BEAT Tour Chooses to Mix Live with Waves Plug-ins on Avid VENUE | S6L

	Front-of-house engineer Frank Trzaskowski, relies on Waves plug-ins for BEAT tour.

The current BEAT tour features former King Crimson members Adrian Belew and Tony Levin, who have joined forces with Steve Vai and Tool drummer Danny Carey. Together, they have formed "BEAT," a creative reinterpretation of three iconic 80s King Crimson albums: Discipline, Beat, and Three of a Perfect Pair. After a massive sold-out North American run, the tour is heading to South America in the spring of 2025.

Front-of-house engineer Frank Trzaskowski, renowned for his work with acts like Extreme, Generation Axe (featuring Steve Vai, Yngwie Malmsteen, Zakk Wylde, Nuno Bettencourt and Tosin Abasi), Celebrating David Bowie (Adrian Belew and Todd Rundgren), Cinderella's Tom Keifer, Ritchie Blackmore, Ted Nugent and more, has selected Waves plug-in processing using Waves' SoundGrid Rack for VENUE and the Waves Titan SoundGrid Server to boost his Avid S6L for the 2024-25 BEAT World Tour. This setup delivers DSP power, enabling real-time plugin processing.

By choosing the Waves SoundGrid Rack for VENUE and the Waves Titan SoundGrid Server for a tour, live engineers can supercharge their mixes with low-latency processing of hundreds of Waves plug-ins. With 30% more plug-in processing power than the Waves Extreme SoundGrid Server, Titan enables users to take their mixes to the next level and run larger sessions than ever, the company says. The unit also comes with built-in rack ears for quick installation.

Trzaskowski comments, "On the current BEAT tour I use the Avid VENUE | S6L-24C console. All parameters are accessible directly from the console and any settings can be stored within the console file. Since I employ several Waves plug-ins, the Titan SoundGrid Server is the perfect companion, ensuring I never max out. I also appreciate the mechanical aspect of the unit; it's robust and stays cool. It has not let me down once on 65 shows and weeks of rehearsals."

Waves plug-ins are a key component of Trzaskowski's workflow: "I tend to categorize plug-ins by essentials, problem solvers, character plug-ins and FX. Since I do a lot of side chaining, the F6 Floating-Band Dynamic EQ is one of these essentials, specifically as I can target selected frequency ranges with the sidechain signal making it easier to manage vocal headroom. For instance, my dedicated vocal master can carve out space on my instrument master, ensuring clarity and balance."

"A crucial problem solver is the Waves PSE (Primary Source Expander) plug-in, which I use on vocals together with a pressure-activated mic ducking system, the LILY P4D. This setup achieves the cleanest vocals I have ever attained in a lively rock mix environment, even with Adrian Belew and Tony Levin's vocal mics only a few feet away from Danny Carey's drum kit."

He continues, "As for character, I love the Abbey Road REDD Consoles on my main drum bus and an Abbey Road RS56 EQ on my tom bus. I use an SSL G-Master Buss Compressor on each of my subgroups. It's set to barely compress, but it provides me a certain console cohesiveness that I really like. On top of that, the Abbey Road J37 Tape and TG Mastering Chain plug-ins consistently add tons of great character to my master busses."

"For the song 'Dig Me' (about a 50s car rotting in a junkyard), Adrian Belew wanted a robotic voice in the verses. I was able to combine Waves' Morphoder, Vocal Bender and Doubler to create the wanted FX right in the console. Obviously, another must-have plugin is the Waves H-Delay Hybrid Delay. It is a mandatory plug-in for vocals FX."

He concludes, "With the Waves' SoundGrid Rack for VENUE and the addition of the Waves Titan SoundGrid Server, using Waves plug-ins on the BEAT tour has not only allowed me to continuously fine-tune my mixes over a long period but it has also kept me inspired."