Louis Bell

I like to use in mastering the Voxengo Elephant I don't even know if anyone uses that. For some reason I put it on years ago I'd try other things and now every time I try other things they don't give me A and B and I'm like something's missing I don't know what it is I use that to get my mix and get my blend before I send it off.

Louis states at 19:02 his mastering plugin

I do vocal tuning in Melodyne, and after that I add Antares Auto-Tune, very lightly, just to keep things tight. It's there just to make sure everything is locked in. Even after applying Melodyne there may be a note that strays a little. I know that many people think that Post Malone's vocals have a lot of Auto-Tune, but again, it's Melodyne, and I then throw Auto-Tune on specific lines, more as an effect, like a flanger or slap delay. It's not because he can't sing the part in tune, it's because it sounds cooler. People think that the shaking in his voice, for example in 'Rockstar', is Auto-Tune, but it's how he sings.

The Waves LoAir plug-in does the same thing. I also like to use the UAD Raw for adding distortion, and then cut off some high end if it gets too noisy.

My favourite reverb in general is the [Waves] RVerb, which gives you a classic sound, and I love the UAD SPL Vitalizer Mk2. It brings out high end in the harmonics and widens things nicely, it's just magical.

From a Sound on Sound interview: 'Fruity Loops, aka FL Studio, remains at the heart of Bell's setup at Electric Feel. This is because, says Bell, "the way it is set up means that it is very fluid with regards to switching sounds and it not taking up too much CPU power. The program allows me to have many options already dialled in, which means that I can just start things and be super-creative. Because everything is blending well and sounding great, I don't have to keep going in and EQ'ing things, and so on. Everything is ready to go, it's like plug and play. This means that I can think about the melody and the chords and the song, rather than whether the bass is clashing with something else. I'm simply not thinking of that kind of stuff. I do that later in Pro Tools. Creating is like wet cement, you have to keep it moving. If you wait too long the cement starts to dry, and the next thing you know, you've hit a block and it's not shaped the way you want it."'

While the article does not specify which edition Louis uses, I assume it is either FL Studio 11 or 12 since the article was published in August of 2019.

"I have a CLA"

18:52

"For low-end, I love the bx_Subsynth Subharmonic Synthesizer by Brainworx, which is great at adding low-end to kick drums if there’s no actual 808 there or a natural sub creator. The bx_subsynth gives you a really clean, driving kick and bass tone that’s not distracting to the overall mix — and you can even focus it only on the middle channel without affecting the left and right sides of your mix — but it still adds a lot of beef."

My vocal mic is a Sony C800, which I love. It has a lot of high end, but I can EQ that out if I need to. I have homed in on certain frequencies that can be troublesome at times, and with every artist that I work with and that uses that microphone I am able to get the right sound and dynamics. Post Malone and Swae Lee used that mic for 'Sunflower', Camile Cabello sang 'Havana' on it.

"Rockstar" co-producer TankGod shows how Louis Bell made the background melodies of the song using Nexus.

A really cool tool that I also love is the Sonnox Oxford Inflator. Throw that on vocals and you can press them to the point where they have a brightness and a volume that you can’t get with any other effect.

Louis states that he uses the L3 ultramaximizer

18:52

In this promo for his monthly class you can see him use the mic at 1:13.

I love the Shadow Hills Mastering plug-in. In the final stages, it glues everything together.

I have an Asus PC running both Fruity Loops and Pro Tools, and a UAD Apollo Twin and Quad expander, and that's it. There's an API board in this room with Apogee outboard and so on, but those things are occasionally used by others, and I don't really use any of that stuff.

My go-to plug-ins for vocals are the UAD 1176, which really warms things up and makes them nice and loud, and the Waves CLA Vocals for EQ, which is a kind of one-stop shop which allows you to do many things easily.

In this promo for his monthly class you can see him wear the headphones at 0:07

"I use Izotope Alloy".

18.52

Not having a bass can mean that you're lacking frequencies around 100Hz and the Waves RBass is really good for that. It allows you to saturate a certain frequency. You can literally dial in a frequency above the sub bass and bring that out. But you have to be really careful how you automate it, and when it comes in.

From a Sound on Sound interview: '"I have an Asus PC running both Fruity Loops and Pro Tools, and a UAD Apollo Twin and Quad expander, and that's it. There's an API board in this room with Apogee outboard and so on, but those things are occasionally used by others, and I don't really use any of that stuff. It's pretty much me and my laptop here, and a Native Instruments S61 Komplete Kontrol keyboard. I have always used minimal equipment. I've had the Apollo Twin since 2014, and before that I had the [Avid] MBox 3, the MBox, and as far back as 2003-06, Pro Tools 002 Rack."'

I've had the Apollo Twin since 2014, and before that I had the [Avid] MBox 3, the MBox, and as far back as 2003-06, Pro Tools 002 Rack.

"I love the Shadow Hills Mastering plug-in. In the final stages, it glues everything together."

I do vocal tuning in Melodyne, and after that I add Antares Auto-Tune, very lightly, just to keep things tight. It's there just to make sure everything is locked in. Even after applying Melodyne there may be a note that strays a little. I know that many people think that Post Malone's vocals have a lot of Auto-Tune, but again, it's Melodyne, and I then throw Auto-Tune on specific lines, more as an effect, like a flanger or slap delay. It's not because he can't sing the part in tune, it's because it sounds cooler. People think that the shaking in his voice, for example in 'Rockstar', is Auto-Tune, but it's how he sings.

In this add for his monthly class you can see at 0:09 behind him the Komplete Kontrol S61 MK2

In this YouTube video you can clearly see Louis relies on Genelec monitors - specifically the 8351s and 1035s - in the studio and on the road.

In the YouTube video titled "The Spirit: Getting Started with Louis Bell," Louis Bell uses the Cradle Audio The Spirit, an all-in-one vocal plugin developed by Cradle in collaboration with Bell.