John Legend – Love In The Future (Expanded Edition)

"I usually record John through a Telefunken U47 from the late 40s. That’s usually my go-to mic on John — I found that I really like him through the classic U47. It’s just such a fantastic mic, it has a lot of great clarity and body for him. John’s a pretty strong singer, and that mic seems to take it pretty well.

It’s worth noting that I’ve recorded all his vocals on the album to tape. That adds some nice upper harmonics, and it has a very nice saturation and character to it. This vocal has a dark slap-back delay.

Mostly, the signal path would be a U47 going to a Universal Audio 1176, or sometimes an LA2A compressor. Preamp-wise mostly we went through Neve 1073’s or 1081’s. I’m going for character, that’s the main thing. I don’t want neutral, I want character. The 1176 or the Neve impart character on it."

— Dave Tozer, executive producer of Love in the Future

"I usually record John through a Telefunken U47 from the late 40s. That’s usually my go-to mic on John — I found that I really like him through the classic U47. It’s just such a fantastic mic, it has a lot of great clarity and body for him. John’s a pretty strong singer, and that mic seems to take it pretty well.

It’s worth noting that I’ve recorded all his vocals on the album to tape. That adds some nice upper harmonics, and it has a very nice saturation and character to it. This vocal has a dark slap-back delay.

Mostly, the signal path would be a U47 going to a Universal Audio 1176, or sometimes an LA2A compressor. Preamp-wise mostly we went through Neve 1073’s or 1081’s. I’m going for character, that’s the main thing. I don’t want neutral, I want character. The 1176 or the Neve impart character on it."

— Dave Tozer, executive producer of Love in the Future

"I usually record John through a Telefunken U47 from the late 40s. That’s usually my go-to mic on John — I found that I really like him through the classic U47. It’s just such a fantastic mic, it has a lot of great clarity and body for him. John’s a pretty strong singer, and that mic seems to take it pretty well.

It’s worth noting that I’ve recorded all his vocals on the album to tape. That adds some nice upper harmonics, and it has a very nice saturation and character to it. This vocal has a dark slap-back delay.

Mostly, the signal path would be a U47 going to a Universal Audio 1176, or sometimes an LA2A compressor. Preamp-wise mostly we went through Neve 1073’s or 1081’s. I’m going for character, that’s the main thing. I don’t want neutral, I want character. The 1176 or the Neve impart character on it."

— Dave Tozer, executive producer of Love in the Future

"I usually record John through a Telefunken U47 from the late 40s. That’s usually my go-to mic on John — I found that I really like him through the classic U47. It’s just such a fantastic mic, it has a lot of great clarity and body for him. John’s a pretty strong singer, and that mic seems to take it pretty well.

It’s worth noting that I’ve recorded all his vocals on the album to tape. That adds some nice upper harmonics, and it has a very nice saturation and character to it. This vocal has a dark slap-back delay.

Mostly, the signal path would be a U47 going to a Universal Audio 1176, or sometimes an LA2A compressor. Preamp-wise mostly we went through Neve 1073’s or 1081’s. I’m going for character, that’s the main thing. I don’t want neutral, I want character. The 1176 or the Neve impart character on it."

— Dave Tozer, executive producer of Love in the Future

"I usually record John through a Telefunken U47 from the late 40s. That’s usually my go-to mic on John — I found that I really like him through the classic U47. It’s just such a fantastic mic, it has a lot of great clarity and body for him. John’s a pretty strong singer, and that mic seems to take it pretty well.

It’s worth noting that I’ve recorded all his vocals on the album to tape. That adds some nice upper harmonics, and it has a very nice saturation and character to it. This vocal has a dark slap-back delay.

Mostly, the signal path would be a U47 going to a Universal Audio 1176, or sometimes an LA2A compressor. Preamp-wise mostly we went through Neve 1073’s or 1081’s. I’m going for character, that’s the main thing. I don’t want neutral, I want character. The 1176 or the Neve impart character on it."

— Dave Tozer, executive producer of Love in the Future

"We are hitting tape a little bit to get some nice saturation. It’s a big part of the sound. We cut it all at 15 ips, a little slower than 30 ips, which makes a little bit of tape hiss, but I usually like the hiss. The machine we used is a ½-inch Ampex ATR 102. Sometimes a Studer, but mostly half inch mastering machines were what we were tracking into on the way in, harvesting that sound coming into the computer."

— Dave Tozer, executive producer of Love in the Future