debate and sharing of tips and tricks. To that point, we’ ve embedded the full interview video for your viewing pleasure. A few select text transcription highlights will also follow. Enjoy!
[ Jeff Hawley ] How do you generally approach your setup as far as effects integration?
[ Tyler Kerpsack ] With most systems, and especially with how I’ m running it, I have a couple options. Most of my setups have a Waves Soundgrid network, a Dante network and some local I / O. And I do use all three. I have a rack of outboard gear that I’ m using for some group processing. Some SSL stuff, Rupert Neve, etc., and I use Waves and I intermingle that. I am also using onboard. And so for me, depending on the console I’ m using, it’ s not so much‘ Which is better?’, it’ s just that I think more in processing units and that probably mostly comes from studio world.
When I hear something, I’ m like‘ I would probably like a blue 1176 on that’ or‘ I would like an SSL G Bus on’, you know, that’ s how my mind’ s thinking or even down to like effects like I want, like a Lexicon 480 on this, etc. So that’ s just for me how I grew up and what makes sense in my brain. When I hear something, I’ m like,‘ yeah, I could probably apply that unit’. And so, whether the console has those emulations already on it or I need to go to a plug-in system or I need to go to outboard, that’ s normally how I’ m differentiating that I would say for me personally. The thing that I do enjoy relying on outboard for is for my group summing and processing. I think that’ s a really cool experience and you don’ t need to lug around as much outboard gear as you would for individual channel work. So that’ s how I’ m normally setting up.
But as in terms of the audio connectivity, it’ s really cool. I utilize the( Allen & Heath) DT168 boxes for my outboard rig because our whole setup is in Dante and I can also loop those into other systems which is awesome. So at my Front of House, I just have one of those little boxes right there and all my outboard rack is wired up and then similarly off the back of my desk I have a( Waves) Soundgrid card which is going into a Soundgrid server and getting plugin processing through there. Then everything else is just on board the console. So a lot of options we have nowadays with all the audioover-IP. The options are endless.
[ Jeff ] How do you approach making the decision between hardware / software and outof-the-box vs. internal?
[ Tyler ] I think the first thing that I’ m normally thinking about is if I’ m going to look at the hardware: how expensive is this going to be and how many versions of this am I going to need at once? And so that for me normally limits a lot of channel-based processing because I might need several instances of an 1176 and that’ s not practical to bring out on the road or bring anywhere else outside of the studio, which is why I stick to group processing. Now the big distinction that I will generally make between having something on the console or if I need like a plug-in on a Waves rig is‘ how much do I need to interface with that plug-in during a service or show and how much control do I need?’ And that could even apply to things down the EQ. Sometimes I’ ll set analog EQs that are in my channel strip on a server, but during a service or show, I’ m never really touching it— I’ m actually on the desk because I need that tactical control.
Touch screens are great, don’ t get me wrong, but sometimes I need to be able to grab a knob and be able to ride like 200 Hertz on a vocal or
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