Mixing the broadcast audio for the 2015 Montreux Jazz Festival in the Le Voyager OB truck, Music Mixer John Harris, Head Technician Jerome Blondel and Technician Rene Weis from Music Mix Mobile found a strong combination in an SSL C200 HD console and Waves plug-ins.

‘In order to run Waves plug-ins, we used the DiGiGrid I/O devices that handled the Madi/analogue-to-SoundGrid conversion with aSoundGrid Server One that enabled us to run 32 inserts of plug-ins in low latency, all controlled via the Waves MultiRack plug-in host that was running on an iMac,’ says Blondel.

‘We used the Waves CLA-76 Compressor/Limiter, Waves Renaissance Vox and Waves Renaissance DeEsser in some combination on pretty much everything: kick, snare, bass, guitars, keys and vocals,’ adds Harris. ‘I used the Waves SSL G-Master Buss Compressor and the Waves L3-LL Ultramaximizer on the master output.

‘The Waves H-Reverb Hybrid Reverb is really fantastic. I was really taken with the 224 preset,’ he continyes. ‘ I owned an analogue 224 back then, and the H-Reverb is so like it it’s scary. I am a big fan of drum rooms, and the H-Reverb has a bunch. It is now a permanent part of my sessions.

‘I needed a solution to getting Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga’s vocals to both “pop” – separately of course, but it was more important to get them together for the festival mix. They have different styles, volumes, microphones, monitoring, everything, but it had to sound like two halves of one whole. Combining the Renaissance DeEsser, Renaissance Vox and the CLA-76 compressor/limiter, with just a few tweaks, did the trick. I have the Waves SSL G-Master Buss Compressor at a ratio of 2:1 before it, just touching the signal, and the L3 set at -10, just tickling it. It’s how I know my TV broadcast will be spot-on -24 on the DialNorm. Great packing for the music.