Kendrick Lamar

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Derek Ali’s engineering skills were tested by the amount of live recording that took place in the making of To Pimp A Butterfly. “I mostly use our Stephen Paul-modified Telefunken U47 to record Kendrick, going through a Neve 1073 mic pre and then a Tube-Tech CL1B compressor, which gives a great, fat, warm vocal sound, especially in conjunction with the U47. Sometimes I’ll run his vocals through a Pultec EQP-1A3. On ‘Alright’ I used a U67 instead of a U47 on his voice and on ‘For Free?’ two Electro-Voice mics, the RE20 and the 666. We stacked the two EV mics on top of each other, and this gave a warm, almost distorted sound.

"[Kendrick]'s also had a studio in his tour bus ever since we were on tour for the first album. If he didn’t have that, he’d be recording in GarageBand! So we made it easier for him, and set up this studio in the bus, with a simple setup, consisting of a Pro Tools HD rack, two mics, the Sony C800G and a Telefunken U47 and an Avalon mic pre. Nothing crazy, just stuff that allows us to get down ideas"

Engineer Derek Ali on recording To Pimp a Buterfly : "I mostly use our Stephen Paul-modified Telefunken U47 to record Kendrick, going through a Neve 1073 mic pre and then a Tube-Tech CL1B compressor, which gives a great, fat, warm vocal sound, especially in conjunction with the U47."

Engineer Derek Ali on recording To Pimp a Buterfly : "On ‘Alright’ I used a U67 instead of a U47 on [Kendrick's] voice."

Engineer Derek Ali on recording To Pimp a Buterfly : "On ‘For Free?’ [we used] two Electro-Voice mics, the RE20 and the 666. We stacked the two EV mics on top of each other, and this gave a warm, almost distorted sound."

Engineer Derek Ali on recording To Pimp a Buterfly : "On ‘For Free?’ [we used] two Electro-Voice mics, the RE20 and the 666. We stacked the two EV mics on top of each other, and this gave a warm, almost distorted sound."

A picture of Kendrick Lamar using the SKM 9000 at Coachella Festival in 2017.

The Beats by Dre Pro Headphones are used by Kendrick Lamar in this video by Beats.

Item can be seen at 1:18

In this YouTube video, Dow Jones and Henny (Tha Bizness) rely on MASCHINE, describing their process:

"[We] basically went in Maschine, started going through the samples. If you listen to the track stock, it would sound completely different. But we used Maschine's internal effects to… just to really beef everything up and kinda make our own sound. We load in our own drums. Did a simple arrangement with nothing added, no effects or whatever."

"People always ask, when I get Maschine what sounds does it come with? It comes with a lot of sounds but the greatest part of Maschine to us is that you can record whatever you want in it. Then we add effects. This was the first time that we recorded live instruments into Maschine, instead of how some people might take live instruments and record them straight into Pro Tools."

In this YouTube video, Kendrick Lamar is seen joining Tha Bizness in the production of his hit song "Sherane." During the video Tha Bizness is seen using an iRig KEYS, a portable USB MIDI keyboard that can connect to iOS devices.

Tha Bizness, the production duo behind Kendrick Lamar's hit song "Sherane" is seen making use of the Apogee ONE USB Audio Interface. Kendrick Lamar can be seen singing into it, making use of the Apogee ONE's internal microphone.

"For outboard I used the EMT 250 reverb. The first time the studio took that out, I was like: ‘What’s that? A refrigerator?’"

"I also like to use the Distressor on [Kendrick's] lead, because it adds some grit and presence at the top. So the RCompressor and S1 smooth and widen out his vocal sound, and the Distressor opens up the top end, making it crisp and allowing his vocals to cut through."

Engineer Derek Ali on recording To Pimp a Buterfly : "I mostly use our Stephen Paul-modified Telefunken U47 to record Kendrick, going through a Neve 1073 mic pre and then a Tube-Tech CL1B compressor, which gives a great, fat, warm vocal sound, especially in conjunction with the U47."

Engineer Derek Ali on recording To Pimp a Buterfly : "Sometimes I’ll run [Kendrick's] vocals through a Pultec EQP-1A3."

The Avid Pro Tools DAW (digital audio workstation) can be seen in a photo titled "Oct 22 #GKMC" on Kendrick Lamar's Twitter. Pro Tools serves as the main software for Kendrick Lamar's music composition.

In a YouTube video Tha Bizness is seen using Apple's Logic Pro as their DAW running on their Apple MacBook Pro. Here they're producing the hit song "Sherane," sung by hip-hop sensation Kendrick Lamar. They take what they record into Native Instruments' Maschine, and export it into Logic Pro:

"We'll export that into Logic as a waveform, and so we won't have to do too much EQing and too much other stuff in Logic, besides just sequencing the track and adding extra bits and pieces to turn it into a real track."

