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Electropop Band PVRIS’s 2023 World Tour Mixed with eMotion LV1

Oct 18, 2023

Front-of-house engineer Lloyd Williams (Against the Current, The Fray, Trixie Mattel) has chosen the Waves eMotion LV1 Live Mixer and Waves plugins for the 2023 World Tour of US electropop act PVRIS, formed by singer, songwriter and producer Lynn Gunn.

Electropop Band PVRIS’s 2023 World Tour Mixed with eMotion LV1

“I had been using eMotion LV1 since 2021 on headline support tours, festivals and one-offs with the band Against the Current,” Williams says. “When the opportunity to work with PVRIS came around, my immediate choice was to bring in the LV1. I worked from a pre-prepared, rock-solid show file that I could adapt over the course of a few fly festival shows at the end of last year. Then, I jumped into a few PVRIS rehearsal days for the headline tour in the UK this year. Sonically, the LV1 is warm and punchy, and the preamps sound great. With the right mics that we take a lot of time checking out at pre-rehearsals, and determining the right sources, the LV1 easily provides the results I am looking for even before building my plugin chain.”

“On this tour,” he adds, “we are going from clubs to large-scale theaters. The LV1 is hyper-portable – an all-encompassing solution in itself, especially from a tour and production management point of view, since with PVRIS, I manage the band as well as do FOH. As such, a lot of my day is away from the console. So having the LV1 be such an efficient setup without any additional techs/hands to assist is hugely important. I can arrive, load in and set up the LV1 in ten minutes, continue with daily tour manager duties, then return ready to go for a soundcheck later in the day. Usually, it takes a lot more real estate with gear to get an equivalent quality that I get with this smaller setup, and the sonics continue to turn heads at every venue I’m using it in. And most importantly, it’s been rock solid for me. In addition, having so many great plugins to play with and interchange so quickly and easily in virtual soundchecks for A/B testing, even in real time, continues to prove invaluable, even though nine times out of ten I’ll stick with what I knew already.”

Williams’ current setup for the PVRIS tour includes running 48 inputs from stage via their own split and six local at FOH, an eMotion LV1 Live Mixer-64 Stereo Channels, a Waves Axis One, Waves Extreme SoundGrid Server, a Waves FIT Controller for eMotion LV1, a SoundStudio STG-2412 stage rack interface, and two DSPRO StageGrid 1000 units (one on stage and one for FOH local inputs). All hardware is racked in custom fly cases from Circle Three Designs.

Electropop Band PVRIS’s 2023 World Tour Mixed with eMotion LV1

Williams’ favorite plugins to use within eMotion LV1 include the dbx® 160 Compressor / Limiter on guitars, “as I always used the original 160s on pretty much everything, touring with analog gear back in the day. The plugin is such a good emulation, from sound to response time. I love slamming the BSS DPR-402 on bass. Hits as good as the original! The F6 Floating-Band Dynamic EQ is the only EQ I use, and I insert it on just about every input. It has an extremely accurate RTA, and the sonic responsiveness is second to none. For processing the snare drum, my go-to is Waves Torque. The ability to fine-tune a drum sound without having to turn a lug has been irreplaceable to me, and it acts as a major time-saver. I always use InPhase – kick in and out mics, snare top and bottom, bass DI and bass mic. It is the only perfect phase alignment tool for me. Also, I insert the SSL G-Master Bus Compressor on my kick, snare and tom groups. It’s so transparent. I love this compressor.”

Williams summarizes, “The LV1 system flies everywhere with me in two Pelican Air cases and one additional sidecar that supports my recording laptop, and local StageGrid IO at FOH. There isn’t another ‘desk’ that I have encountered so far that is this portable, manageable and sounds this good. I trust my files, and the excellent preamps. The only thing that ever changes from country to country and venue to venue is the PA.”

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