Rihanna

The E2 was used on Rihanna's backing vocals for "SOS", as stated by mix engineer Phil Tan in this February 2007 Sound on Sound interview. An image of the settings can be found here.

Backing vocals: McDSP Filterbank E2

"I compressed the background vocals using the Waves Renaissance Compressor, and sometimes you lose a little bit of top end in the process. This filter [right] was just a shelf to bring it back a little bit and give it some sheen. Because this is a high-energy track, you want the vocals to match that energy. Basically I boost 3.5dB from 5k upwards. I have loads of different EQs, and this one is a two-band that's very easy to operate. It worked, so I stayed with it. I may choose other EQs because of different capacities but also because they'll sound different. Some are fairly clean and some impose a bit more personality."

Used on Rihanna's lead vocals for "SOS", as stated by mix engineer Phil Tan in this February 2007 Sound on Sound interview. An image of the settings can be found here.

Lead vocal: Waves Renaissance Reverb

"There's not a lot of reverb in the song, because it's up-tempo and quite packed, so there's not a lot of space. The reverb here is a room with a short length, 1.68S — a longer time would have gotten in the way. Sometimes you have to carve out a space for a reverb with EQ and by shaping the reverb characteristics — attack, release time, length, and so on — so that it does not interfere with the other frequencies in the song. I don't normally pay a lot of attention to exact reverb time, it's only with delays or reverb pre-delays that you want them exactly in time. Finding the right reverb is a bit of an unconscious process for me. It's an ongoing process of trying things out throughout the mix, until I find the right combination of ingredients."

In this Youtube Video at 1:28 we can see how stargate has Renaissance Vox Running through Rihannas vocal tracks named "Rih Verse & Rih Hook"

Used on Rihanna's backing vocals for "SOS", as stated by mix engineer Phil Tan in this February 2007 Sound on Sound interview. An image of the settings can be found here.

Backing vocals: Digirack Pitch-shifter

"This is working on the background vocals, to fatten them up and apply a bit of a chorus effect. As you can see [top right], they're flattened slightly on the left and made sharp on the right, with varying degrees of delay. Like with most effects I use, it is sent to an auxiliary and blended in later, which is why the mix is set to 100 percent."

Used on Rihanna's backing vocals for "Unfaithful", as stated by mix engineer Phil Tan in this February 2007 Sound on Sound interview. An image of the settings can be found here.

Backing vocals: Waves SSL E-Channel

"With backing vocals, once you have them blended, a lot of times you have to remove stuff you don't want and accentuate stuff you do want. Particularly with stacked backing vocals, clarity and definition are important, which is what I tried to achieve here. There's a decent amount of compression, with the ratio at 8, and I added some high end. I guess I'm drawn to the SSL sound, since I've worked on them for so many years, and the SSL bundle is essentially three different plug-ins: EQ, compressor and channel strip. There's an analogue switch that adds harmonic distortion to give it a certain SSL character."

Version 3.7 was used on Rihanna's vocals for "Unfaithful", as stated by mix engineer Phil Tan in this February 2007 Sound on Sound interview. An image of the settings can be found here.

Vocals & others: TC Mega Reverb

"This was the general reverb used on most of the song. The TC plug-ins are very good-sounding, and I use them quite a bit. I find the graphic representation of the reverbs very helpful; it allows me to sculpt things better. It's an older plug-in, so for its time it was great, but since then reverbs have improved: particularly the convolution reverbs are great. I used the TC reverb in this case because it sounds clean and I like its simplicity. I don't have the patience to figure out things that are complicated. 'Unfaithful' is not an intimate ballad; it's more a show tune kind of thing and that's why it needed a larger space."

Used on Rihanna's lead vocals for "SOS", as stated by mix engineer Phil Tan in this February 2007 Sound on Sound interview. An image of the settings can be found here.

Lead vocal: Waves Renaissance Compressor

"'SOS' is a pounding type of song, and the lyrics are a cry for help, so the vocals need to be 'in your face', almost aggressive. I therefore wanted to make sure that the vocal is fairly constant. There's plenty of level automation with the vocals going on, riding the faders with the mouse — this song was done in-the-box at Silent Sound Studios, also in Atlanta. Ideally it would be nice if you didn't hear compression, but in some cases you do want to hear it. The compression ratio isn't that much, and I pressed the Opto button, which emulates the feel of older analogue compressors."

Rihanna uses the Digidesign Digirack EQ III, as confirmed by her engineer, who stated, "The Digirack EQIII is a very simple and helpful plug-in. It's seen working here on a sound called 'Zap', which is a space raygun kind of synth sound that had a bottom end that got in the way a little bit." (Source: Soundonsound, Inside Track: Rihanna 'SOS' & 'Unfaithful')

Rihanna uses the Digidesign DigiRack Pitch Shift, as confirmed by her engineer who stated, "This is working on the background vocals, to fatten them up and apply a bit of a chorus effect" (Soundonsound, "Inside Track: Rihanna 'SOS' & 'Unfaithful'").

Rihanna's engineer stated, "The Metric Halo ChannelStrip 3 has dynamics and an EQ section. In the early days when plug-ins weren't so DSP efficient, it was handy to have all-in-one plug-ins. The Metric Halo was modelled after the SSL, and before the Waves SSL bundle came out I used it to imitate the sound of an SSL. Here it gives the bass more roundness; the EQ is the main part I used. I added a bit of 2.2kHz, 315Hz and 80Hz," according to Sound On Sound's article "Inside Track: Rihanna 'SOS' & 'Unfaithful'."

Rihanna uses the McDSP Analog Channel Native v7 Plug-in. Her engineer stated, "This went over the whole mix. The setting is supposed to emulate a Neve console. I used it for a little warmth and harmonic distortion." (Source: Soundonsound, Inside Track: Rihanna 'SOS' & 'Unfaithful')