Fergie – The Dutchess

Used for the vocals on "Big Girls Don't Cry", as stated by mix engineer JJ Puig in this November 2007 Sound on Sound interview.

Vocals: Digidesign delays, Waves Trueverb, Focusrite D2, Neve 1073, Inward Connection TSL3

“The two channels on the far left are the actual vocal tracks [‘LEAD**], and more to the right you can see that there’s a dedicated vocal channel for each section of the song, so I can create the right feeling from section to section. So the first verse [‘1stversvrb’*], the bit with just the acoustic guitar backing, has its own reverb using a Waves Trueverb, which is great. I’ve rolled off above 1k and left all the low end to make it darker and fuller sounding. I’m a Waves guy, they make the best stuff! The D2 gets rid of any dirt below 111Hz and also adds a bit of high end around 12k.

“The breakdown section has a Digirack Mod Delay II slap delay. There are different ambient feels and different attitudes for different sections. Towards the end, where she’s ad libbing, I put a longer delay on. The delays change for each section of the song, but the main long delay that was essential to how the vocals feel is on the entire vocal, which is why I had it on the main channel. It’s again the Digirack Mod II delay, set to 265.49ms.

The rest of the vocal effects were all done outside [the DAW]. I had a Neve 1073 between Pro Tools and the console, because I really wanted the sound of that Neve. The closer you can get to the original source with your effect, the more you’ll get the effect you want. If I’d stuck the Neve on an insert in the Focusrite, the signal would already have been coloured by the console, and the Neve sound would have been less obvious. I probably added +3dB at 12kHz on the Neve and +2dB at 220Hz. After that the vocals went through an Inward Connection TSL3, which is a great vocal compressor that adds great attack. You can get very aggressive with it, and you won’t hear it. I had about 8dB of compression, which is quite a bit, but as I said, you don’t hear it. It made her vocals more expressive.”

Used for the vocals on "Big Girls Don't Cry", as stated by mix engineer JJ Puig in this November 2007 Sound on Sound interview.

Vocals: Digidesign delays, Waves Trueverb, Focusrite D2, Neve 1073, Inward Connection TSL3

“The two channels on the far left are the actual vocal tracks [‘LEAD**], and more to the right you can see that there’s a dedicated vocal channel for each section of the song, so I can create the right feeling from section to section. So the first verse [‘1stversvrb’*], the bit with just the acoustic guitar backing, has its own reverb using a Waves Trueverb, which is great. I’ve rolled off above 1k and left all the low end to make it darker and fuller sounding. I’m a Waves guy, they make the best stuff! The D2 gets rid of any dirt below 111Hz and also adds a bit of high end around 12k.

“The breakdown section has a Digirack Mod Delay II slap delay. There are different ambient feels and different attitudes for different sections. Towards the end, where she’s ad libbing, I put a longer delay on. The delays change for each section of the song, but the main long delay that was essential to how the vocals feel is on the entire vocal, which is why I had it on the main channel. It’s again the Digirack Mod II delay, set to 265.49ms.

The rest of the vocal effects were all done outside [the DAW]. I had a Neve 1073 between Pro Tools and the console, because I really wanted the sound of that Neve. The closer you can get to the original source with your effect, the more you’ll get the effect you want. If I’d stuck the Neve on an insert in the Focusrite, the signal would already have been coloured by the console, and the Neve sound would have been less obvious. I probably added +3dB at 12kHz on the Neve and +2dB at 220Hz. After that the vocals went through an Inward Connection TSL3, which is a great vocal compressor that adds great attack. You can get very aggressive with it, and you won’t hear it. I had about 8dB of compression, which is quite a bit, but as I said, you don’t hear it. It made her vocals more expressive.”