John Perez Chooses Waves MultiRack, the Waves Dugan Automixer, and Waves Plugins for Jimmy Kimmel LiveLive broadcast engineer John Perez (NFL On Fox, Fox College Football, The Academy Awards, Dr. Phil, The Doctors, An Inconvenient Truth, It Might Get Loud) chooses the Waves Dugan Automixer, MultiRack, and other assorted Waves products for Jimmy Kimmel Live. On the Dugan Automixer, Perez notes, "That product has been great to have here at Jimmy Kimmel Live. We have a unique room in the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood that presents many audio challenges. We have a very loud house PA combined with a low ceiling, a raging house band and hard surfaces that make mixing multiple lavalier microphones a pain in the neck. Before I started using the Waves Dugan Automixer, I would typically have to clamp down really hard on the dialogue buss, using Waves WNS Noise Suppressor, in order to take the roominess and hollowness out of the room; then I would have to bounce around on the faders to keep it as clean as possible. If we had a bunch of people talking out there, it could be a mess. Also, Jimmy would talk to various characters on the shows that were far away from him, and it could get roomy very quickly. But as soon as I plugged in the Waves Dugan Automixer, it worked perfectly. Very intuitive and almost no setup required." He elaborates on the signal chain: "From my Calrec console I just go 64 channels of MADI in and out to my processing system, which is Waves MultiRack Native, running on a MacBook Pro, SSLMagma PCIe to a Thunderbolt chassis. With Waves MultiRack I just insert my Waves rack with a Dugan Automixer at the end of the chain on each of the lavalier channels -- and that's about it. The beauty is that since the Dugan Automixer runs automatically at the end of each aforementioned rack, I can process the mics first with other Waves plugins if needed." Perez also uses a selection of Waves plugins nightly. He remarks: "I used a wide selection Waves plugins extensively back in my recording studio days, and I've adapted them to broadcast television. My must-have plugins are the L2 Ultramaximizer, SSL G-Master Buss Compressor, WNS Noise Suppressor, PAZ Analyzer and the Dugan Automixer. L2 is used on the master buss. On the show, I use the L2 differently than if I were mixing a record. The network has strict level limits, so the L2 keeps me safe without affecting the sound. SSL G Comp goes across the master buss as well." Perez has found the use of MultiRack to be very beneficial: "Before I got into MultiRack, I was inserting Waves plugins on my shows by using DAWs like Pro Tools or Logic, and for a long time I wanted something simpler that is just an effects processor. I'm very happy with the way it all works. I get to use my favorite plugins!" 
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