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 : "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.

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"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 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."

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.

"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. "

"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."

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."

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.

Hip-Hop artist Kendrick Lamar is seen sporting the 40ozNYC x TI$A Balmain Inspired LA Snapback Hat.

Kendrick Lamar sports a red HUF Triple Triangle Snapback Hat during his appearance at the Firefly Music Festival, in Dover, Delaware.