2026 Grammy® Broadcast Mixed Immersively with Waves LiveBox
At the 68th Annual Grammy Awards, performances by Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars, Justin Bieber and Lauryn Hill highlighted the new standard in live broadcast: immersive audio mixing. Here’s how Music Mix Mobile delivered it with a setup based around Waves LiveBox.
Immersive audio is no longer a bonus in top-tier broadcast—it’s the expectation. At the 68th Annual Grammy Awards, delivering a compelling immersive mix wasn’t just part of the job; it was the job. To meet that standard seamlessly across a fast-moving, genre-spanning show, Music Mix Mobile turned to a combined workflow built around Waves’ SuperRack LiveBox and Immersive Wrapper.
Co-founded by veteran broadcast mixer Joel Singer, Music Mix Mobile is one of the industry’s premier remote broadcast providers, known for handling the most demanding live productions in the world. At the Grammys, Singer and his team used this integrated setup to keep immersive delivery smooth, flexible, and fast—no matter how quickly the show shifted between artists and styles.
Singer comments, “The Grammys are a true melting pot of music, bringing artists from every genre into a single show. To pull that off, an engineer has to be a chameleon. Mixing heavy metal doesn’t prepare you for ska, reggae or pop. Shaping such a diverse musical landscape is a massive challenge, and it demands the right tools, with everything at your fingertips to choose the right colors for every moment. An artist who paints with only one color is bland. An engineer with a full palette of trusted, well mastered tools brings far more value to the show. Systems like Waves provide a true tapestry of color, allowing engineers to shape music with confidence and precision.”
He explains how SuperRack LiveBox fits into that fast-moving environment: “The show moves incredibly fast. A three-and-a-half-hour broadcast with 18 to 20 acts means constant turnover. Because our trucks are predominantly MADI-based, we use the MADI version of Waves LiveBox to handle aux sends and returns for reverbs, delays, pitch shifters, and other artist-driven effects. In some cases—Lady Gaga being a great example—artists requested brand-specific VST3 plugins. We hosted those in LiveBox, routed them directly to the stage for FOH and monitors, and recalled everything instantly using snapshots. That visual feedback on a 27-inch monitor, and now dual monitors on our newer Macs, is a huge advantage for both the artist and the engineer.”
Running Waves LiveBox alongside a Waves SuperRack SoundGrid system gave Singer the best of both worlds: open plugin flexibility and ultra-low-latency processing for critical paths. “We treated SuperRack LiveBox and SuperRack SoundGrid as two distinct platforms. LiveBox functioned as the artist-driven environment for specialized VST3 reverbs and delays, while SuperRack SoundGrid, enhanced by the Immersive Wrapper, handled low-latency channel inserts such as the F6 or DeEsser on vocals. Without LiveBox, we could not have delivered what some of these artists were asking for. For Gaga and others with very specific processing requirements, it allowed us to say yes, route effects where they needed to go, and recall everything via snapshots. LiveBox is brilliantly built and stands up to the rigors of the road, and because we already knew SuperRack, moving into LiveBox felt like a natural evolution.”
Immersive mixing, meanwhile, is where the workflow truly comes together. “The Waves Immersive Wrapper has become essential for us,” Singer says. “In the past, 5.1 compression or limiting options were extremely limited and often required external Pro Tools servers, which I never loved. Now we can handle that processing directly in the live workflow.”
“The Immersive Wrapper opens up the entire Waves ecosystem for our 5.1 master bus, giving us far greater control. We insert it directly on the console’s 5.1 master bus, typically starting with the SSL G-Master Buss Compressor for character, followed by the new L4 Ultramaximizer for overall protection. We keep an EQ in the chain as insurance, but those first two plugins usually deliver everything we need. What really surprised me was how intuitive the Immersive Wrapper was. I did not even need to open the manual. We quickly discovered we could create link groups, letting us shape reverbs differently in the rears and sides within SoundGrid. It gave us exactly what we needed in a low latency environment, while still allowing engineers to add a specific flavor to the 5.1 bus when needed.”
While Singer relies mostly on Waves plugins, the LiveBox systems allows him to run VST3 plugins by other manufacturers. Having said that, the Waves catalog is his mainstay: “The new Magma StressBox was a must-have this year. People were immediately like, ‘Oh yeah, that’s massively cool.’ We also relied heavily on the Clarix LB plugin for real-time noise cleaning in our broadcast. It’s unreal. It made difficult vocal mics with heavy bleed dramatically cleaner. Having AI-powered tools like that in a low-latency SoundGrid environment changes everything. And of course, the Waves F6 remains the ultimate EQ. It’s the first thing engineers ask for when they walk into the truck.”
Singer’s co-mixer, renowned broadcast engineer Eric Schilling, highlights the creative and technical demands of the show: “We’ve been doing this for a long time now. The most challenging part of the show, and what I enjoy the most, is how diverse it is in terms of genres. Unlike the country shows I do, or the VMAs and similar events, this show can move from R&B to rock to hip hop in a matter of minutes. We go from something like the Lauryn Hill performance, which was very large and complex and a lot to manage, to the Justin Bieber performance, which is much more straightforward but just as strong musically. That contrast is what makes the show exciting for me. Because this is the biggest show of the year for these artists, they come in extremely fired up about what they want and making sure everything is right. That definitely creates some pressure, but I honestly do not mind it. I like when artists are fully engaged and pushing to deliver their best.”
He adds, “With LiveBox, there’s really very little I cannot run at this point. It integrates seamlessly with SoundGrid and the rest of the Waves environment, so I do not have to learn anything new. For vocals, I usually stick with Waves because they have excellent tools for that. But when artists ask for specific non-Waves plugins, LiveBox lets me run those too, especially for reverbs, delays, and creative effects. I see this often. Artists arrive with very specific preset ideas.”
“With Bruno Mars, for example, I’ve known him and his team for a long time, and his rep will come in with a clear direction for delays and processing. He always says, ‘Start here and tweak as needed,’ which gives me a great foundation. LiveBox enabled us to deliver what the artists wanted. Gaga, Bruno, Justin Bieber, they all came in with very specific processing requirements. You never want to say no to requests like that, and LiveBox plus the other Waves tools made that possible.”
Singer concludes: “We’re happy every time Waves comes out with updates and new options. I still think it’s one of the strongest companies out there when it comes to DSP development, particularly in how they work with customers, listen to what users are saying, and adapt that feedback into future versions of the software. The original releases are always strong, but as things evolve and people start asking, ‘Hey, what if?’, they actually listen.”
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