Used for vocals on "Gum Body" and "Time Flies", as stated by mix engineer Jesse Ray Ernster in this June 12, 2020 MusicTech interview and this June 2021 Sound on Sound interview respectively. An image of the settings for the "Lead Vox" channel of "Gum Body" can be found here.

MusicTech, June 12, 2020, "Mile-high mixes, Kanye and NES: Jesse Ray Ernster on mixing Burna Boy’s African Giant"

BURNA’S VOCAL: “A big part of the job of a mixer is knowing when not to change things,” insists Ernster, “Burna’s vocal usually doesn’t require much work, and this song was no exception! His vocal stem arrived with all processing and effects printed into the track, and it sounded identical to the approved reference mix that he had grown accustomed to hearing, so my job was to enhance subtly, without changing the vibe too much!”

The first plug-in on the vocal chain was the Metric Halo Transient Control, with the sustain knob turned down to tame some of the effects and cut down room reverberation that had bled into the microphone, for a closer, more up-front vocal. Next, Ernster deployed the trusty bx_SSL E channel plug-in to boost 4.3khz and 13.5khz to help emphasize some of the consonants of Burna’s vocal, for better intelligibility.

Not one to believe in magic frequencies, Ernster’s technique is to “sweep around until the sound feels better to my ears.” Liking where the vocal was sitting against the track, but with certain phrases poking out unevenly, Ernster reached for a compressor. But his favourites – Rev E 1176, CLA-76 – all altered the ratio between vocals and effects too much, making the voice sound washed out. “I ended up rolling with a combo of clip-gain automation and some subtle compression on the Metric Halo Channel Strip. That glued the vocal into place without changing the character that we all loved from the reference mix.”

“After that, I used an instance of Soothe to tame a few whistley resonances that were poking through and causing harshness at 2.9khz and 5.3khz. The final step in the vocal processing sees the Acustica Amber3 (which emulates the Avalon AD2055) boosted at 25khz for some “silky air”. “I usually reach for the Crane Song Phoenix as a final touch to pull a bit of grit forward, and in this scenario, I used the Luster/Sapphire setting with a 68% mix. Finally, I used a FabFilter ProQ3 to cut 0.73dB at 490hz to dial back a resonance.”

VOCAL FX & DEPTH: “Lately, I’ve been focusing on depth within my mixes,” says Ernster. “It’s crucial to me that the singer is glued into a similar sonic environment as the rest of the arrangement.”

“I sent Burna’s vocal to a series of effects busses that I used to fuse the vocal into the metaphorical space of the song. On this song, I used a few different simple Waves H-Delay tracks set at 1/2, 1/4, 1/8th, 1/16th note, and a quick slap setting. All of these fed into reverb tracks with Revibe II, Valhalla VintageVerb (Dirty Plate), and Lexicon Medium Hall. I adjusted the blend of these multiple effects auxes until the blend felt glued, but also still similar enough to the reference mix – just better and deeper.”

Sound on Sound, June 2021, "Inside Track: Burna Boy 'Time Flies'"

“The song already felt great after a few minutes of mixing,” Ernster continues. “The reference mix felt good, the beat was solid too. As I mentioned earlier, after that it was a matter of getting the vocals to shine. Dialling in the vocals took quite a bit of time on this song, because there were so many of them. This song was all about the backing vocals, getting them to sit in a place where they can shine and sparkle and just sit perfectly.

“Pretty much every background vocal on the song has the CLA Mix Hub channel strip, doing some high‑pass filtering, some EQ, and compression. I approached this mix a bit like a console mix, and dialling in every background vocal with the Mix Hub got them where I wanted them to be. I did not need 10 plug‑ins to make the background vocals sound good. This plug‑in just lit them up.

“One interesting moment with the backing vocals is in the bridge of the song. Diddy had a vision that these ‘welelel’ vocals would not only be wide but would also be wrapping around, with the panning going from left to right. So I put on the Waves S1 Shuffler, turned up the width knob and then automated the panning. It was a bold Diddy move that really paid off. It became a special moment, and is one of my favourite spots in the song.

“Underneath the ‘welelel’ track are nine backing vocal aux effect tracks, which are a ModDelay 3; 16th‑note, eighth‑note, quarter‑note and half‑note delays (all the Valhalla Delay); a ping‑pong delay (Waves H‑Delay); and all those tracks have sends to a Valhalla Vintage Verb plate and the FabFilfter Pro‑R. And all those feed the BGV FX bus. I was just moving these effects all around until they felt right.

