Stormzy – Gang Signs & Prayer

We were influenced by albums like Kanye [West’s] The Life Of Pablo, Frank Ocean’s Blonde and all of Drake’s stuff from a sonic point of view. We were really working on getting a high-end vocal sound, which would be great against the darkness of the drums and the bass and it would allow Stormzy’s vocal to really cut through. The main mic we used was a Brauner VM1 into an Avedis preamp, into an API 550 EQ and a Tube Tech CL1B compressor, so it was a pretty high-end chain. We also used the UTA preamp as well, which has its own EQ on different tracks. Then we would take Stormzy’s vocal and bounce it out through the desk and through another compression stage – we’ve got the UTA Fairchild compressor, which is incredible. -Fraser T Smith Producer for GSAP

We were influenced by albums like Kanye [West’s] The Life Of Pablo, Frank Ocean’s Blonde and all of Drake’s stuff from a sonic point of view. We were really working on getting a high-end vocal sound, which would be great against the darkness of the drums and the bass and it would allow Stormzy’s vocal to really cut through. The main mic we used was a Brauner VM1 into an Avedis preamp, into an API 550 EQ and a Tube Tech CL1B compressor, so it was a pretty high-end chain. We also used the UTA preamp as well, which has its own EQ on different tracks. Then we would take Stormzy’s vocal and bounce it out through the desk and through another compression stage – we’ve got the UTA Fairchild compressor, which is incredible.

We were influenced by albums like Kanye [West’s] The Life Of Pablo, Frank Ocean’s Blonde and all of Drake’s stuff from a sonic point of view. We were really working on getting a high-end vocal sound, which would be great against the darkness of the drums and the bass and it would allow Stormzy’s vocal to really cut through. The main mic we used was a Brauner VM1 into an Avedis preamp, into an API 550 EQ and a Tube Tech CL1B compressor, so it was a pretty high-end chain. We also used the UTA preamp as well, which has its own EQ on different tracks. Then we would take Stormzy’s vocal and bounce it out through the desk and through another compression stage – we’ve got the UTA Fairchild compressor, which is incredible.

We were influenced by albums like Kanye [West’s] The Life Of Pablo, Frank Ocean’s Blonde and all of Drake’s stuff from a sonic point of view. We were really working on getting a high-end vocal sound, which would be great against the darkness of the drums and the bass and it would allow Stormzy’s vocal to really cut through. The main mic we used was a Brauner VM1 into an Avedis preamp, into an API 550 EQ and a Tube Tech CL1B compressor, so it was a pretty high-end chain. We also used the UTA preamp as well, which has its own EQ on different tracks. Then we would take Stormzy’s vocal and bounce it out through the desk and through another compression stage – we’ve got the UTA Fairchild compressor, which is incredible.

It was a hybrid of Pro Tools, Ableton and the MPC. I’ve got a great relationship with Eric Valentine from Under Tone Audio and we used his preamps. We designed a desk together, which is the UTA console we used that has his EQ, and we tracked most of the instruments through that and bounced a lot of the stuff out at the mixing stage. That hybrid approach was what we took to mixing – half in the box, half out.

It was a hybrid of Pro Tools, Ableton and the MPC. I’ve got a great relationship with Eric Valentine from Under Tone Audio and we used his preamps. We designed a desk together, which is the UTA console we used that has his EQ, and we tracked most of the instruments through that and bounced a lot of the stuff out at the mixing stage. That hybrid approach was what we took to mixing – half in the box, half out.