Bolooki explains his vocal production process, beginning with the microphone. "My favourite microphone is the Telefunken ELA M 251. I don't particularly love using vintage microphones, because I spend a lot of time with the pencil tool having to draw out the anomalies that they put in. If you super zoom in you will hear these weird electrical clicks and pops. However, The Record Plant did not have a 251, so we used one side of an AKG C24, which is stereo, going into a Neve 1073 [preamp and EQ] and then the Tube-Tech CL-1B [compressor]. I engage the 1073 EQ to cut out rumble below 80Hz. For the most part while recording, I ride the 1073 output knob. I record at pretty conservative levels, and will sit there and will manually adjust the level. It helps to get all the takes in line with each other from the get-go. It means I tell people they can't walk by my area in case I need to grab the knob real fast! I record the vocals already in mind with how I comp them. I'll have one vocal track set up in Pro Tools, and literally every single take will go through that. I basically collect all the material via that one track, and then I comp a lead that is just one long WAV file, without doing any doubles or backgrounds. If there are overlapping parts, I might have to put them onto different tracks. But for the most part my first goal is to get one long lead vocal comp.

"I comp with only a click track, and sometimes I'll put a low-pass filter on the beat, playing at very low volume, so you only hear the bass in the background. I'll have very little or no Auto‑Tune on the vocals, because it's easier to comp without Auto‑Tune, and zero effects. The vocal will be entirely dry, apart from that I'll add a ton of compression, to bring up all the room and microphone noises. When you comp with the high end only coming from the vocals, you select takes not only on performance, but also on tone, particularly if they're bright. The brighter ones tend to have the best emotion, too. They may not be in time or in tune, but those things are fixable. I'll also do a lot of clip gaining when comping. When you comp in this way, by the time you're done, it's perfect. If you make the vocal sound good with just a click track, you know you have nailed it. Very little EQ is necessary, and then all you have to do is add some tasteful effects, and your vocal rides, as well as tuning and timing. But you don't have to cover up any of what you did."

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Discography