“Burna’s main lead vocal is in red. One technique I learned from my dad is to ride the fader on vocals, so you don’t get the anomalies that you can get when compression is applied to a recorded voice. As I don’t have a fader, I chopped up the vocal and then adjusted the Clip Gain for each phrase. As for processing, I added the Gullfoss EQ, that kind of rides the frequencies, and which I love. I used it on Burna’s voice on most of the album. There’s also a Pro‑Q 3 to notch out some frequencies, and the Acustica Amber 3 EQ, which adds the most gorgeous top end.

“There’s a send on the main lead vocal to an aux with the Soundtoys Devil‑Loc, adding parallel distortion. It’s a bus I try once in a while. If the vocal is sitting where I want it to sit in the mix volume‑wise, but it needs a little bit more glue, body and warmth, I’ll go for the Devil‑Loc. It brings the vocal straight up into your face. If you want a pop vocal that is right on top of everything, this is it.

“I also have other vocal aux effect tracks, ie. different delays, reverbs, pitch‑shifts. I generally do not use reverbs on the lead vocal, but only delays, because they take up less space. Then I’ll have a delay to feed a reverb that can sit in the background. The pre‑delay creates this ocean of ambience that does not take away from the intimacy and upfront nature of the lead vocal.

“There are a couple of tracks called ‘Throw’, and I create those by dragging duplicate audio to a separate track, and then putting an effect on with the mix at 100 percent, in this case Valhalla Delays. I don’t really like using automation on sends and muting and so on, as it’s a really slow workflow. It takes one second to drag down some audio, add a delay and done.

“Below the ‘Throw’ tracks are two Time Adjuster aux tracks and a Valhalla Space Modulator aux track. Together they recreate the Eventide H3000 wide vocal effect. The Time Adjuster plug‑in delays the left and right channels a bit, and one channel has the CLA MixHub to add some distortion and the other channel has the lo‑fi. The Valhalla Space Modulator is followed by a Cranesong Phoenix II, driving really hard in Dark Essence mode. These three go to an aux called ‘SHIFT M’, and it turns a mono vocal into a wide, enveloping, beautiful vocal. Also, there’s a ‘Lead Vocal All FX’ aux with the Pro‑Q 3 EQ that takes out all top and bottom, which you don’t need on vocal effects.”

Used for vocals on Burna Boy's "Gum Body", as stated by mix engineer Jesse Ray Ernster in this June 12, 2020 MusicTech interview. An image of the settings for the "Jorja Lead" channel can be found here.

JORJA’S VOCAL: “Jorja’s vocals had a wonderful warm quality to them, so it was my job to retain that character while boosting clarity against the instrumental mix.”

First up in the vocal chain was the EQ module from Waves CLA MixHub, high-passing at 94hz to eliminate ground hum, traffic rumble, control-room bleed, and any knocks from into the microphone stand. “I only high-pass the sub information. I don’t allow the filter to reach any of the fundamental warmth frequencies in the low-midrange of the singer’s voice.”

For clarity and intelligibility of consonants, he also boosted some 4.1khz and 7.8khz. Then, also in CLA MixHub, used the “Bluey” 1176 mode, compressing gently at a 2:1 ratio. Next up was Waves CLA-76 with a slow attack and fast release to do some levelling of the signal.

“At that point, I was okay with the feel of the vocal texture, but it lacked evenness from phrase-to-phrase,” he says. And, when he pushed the compressor harder to level out the signal, it sounded worse. Ernster’s solution was fader automation on the source audio tracks before hitting the vocal bus compressor, giving the compressor less to do.

As with Burna’s vocal, Ernster brought out Acustica Amber3 to boost 25kHz, followed by Crane Song Phoenix (in Opal Dark Essence mode, this time). “The EQ boost drove the tape into a state of saturation in the extended top-end and contoured a smooth roll-off of those hard high frequencies. The 25khz boost would have sounded a bit too intense on its own, but the Phoenix provides the perfect compensation by gently rolling off the top end (with a gradual low-pass filter), providing the vocal with a silky, ‘classic’ top end that sounds present, but feels a bit dark, too.”

“After the first mix went out, they asked for more width on her vocal, so I slapped on the Valhalla Space Modulator with a slow rate, a tad bit of depth, and an 18% mix; this pushed a parallel signal of the vocal off to the sides of the mix for a bit of three-dimensional surreality.After copying Jorja’s lead processing to her harmonies and ad-libs, some work was required to get them to sit behind Burna’s voice including panning, effects levels, and some automation.

Conversely, her effects busses were very straight-forward: an 1/8th delay and a 1/4 delay feeding a Valhalla VintageVerb (Plate 1.85s); “all dialled in subtly to fit the ambience of the track. And I did two loud-and-obvious fader throws to the 1/8th delay send on the words “Care to have your own HEART (2:20), If you treat me kind and kept me close, We’ll always still PART”.