In this Genius video Teddy Walton explain how LOVE FEAT ZACARI was made by using FL studio.

"There are quite a few plug-ins on Kendrick’s vocal. He has a real raspy, mid-range vocal, so I use the Renaissance Compressor to smooth that out. I have it in manual and opto modes, with the threshold all the way down to -18, so if anything in the mid-range leaps out too much, it keeps that in check."

"I use the SSL Channel strip on his vocals, just for high- or low-pass filtering, because most of my vocal EQ is done on the board. "

"I also like to use the S1 Imager, again because of his voice being so raspy and mid-rangey, and the Imager opens it up. A perfect analogy is to think of a blanket on a bed which is tied in a knot, and then you open it up and spread the blanket over the bed. The Imager opens up his vocals and allows it sit on top of the track in a similar way. "

Engineer Derek Ali on recording To Pimp a Buterfly : "I use plug-ins on his vocals during recording, because it’s easier and quicker, and they tend to be the Waves Renaissance Compressor, Metaflanger, De-Esser, SSL Channel, S1 Imager and the [Avid] Air Chorus."

Engineer Derek Ali on recording To Pimp a Buterfly : "I use plug-ins on his vocals during recording, because it’s easier and quicker, and they tend to be the Waves Renaissance Compressor, Metaflanger, De-Esser, SSL Channel, S1 Imager and the [Avid] Air Chorus."

Used on Lamar's vocals for "All the Stars" as stated by producer Matt Schaeffer in this May 2018 Sound on Sound interview.

Kendrick Lamar’s vocal audio tracks, named after his teenage stage name K.Dot, consist of his first verse rap track, ‘VS 1 LD’, and 10 tracks for three moments in the track where he sings the pre-hook in a robotic voice. The verse rap track only has the AIR Flanger on it, and is sent to the ‘Dot VS LD’ aux track, which has eight inserts and five sends. Nine of the 10 pre-hook tracks have Auto?Tune, while the top four have a number of plug-ins on the inserts, including the EQ3 seven-band, Waves RVox, UAD Galaxy Tape Echo, SoundToys Little AlterBoy, SoundToys MicroShift and Valhalla Vintage Verb. These four are sent to a ‘Hook Ref’ aux track higher up in the session with another four plug-ins on the inserts and five sends. The other six are backing vocals to the four other pre-hook tracks and have no other plug-ins, other than a Trim, and are sent to a ‘Hook Background’ aux, just below them, which itself also is sent to the ‘Hoof Ref’ track. It’s a pretty complicated vocal signal chain, as Schaeffer admits.

“The ‘Dot VS LD’ aux indeed has a lot of stuff on it! I did most of the processing on that bus. On the inserts there are the SSL E-Channel, Waves RComp, Waves Q10 EQ, Waves DeEsser, UAD LA2A, UAD Pultec EQP1A, SoundToys Decapitator and Pro?Q2. The SSL channel strip, Q10 and RCompressor remain from the tracking, and maybe the DeEsser as well, but I most likely messed with the settings more during mixing. The Q10 has a high-pass at 50Hz and I notched out a frequency that was bothering me around 8.5kHz with the Q2. I added the other plug-ins during mixing, and they all add something a bit different. I’m boosting 100Hz and 16kHz with the EQP1A. As I said, I like using several EQs on one thing.

“The sends go to a ‘FlangeVerb’ track, on which I put the RVerb and the UAD MXR Flanger, then the ‘Huge Verb’ with the [Audio Ease] Altiverb and EQ3, ‘Hook Valhalla’ with the Vintage Verb, and the SoundToys EchoBoy, the ‘EMT250’ aux with the UAD EMT250, Valhalla Plate and MicroShift, and then finally a send to the ‘Dot VS Delay’ track, with the EchoBoy, set to quarter note, the Reel Tape Flanger and the RCompressor. The EchoBoy is the main delay you can hear in the verse. The EMT250 is not set to a reverb, but to a phaser effect, which gives a cool stereo effect. The Valhalla adds a bit of reverb here, though it’s set to -12, so it only gives a tiny bit of ambience, and the MicroShift makes the whole thing a little wider. It probably still sounded a bit dry, which is why I sent the track to the ‘Huge Verb’ aux with the Altiverb, again taking out low end with the EQ3.

“In the pre-hook, Kendrick wanted that robotic sound with tons of effects. The main robotic effect comes from the iZotope VocalSynth, which gives it a vocoder-like sound. There also are some instances of the Little AlterBoy on the lead vocals in the pre-hook, with some formant adjusting and pitch-shifting. I think one of them is set to +12, so that’s an octave up, and another has a lower formant so it sounds pitched down, even though it remains in the same key. All that adds up to make the vocals sound robotic.”

