums and bass – has been tweaked to its full potential and fitting the artists styles to just sound great at source. When monitoring the live show, Waves plug-ins have made it possible for me to break all boundaries and feel at home instantly.

‘I basically have a by-time code remotely automated full-scale studio mix running into Richard’s IEMs for the whole set list,’ he continues. ‘Every part of the set and almost every track on the board are nuancing around the arrangements of Rammstein’s songs, just like it would be on a record mix. Everything is locking in with each other the right way at any time, at least as far as a stadium venue situation allows it to be. It’s basically a wave of a full on and fat album mix that you are riding with your guitar in your hands, sound in your ears and a gigantic crowd of Rammstein fans singing and cheering along. It’s surreal. We’re talking about my S6L and Waves plug-ins being tweaked by around 320 snapshots for 22 songs.

‘When I first got on the desk with Rammstein – which also was the first for me being at a monitoring desk or in a live situation as an engineer ever – Waves plug-ins absolutely transcended my imagination. Everything I am used to from the studio is possible in a live situation and I would have never imagined for this to be possible at this scale. I am absolutely stoked about the final mix I am able to run.

‘Using the Waves Extreme SoundGrid Server, which allows you to run as many Waves plug-ins as you want, on as many channels as you’ve got, combined with the Avid S6L, enabled me to dive deep into the lair of tones and create the chains I love and am used to. I felt at home right away and was able to have Rammstein sound like they should on stage through in-ears and in general, massive, epic and majestic.’

More: www.waves.com