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Waves Plug-ins on Your Midas PRO9

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As front of house engineer for Rob Zombie’s Twins of Evil tour, I was mixing a very complex, chaotic, and often unpredictable show. I didn’t have the luxury of knowing what might happen next, so the last thing I needed was a complicated setup that would require me to take my hands off the console to cue different functions and effects.

Problems and Solutions

That’s why I could not have been happier with the solution devised by Greg Price at Martini Music and Scott Pederson at Waves that integrates a top-of-the-line Midas PRO9 live audio system with an extensive set of Waves live sound plug-ins hosted in Waves MultiRack. A key component in this setup is Sonnet Technologies’ Echo Express Thunderbolt Expansion Chassis for PCIe cards, which enabled us to access effects running on a MacBook Pro laptop directly from the PRO9 console.

I chose the PRO9 console because I believe it has the best sound of any digital board in the industry today. The inputs can be driven hard like an analog desk, but without any of the audio penalties usually associated with a digital front end. The PRO9 sounds like my old XL4 — warm, smooth, and full throughout the spectrum, without any digital harshness. The only thing that could have made it better was the ability to access to a complete setup of Waves plug-ins right from the PRO9 console. It turned out to be easier than you might think.

The Setup

Basic signal flow in the setup to use Waves MultiRack plug-ins with a Midas PRO9, with full control from the console surface.The basic setup is shown in the graphic to the left (click for expanded view).

From one of the AES50 ports in the back of the console, a CAT-5 cable carrying the AES50 signal connects to a Klark Teknik DN9650 Network Bridge that converts the PRO9’s AES50 feed into MADI. The optical MADI signal from the DN9650 connects to a double-width RME HDSPe PCIe MADI card housed in a Sonnet Echo Express chassis. The Echo Express is a compact desktop unit that interconnects the RME via Thunderbolt directly to the laptop to complete the chain, delivering all the punch needed to transfer high-quality audio between the computer, RME interface and PRO9.

With this setup, we can control everything from the console. There’s no need to reach for the laptop; it’s all eyes forward and hands on the faders, and everything can be controlled from the PRO9 GUI screens. Making changes on the fly is easy using the KVM switches; we have full parameter control of all devices and the computer without ever having to move our hands from the console. We can easily bring back the default screens if needed, as well as the Waves MultiRack.

Also, the RME card within the Sonnet Echo Express chassis provides MIDI capabilities, which enables snapshot changes from the console. As the laptop is connected to the Sonnet interface via Thunderbolt cable, simple VGA and USB connections from the computer to the PRO9 enable the console to display the Waves plug-ins directly on the right screen and allow for control of Waves plug-ins using the console’s integrated trackball and keyboard.

On the Road

For the Rob Zombie show, we created 37 snapshots with a scene for each in Waves MultiRack. The MIDI connection automatically triggers Waves MultiRack scene changes. Therefore, I can focus on mixing my show without having to worry about MultiRack and whether it’s coming up on the right scenes, or having to refer to a separate computer screen.

The Waves plug-ins offer powerful audio capabilities right from the PRO9 console. In one example, we ran Rob’s vocals through an HEQ, an equalizer with a built-in analyzer that really lets us contour the audio. Another great plug-in is The King’s Microphone, which we used on several songs to provide a telephone/megaphone-style sound. The OneKnob driver gives us a great, no-fuss tool for adding distortion on the vocals. We also used a Puig compressor on the acoustic guitar to provide nice, mellow compression. For band member Piggy D.’s vocals, we used three different plug-ins in a chain: an RVox compressor into a C6 into Doubler. We used InPhase on the bass, which accepts two audio inputs for comparison of waveforms and correction of the phase correlation between them.

An Unexpected Bonus

One more powerful capability of this setup is the ability to run Avid Pro Tools through the PRO9 console, which gives us virtual sound check and recording capabilities. The PRO9 has three AES50 ports off the back, so we were able to run 48 tracks of Pro Tools and still have capacity for 24 Waves inputs and outputs. We use two of the AES50 ports to connect via CAT-5 to another Klark DN9650 Network Bridge for conversion to MADI. The MADI signal then comes from the network bridge directly into the Pro Tools HD 9 box, which gives us full playback and recording ability through the PRO9.

I can’t say enough about this Midas PRO9/Waves/RME/Sonnet Echo Express configuration, which worked flawlessly throughout the entire Rob Zombie U.S. tour. The more I experiment and add new Waves tools, the more invaluable they have become.  And the good news is that this become. And the good news is this capability is relatively easy to achieve via standard off-the-shelf components, with simple, plug-and-play CAT-5 and Thunderbolt connectivity.

Joel Lonky has served as FOH engineer for numerous live acts including Rage Against the Machine, Maroon 5, Cypress Hill, Collective Soul and of course, Rob Zombie.