Front-of-house engineer Sukhjeet Singh (Indian Ocean, Naalayak, Harrdy Sandhu) has selected the Waves eMotion LV1 Classic for the Bloodywood 2025 Return of the Singh tour.
Bloodywood is a genre-defying metal band from New Delhi, India, known for fusing nu metal with traditional Indian folk music and socially conscious lyrics. Originally gaining attention through viral metal covers of pop and Bollywood songs, the band evolved into a global force with original tracks that tackle issues like mental health, bullying and political injustice. Their electrifying sound, powered by dhol drums, rap vocals and heavy guitar riffs, has earned them international acclaim, including charting on Billboard and performing at major festivals like Wacken Open Air and Download.
Singh comments, “The main reason we chose the Waves eMotion LV1 Classic is the incredible amount of power, packed into such a small footprint. More often than not, we need a quick load-in and load-out, so it’s just perfect for our shows. Also, the LV1 Classic has the cleanest and most transparent pre-amps I have ever heard to date, and its signal-to-noise ratio is pretty phenomenal as well.”
He continues, “The ability to add more color and saturation with the LV1 Classic has completely transformed my approach to live mixing. I’m no longer restricted to stock dynamics and EQs. Since I work on different consoles regularly, adjusting to the Classic was simply about getting familiar with the interface, and that happened almost instantly. It’s incredibly intuitive and makes routing from point A to B effortless.”
Using the Waves Ultimate plugin subscription, which includes over 240 plugins, Singh shares his must-haves: “I use Vitamin for multiband saturation on my mix buss and drum mics. It lets me shape different frequency bands with ease and gives me more control over transient response. For my groups, I rely on the SSL G-Master Buss Compressor, especially on the drum buss and parallel drum buss, to get a punchy, aggressive sound. The classic 1ms attack and auto-release setting really brings the drums to life. I also rely on the NLS Non-Linear Summer for added saturation wherever I need it, particularly for clipping drums and percussion. The Spike channel, which emulates producer Spike Stent’s SSL 4000G console, is especially punchy and works wonders on my drum tracks.”
“The Infected Mushroom Pusher,” he adds, “is perfect for achieving extra clipping and adding punch to my drums and dhol, which is a traditional double-headed barrel drum widely used across the Indian subcontinent. It makes the sound more intense and impactful, which is ideal for high-energy performances. I insert the CLA-76 Compressor/Limiter on both vocal channels to help them stand out in the mix, especially the Bluey version, which adds rich color and pleasing saturation. The ability to use Waves Tune Real-Time on the flute mic is phenomenal, I don’t think we could do without it. I insert the Renaissance Compressor on almost every channel, and finally, the C6 Multiband Compressor on groups for sidechaining.”
He concludes, “I highly recommend other engineers try the eMotion LV1 Classic to elevate their sound. The ability to run studio-grade plugins during live shows with minimal latency is seriously impressive. At our last show in India, just before heading out for Europe, fellow engineers were blown away by how good our mix sounded. I’ll definitely keep using it, not just for Bloodywood but also for other artists I mix in India. It has become a key part of my setup, and I see it staying that way for future tours and projects.”