Adding all inserts on audio and aux tracks together, Lamar’s verse rap is treated with a whopping 22 plug-ins! The ‘Hook Background’ aux, meanwhile, has the EQ3 seven-band, RCompressor, SoundToys Panman, a chorus, the MicroShift, the UAD MXR Flanger and the Valhalla Plate on the inserts and has sends to an aux track with the Waves Kramer Tape plug-in as well as the aforementioned ‘Hook Valhalla’ aux with the Vintage Verb, and Echoboy, and it then is routed to the ‘Hook Ref’ track, which has another four inserts and five sends. Phew.

Used on Lamar's vocals for "All the Stars" as stated by producer Matt Schaeffer in this May 2018 Sound on Sound interview.

Kendrick Lamar’s vocal audio tracks, named after his teenage stage name K.Dot, consist of his first verse rap track, ‘VS 1 LD’, and 10 tracks for three moments in the track where he sings the pre-hook in a robotic voice. The verse rap track only has the AIR Flanger on it, and is sent to the ‘Dot VS LD’ aux track, which has eight inserts and five sends. Nine of the 10 pre-hook tracks have Auto?Tune, while the top four have a number of plug-ins on the inserts, including the EQ3 seven-band, Waves RVox, UAD Galaxy Tape Echo, SoundToys Little AlterBoy, SoundToys MicroShift and Valhalla Vintage Verb. These four are sent to a ‘Hook Ref’ aux track higher up in the session with another four plug-ins on the inserts and five sends. The other six are backing vocals to the four other pre-hook tracks and have no other plug-ins, other than a Trim, and are sent to a ‘Hook Background’ aux, just below them, which itself also is sent to the ‘Hoof Ref’ track. It’s a pretty complicated vocal signal chain, as Schaeffer admits.

“The ‘Dot VS LD’ aux indeed has a lot of stuff on it! I did most of the processing on that bus. On the inserts there are the SSL E-Channel, Waves RComp, Waves Q10 EQ, Waves DeEsser, UAD LA2A, UAD Pultec EQP1A, SoundToys Decapitator and Pro?Q2. The SSL channel strip, Q10 and RCompressor remain from the tracking, and maybe the DeEsser as well, but I most likely messed with the settings more during mixing. The Q10 has a high-pass at 50Hz and I notched out a frequency that was bothering me around 8.5kHz with the Q2. I added the other plug-ins during mixing, and they all add something a bit different. I’m boosting 100Hz and 16kHz with the EQP1A. As I said, I like using several EQs on one thing.

“The sends go to a ‘FlangeVerb’ track, on which I put the RVerb and the UAD MXR Flanger, then the ‘Huge Verb’ with the [Audio Ease] Altiverb and EQ3, ‘Hook Valhalla’ with the Vintage Verb, and the SoundToys EchoBoy, the ‘EMT250’ aux with the UAD EMT250, Valhalla Plate and MicroShift, and then finally a send to the ‘Dot VS Delay’ track, with the EchoBoy, set to quarter note, the Reel Tape Flanger and the RCompressor. The EchoBoy is the main delay you can hear in the verse. The EMT250 is not set to a reverb, but to a phaser effect, which gives a cool stereo effect. The Valhalla adds a bit of reverb here, though it’s set to -12, so it only gives a tiny bit of ambience, and the MicroShift makes the whole thing a little wider. It probably still sounded a bit dry, which is why I sent the track to the ‘Huge Verb’ aux with the Altiverb, again taking out low end with the EQ3.

“In the pre-hook, Kendrick wanted that robotic sound with tons of effects. The main robotic effect comes from the iZotope VocalSynth, which gives it a vocoder-like sound. There also are some instances of the Little AlterBoy on the lead vocals in the pre-hook, with some formant adjusting and pitch-shifting. I think one of them is set to +12, so that’s an octave up, and another has a lower formant so it sounds pitched down, even though it remains in the same key. All that adds up to make the vocals sound robotic.”

Adding all inserts on audio and aux tracks together, Lamar’s verse rap is treated with a whopping 22 plug-ins! The ‘Hook Background’ aux, meanwhile, has the EQ3 seven-band, RCompressor, SoundToys Panman, a chorus, the MicroShift, the UAD MXR Flanger and the Valhalla Plate on the inserts and has sends to an aux track with the Waves Kramer Tape plug-in as well as the aforementioned ‘Hook Valhalla’ aux with the Vintage Verb, and Echoboy, and it then is routed to the ‘Hook Ref’ track, which has another four inserts and five sends. Phew.