Having the ability to prepare and work sessions with actual sound on your channels while you’re on the studio/hotel/home without the server/switch/controller would be great and simple.
The whole purpose of LV1 is a highly portable software based mixer but users keep adding controllers, screens, servers, pelican cases, stage boxes, etc. So, just opening a session to do a quick fix, prepare a simple setup or get a reference mix for the artist is a pain that involves moving and connecting many pieces together where it could be just a simple couple of minutes on your laptop.
PC’s have enough power to run the 64 channel mixer with plugins, and in this setup/use high latency and high buffer sizes are something we really wouldn’t mind.
A native LV1 “Performer” would be a game changing product. Especially with SuperRack’s Performer having support for 3rd party VSTs this would actually compete with platforms like DiGoCo + Fourier / Avid S6L. Being able to use AISO, Apple Core Audio devices and Macie/HUI fader banks would mean anyone could build their own custom sound console that could run on any computer.
Plus it would be a great way for Waves to sell more plugins, subscriptions, and fit controllers.
Modern computers are more than fast enough. I just did a show with 42 racks at 32 buffer on MacBook Air M2. The Avantis I used was basically a glorified fader bank + AD/DA. If I could run a whole show off a laptop and x-touch that would be incredible. I know that preamp control would be kinda dumb / up to the user to figure out but Waves, if you do this, I will throw money at you lol
its been a year since i posted this and still holds. Waves did great with session editor, but we need it to pass audio, make it so we can REALLY prepare/fine tune sessions or create mixes from shows.
No one does this, avid/digico/yamaha/AH/SSL/midas/Lawo/soundcraft all offline softwares let you dial in settings but wont pass audio. This would be really a true game changer. And a new era of “offline” working live consoles.
Again, latency not an issue. High buffer sizes, seconds latency… doesn’t matter in this scenario. But carefully adjusting gates, compressors, reverbs, snapshots, scenes, etc… on your laptop on the go . BEAUTIFUL.
The same way you do it every day in your DAW. Latency is always there, high latency is not an issue mixing in the studio. Live is another thing.
The console live has several preamps, converters, interfaces, DSP for the processing and low latency, etc. An offline that passes audio wont ever compete with that, you wont be able to process live sources as high latency will make it unusable for monitoring for example (ever tried recording with high buffer sizes? horrible)
So LV1 its a great product, i tour with it every month. An offline that i can work, and polish mixes, send to the artist, prepare backgrounds for guests without having to connect the whole “shabang” would be a great add for me. But for new users… preparing shows for new acts or just getting a hang of the console and how it reacts, preparing presets with actual virtual soundchecks, great!
I’ve never used a DAW with latency measured in seconds. Tweaking attack and release times measured in milliseconds with seconds of latency sounds like a painful endeavor.
I get where you’re coming from, but I doubt it will ever happen.
As a side note, if I need to remix something with my virtual soundcheck tracks, I load them up in my DAW (Reaper). I then export my channel strips from LV1 and import them into studio rack. Create my bus structure and bounce the mix. If I I made changes I want to implement in my show file, i do the reverse and export the studio rack strips and import into LV1. Not exactly the same I know, but gets the job done.
i think you are missing my point. I’m not asking for seconds latency, im saying i don’t care in this situation if it has extreme latency, just as it doesn’t bother you when you have latency in in your daw in a mixing scenario. Latency will not affect how you set attack and release times on a compressor or gate, ever. In reaper default buffer size is set at 1200ms, great for mixing, yo don’t hear it, you don’t adjust compressors and gates differently.
Global latency/buffer is a processing setting and optimizes your cpu resources for your needs, low buffer = low latency low plugin resources, high buffer = high latency high plugin resources. but the audio hits the plugin instantly, if you need a 2ms gate attack, you set that, not a 1202ms attack considering your latency, it doesn’t work like that.
I see what you do in reaper, what a pain. if you end a show and the artist says “that jam we did half way in to the show, can you send me a mix without the vocals”. If you have to go and replicate that in reaper matching pluging chains, levels, busses, etc etc, thats a good couple of hours…
Wouldn’t it just be better to open LV1 “native” mode, in your laptop, play from reaper and record back a mix? yes you can do it in reaper… yes i can open my console, connect my servers, switches, computers and open lv1… but wouldn’t it just be better? the whole point of feature request is to make stuff better.
I completely understand what you’re asking for. I know the seconds high latency mention in your first post was probably illustrative and I kinda harped on that figure a little too much. I too would love it if I could tweak things while sitting on the bus or on an airplane without having to connect all my hardware. Totally get that part.
I seriously doubt though that this will ever happen. Waves wants to sell hardware in addition to the console and plugin licenses. If you could pass audio without hardware, you would have a significant group of people that would never buy a piece of waves hardware and use this functionaliy for live streams and broadcasts. I’m sure there would be a few that would use it live, high latency or not. You also need to remember that the LV1 software itself doesn’t pass audio even when it is connected to a server and hardware. The console operation and routing take place on the server. So, even if it were to happen, a lot of code would need to be changed and I’m sure would probably be released as a different product and priced accordingly.
And you’re right, doing what I’m doing in Reaper is tedious and a huge pain. But, I would have to do it in a similar fashion for any console I use. Fair play for the suggestion, and it’s a good one. I just don’t see waves ever implementing it.
While I agree that native LV1 would be great, I can also see that it’s not trivial for Waves to do - be it technically or from a business standpoint. However an intermediary solution could be an “Export for Studiorack” option in LV1 which would create a folder with a Studiorack plugin chain preset for each channel. Or it could be done the other way around, where Studiorack gets an “Import from LV1” option, where you can point it to an .emo session file and it will ask you which channel & scene you want to import.