Joy Crookes, Juniper Tour

Waves LV1 Classic · DirectOut Prodigy MP · DiGiGrid MGR

Engineer: Joe Hawley, FOH

UK • Europe • Australia • USA

One System. Two Console Ecosystems.

How Joy Crookes touring system bridged DiGiCo monitor console and Waves LV1 Classic FOH console without duplicating infrastructure.

The Requirement

This system was designed for a tour moving between clubs, arenas, amphitheatres and festival stages. More importantly, it was designed around the creative requirements of the production.

The artist was closely involved in how the live show should sound, with a strong emphasis on recreating elements of the latest record in a live environment. That meant extensive use of Waves plugins and a workflow that allowed those processing decisions to remain central to the mix.

To support that approach, FOH was built around Waves LV1 Classic.

The wider system needed to:

Integrate cleanly with the existing monitor console

Scale without requiring redesign

Deliver consistent and reliable operation throughout the tour

The Challenge

The requirements were clear. The challenge was integrating them into a system that remained simple, scalable and reliable.

Monitors remained on a DiGiCo console and SD-Rack, while FOH was built around Waves LV1 Classic.

Duplicating stage infrastructure wasn’t practical due to space, weight and logistical constraints. The system also needed a straightforward path to expansion for larger one off shows.

The challenge was finding a way to integrate both console environments without introducing additional complexity.

This is often where complexity starts to accumulate. Small compromises stack up and you end up managing workarounds rather than a system. The goal here was to keep the architecture as simple and integrated as possible.

Console Strategy

The previous setup, a DiGiCo SD12 with external Waves servers, worked. Plugins were part of the workflow, but they sat alongside the console rather than at the centre of it.

Moving to Waves LV1 Classic brought the console and plugins together within a single workflow. Instead of sitting alongside the console, Waves processing became a core part of the mixing workflow.

The move to Waves LV1 Classic also brought several practical advantages:

  • Dual 32-bit floating-point processing provided substantial headroom
  • The drag-and-drop workflow made it easier to experiment with processing and adapt the show as it evolved
  • The compact footprint reduced the space required at FOH.

The footprint is also easy to underestimate until you’re in a venue where FOH space is an afterthought. This setup didn’t need to change shape to fit the room. That removed a lot of unnecessary decision-making on show days.

System Architecture

The objective was to make all stage inputs available at FOH without introducing additional stage infrastructure such as a separate stage rack and mic splitters.

At the same time, the system needed to accommodate multi-track recording for virtual soundcheck and archive, system processing and VST3 integration without adding unnecessary hardware or complexity.

The approach was straightforward:

  • Take a MADI split from the DiGiCo SD-Rack
  • Convert MADI to SoundGrid at FOH
  • Make all stage inputs available to the console without introducing a second stage rack or split system

Stage-side conversion was considered, but ultimately ruled out. Keeping conversion at FOH retained flexibility at the mix position and made future changes easier to accommodate.

Delivering that level of integration required a single platform capable of bringing all of those functions together within the same architecture.

DirectOut Prodigy MP

DirectOut Prodigy MP became the device that brought the system together.

Sitting at the centre of the FOH system, it handled format conversion, routing, system processing, recording and playback from a single device.

It allowed the DiGiCo monitor ecosystem, the Waves LV1 Classic and the wider FOH infrastructure to operate as a single system.

Configuration Overview

DSP Bundle - Matrix mixing and FIR filtering

MIC8.LINE.IO - Analogue I/O and insert paths

AES4.IO - AES digital outputs to PA

MADI.IO (×2) - DiGiCo SD-Rack input & measurement/playback

SG.IO - SoundGrid interface to Waves LV1 Classic

USB.IO - VST3 host connection

The complexity of this system wasn’t in any one component. It was in how everything needed to work together.

Without that level of integration, achieving the same functionality would have required multiple additional devices. Consolidating those functions within a single platform simplified the signal flow, reduced the amount of infrastructure required at FOH and avoided introducing unnecessary points of failure.

Processing & Integration

The Waves LV1 Classic was configured with two additional Waves Extreme-C servers:

  • External Server 1 - Dedicated redundancy for the primary processing engine
  • External Server 2 - Dedicated DSP for reverb and non-critical processing

This separation ensured that additional processing had no impact on the core mix engine.

The primary server had ample processing capacity throughout the tour, but separating critical and non-critical processing simplified system management and provided an additional layer of redundancy.

Internal DSP

The DirectOut Prodigy MP’s onboard DSP was used for two key functions:

  • PA system EQ, with FIR filters and delay processing
  • Matrix mixing for accommodating different house PA configurations

This allowed system processing to remain independent from the FOH show file.

VST3 Integration

Using the USB.IO module, the DirectOut Prodigy MP connected to a dedicated Mac Mini running SuperRack Performer.

This enabled VST3 plugins as hardware style external inserts within Waves LV1 Classic plugin slots, providing low latency integration without additional I/O hardware.

Recording and Measurement

A secondary SoundGrid connection fed a second Mac Mini for:

  • 64×64 multitrack recording / virtual soundcheck
  • System measurement via Smaart
  • Walk-in music and LTC/MIDI for snapshots via QLab

Scaling the System

For larger London shows, additional stage inputs were required to facilitate extra musicians and guests.

The solution was straightforward:

  • A second DiGiCo SD-Rack was added on stage
  • A DiGiGrid MGR converted the additional MADI split to SoundGrid
  • A single Cat6A connection delivered the expanded input count to FOH

The core architecture remained unchanged. Expanding the system was simply a matter of adding capacity where it was needed.

Outcome

The final system provided:

  • Integration between DiGiCo monitors and Waves LV1 Classic without duplicating stage infrastructure
  • A compact FOH footprint
  • Expansion without changes to the core architecture
  • A workflow built around the creative and technical requirements of the production

Most importantly, the system allowed the mix to be shaped around the artist’s vision rather than the limitations of the underlying system. The combination of Waves LV1 Classic and DirectOut Prodigy MP provided the flexibility, processing environment and workflow required to recreate the detail and character of the record in a live setting.

Key takeaway

This system wasn’t built around products. It was built around the requirements of the production.

Waves LV1 Classic provided the FOH mixing environment needed to keep plugin processing central to the creative workflow.

DirectOut Prodigy MP made that possible within the existing touring infrastructure, providing the bridge between Waves LV1 Classic, the monitor system and the wider FOH environment.

Equipment List

FOH

Waves eMotion LV1 Classic

Waves Extreme C Servers

DirectOut Prodigy MP

SonicFarm Creamliner

House of Kush Clariphonic MS

Mac Mini - Smaart, Reaper, QLab, Globcon

Mac Mini - SuperRack Performer VST3 host

Stage

DiGiCo SD-Rack (Primary)

DiGiCo Q326 (Monitors Consol)

DiGiCo SD-Rack (London Shows)

DiGiGrid MGR (London Shows)

Production Credits

Audio Vendor: Triplex Productions

Account Handler: Barney Cushman

Monitor Engineer: Alice Asbury

FOH Engineer: Joe Hawley

Written by Joe Hawley on behalf of Nifty Audio.