Front-of-house engineer Philippe Dubich (Asian Dub Foundation, Archive, Massive Attack, Indochine, Christophe, Polnareff, The Streets, Zazie, Saez) has taken Waves’ SuperRack LiveBox out on a world tour with British trip hop/electronica/progressive rock band Archive.
Running VST3 plug-ins from Waves and other manufacturers natively in a robust turnkey solution, the new SuperRack LiveBox Dante supports up to 128 channels, and features low latency, PSU redundancy, and the SuperRack Performer audio plug-in host – in a single 2U-high unit.
‘I’m a fan of Waves plug-ins, but was waiting to be able to use some of my favourite non-Waves plug-ins, like the Eventide H3000, and to finally get rid of all external hardware,’ Dubich says. ‘The fact that the LiveBox is fully autonomous – meaning I don’t need any external computer to run software – is an incredible step forward from my point of view. It exceeded my expectations, as I could finally plug the LiveBox directly into the internal Dante card of my SSL. Now that I only have the LiveBox and the desk, this is a major improvement, and it will remain this way from now on.
‘Having access to all Waves plug-ins as well as my favourite VST3s, while reducing my FOH to such a simple set-up, avoids many potential problems I had before with various pieces of gear,’ he adds. ‘This is the biggest step forward for me since we entered the digital world. With Waves’ LiveBox, I can now have all my templates on a USB stick, just like in my home studio.’
Dubich is touring with an SSL L350 Plus and a couple of personal hardware favourites including a PSA Tech 21 SansAmp and Roland RE-20. ‘My objective was to minimise external effects and solely use the Waves LiveBox.’ He says. ‘As a result, I made the decision to part ways with my three M7 Bricasti and TC M6000 units.’
Of his Waves plug-ins, Dubich says: ‘It’s very hard to choose a few favourites, as there are so many. I will say that I love my vocal channel strip chain: PSE (Primary Source Expander) + CLA 2A Compressor/Limiter + Schepps 73 + F6 Floating-Band Dynamic EQ + the CLA-76 Compressor/Limiter.’
‘I also like using the CLA Effects plug-in for vocal distortion and for special effects,’ he says. ‘I use Waves’ Kaleidoscope on a “spatial bus”, as I really like the fact that you can add a flanger plus a tremolo for example, in a single instance. This helps me a lot to get close to the original sound of Archive’s records vocal production. Smack Attack is a classic in my set-ups as is Torque, which is a fantastic tool when you need to tune toms or snares, as they tend to loose their tuning during the show.
‘Waves LiveBox’s ability to access third-party VSTs comes in handy, for example, when I can easily access the Eventide H3000 when I process the classic “vox dual”, or some crazy reverse effects, or when I am using it as a harmonizer. Waves LiveBox is the piece of gear I have been waiting for a very long time.’
More: www.waves.com
