Waves plug-ins and eMotion LV1 mix Eurovision 2019
Posted on: Friday 31st of May 2019
Senior audio broadcast engineer Omer Barzilay and front-of-house engineer Eran Ben Zur (know for his work with Dweezil Zappa) – choose Waves plugins and the Waves eMotion LV1 to power the sound of the Eurovision Song Contest 2019, broadcast live to over 200 million viewers.
“The Heads of Sound of the local Eurovision production, Yair Goren and Yossi Edri, suggested that Pro Tools/LV1 engineer Jonathan Jacobi and myself mix the whole thing on the Waves eMotion LV1 mixer,” says broadcast mix engineer Omer Barzilay. “I was absolutely thrilled to be able to use Waves plugins in such an easy and flexible way, running the plug-ins directly within the software mixer. When it comes to broadcast, you are usually looking for system redundancy and backups; eMotion LV1 delivered just that. It is a clear advantage to have a software-based system: we were able to easily create two identical systems with two Waves SoundGrid servers each.” Barzilay continues, “One of the greatest advantages of using the LV1 is that I was able to mix most of the songs ahead of time. I was mixing about a month and a half in advance of the show, at my studio, by routing all the stems that I received ahead of time from Pro Tools to eMotion LV1, creating all the automations and effects so they were ready for the show. Time is crucial when mixing so many different songs for such an immense musical event, and if I hadn’t used a software base mixer, I would never have been able to be prepared this way.”
About his workflow, Barzilay adds: “During the show we routed all audio to the eMotion LV1 mixer and to a multi-track recording computer. We used the LV1 mixer’s A/B input to route the recorder back in, so we could continue mixing the show between takes. This was very fast, and as soon as a delegation finished their first take, we kept mixing it until the next one. We didn’t waste any time.”
He adds, about using Waves plugins, “My go-to’s are the Scheps Omni Channel – this was the only channel strip I used for all vocals, including de-essing, EQ, compression and saturation. On lead vocals, the Waves C6 Multiband Compressor was extremely valuable in controlling high and low frequencies and for controlling pops and hisses. We also used the Waves Dugan Automixer plug-in for all hosts’ and guests’ mics. The Waves H-Reverb Hybrid Reverb is my main and go-to reverb: we used six instances of it. Having said that, we also used the Waves IR1 Convolution Reverb and Renaissance Reverb. My main delay is the Waves H-Delay Hybrid Delay, which I used for around 90% of the delays in this production. In addition, I used the Manny Marroquin Delay for L/R separation. Finally, the Abbey Road TG Mastering Chain was on our master chain: All music was routing through it.”
“The biggest advantage of the Waves eMotion LV1,” Barzilay sums up, “is that you get to bring your studio with you to live events. Some of the plugins are effects I’ve been using for the last two decades!”
www.waves.com
