T-Pain

T-Pain and Kenny Beats in T-Pain’s studio. At 29:45 T-Pain starts singing in the TLM 103.

Used on T-Pain's vocals for "Low", as stated by mixer Fabian Marasciullo in this Sound on Sound interview.

"The rest was done outside of the box. I used the Neve desk for EQ, and on the hook, ie. on T–Pain, I had a Neve 33609. On Flo I had a matched stereo pair of Distressors. I would have a hundred Distressors if I could. I use them on everything, vocals, drums, bass, guitars. They are just magical. Finally, I sent all the vocals through a Dolby 740. It's an old Dolby unit that was made for film music. It acts like a compressor, but it's an EQ. You can set it so that when the guy sings harder, he sounds a bit brighter. It's a really interesting device, and it gives me a glistening on the voice that no other EQ can give me."

In this stream you can see he's using FL Studio 20 to produce

Used on Flo Rida and T-Pain's vocals for "Low", as stated by mixer Fabian Marasciullo in this Sound on Sound interview.

Vocals: Waves Renaissance Vox, De–esser, Metaflanger, Renaissance Channel and S1 Stereo Imager, Digidesign Revibe, Line 6 Echo Farm, McDSP Analog Channel, Neve 8068 desk EQ, Neve 33609, Empirical Labs Distressor, Dolby 740

(...) "The rest was done outside of the box. I used the Neve desk for EQ, and on the hook, ie. on T–Pain, I had a Neve 33609. On Flo I had a matched stereo pair of Distressors. I would have a hundred Distressors if I could. I use them on everything, vocals, drums, bass, guitars. They are just magical. Finally, I sent all the vocals through a Dolby 740. It's an old Dolby unit that was made for film music. It acts like a compressor, but it's an EQ. You can set it so that when the guy sings harder, he sounds a bit brighter. It's a really interesting device, and it gives me a glistening on the voice that no other EQ can give me."

Used on T-Pain's vocals for "Low", as stated by mixer Fabian Marasciullo.

"There were lots of vocals and I chose not to bounce them down, because I prefer to process every individual bit separately. It uses more DSP on the computer, but you have more flexibility in the way you can treat sections, and hence more depth in the overall vocal sounds this way. The 'Lead' and 'Dbl' tracks are the main verse vocals by Flo Rida, he's doubling himself like many vocalists will do. Flo has a keen melodic sense when he's rapping. The A, B and C auxes separate the three different parts of the verse. The 'Whine 1, 2, 3' backing vocals only occur in the third verse. Underneath 'Aux 4' are T–Pain's backing vocals. 'Main Hk1,2,3,4' are all T–Pain doing a unison of one note.

"As is usual for me, I began the mix with the vocals, set against the rough music bed. You can see the latter in the left pane track window in the Edit Window, where it's called 'T_Pain_5 LO'. Of course I later muted that track. After having cleaned up and EQ'd the vocals I worked on the drums, and then the synths. I then brought the vocals back in to get their levels in relation to the music and do some automation.

"In addition, I used the Waves De–esser and Renaissance Vox on both Flo's and T–Pain's vocals. With the De–esser on Flo I cut around 5424Hz and T–Pain around 4500Hz. Some people put a de–esser on an aux, but I find that this doesn't really grab the frequency enough. So I de–ess twice. I will first grab a mid–frequency with a plug–in directly on the channel, and I will then put a de–esser on an aux. You will see my second de–esser on the Mix Window, on the 'Verse' auxiliary track.

"The RVox got rid of extreme peaks on both Flo and T–Pain's vocals. I used it to just clean things up if there were big level differences. But it's not hitting the vocals heavy, it only works when the vocals hit the threshold. It also has a great gating feature, and so it cleans up little blips here and there. The settings on all plug–ins were very similar for both Flo and T–Pain, because they have very similar voices. I had the McDSP Analog Channel only on T–Pain, though, basically to take off some edge. I use that plug–in when vocals are a little too brittle or bright. It really simulates hitting a tape recorder, and it also provides a little bit of analogue tape compression. It's a pretty good plug–in and you can select different tape recorders, like Tascam, Ampeg, Studer and so on. For this record I used the Studer preset.

An image of the settings for "Hk 1" can be found here.

Used on T-Pain's vocals for "Low", as stated by mixer Fabian Marasciullo.

"In addition, I used the Waves De–esser and Renaissance Vox on both Flo's and T–Pain's vocals. With the De–esser on Flo I cut around 5424Hz and T–Pain around 4500Hz. Some people put a de–esser on an aux, but I find that this doesn't really grab the frequency enough. So I de–ess twice. I will first grab a mid–frequency with a plug–in directly on the channel, and I will then put a de–esser on an aux. You will see my second de–esser on the Mix Window, on the 'Verse' auxiliary track.

"The RVox got rid of extreme peaks on both Flo and T–Pain's vocals. I used it to just clean things up if there were big level differences. But it's not hitting the vocals heavy, it only works when the vocals hit the threshold. It also has a great gating feature, and so it cleans up little blips here and there. The settings on all plug–ins were very similar for both Flo and T–Pain, because they have very similar voices. I had the McDSP Analog Channel only on T–Pain, though, basically to take off some edge. I use that plug–in when vocals are a little too brittle or bright. It really simulates hitting a tape recorder, and it also provides a little bit of analogue tape compression. It's a pretty good plug–in and you can select different tape recorders, like Tascam, Ampeg, Studer and so on. For this record I used the Studer preset.

Used on T-Pain's vocals for "Low", as stated by mixer Fabian Marasciullo. An image of the settings can be found here.

"The RVox got rid of extreme peaks on both Flo and T–Pain's vocals. I used it to just clean things up if there were big level differences. But it's not hitting the vocals heavy, it only works when the vocals hit the threshold. It also has a great gating feature, and so it cleans up little blips here and there. The settings on all plug–ins were very similar for both Flo and T–Pain, because they have very similar voices. I had the McDSP Analog Channel only on T–Pain, though, basically to take off some edge. I use that plug–in when vocals are a little too brittle or bright. It really simulates hitting a tape recorder, and it also provides a little bit of analogue tape compression. It's a pretty good plug–in and you can select different tape recorders, like Tascam, Ampeg, Studer and so on. For this record I used the Studer preset.

Used on T-Pain's vocals for "Low", as stated by mixer Fabian Marasciullo in this Sound on Sound interview.

"The rest was done outside of the box. I used the Neve desk for EQ, and on the hook, ie. on T–Pain, I had a Neve 33609. On Flo I had a matched stereo pair of Distressors. I would have a hundred Distressors if I could. I use them on everything, vocals, drums, bass, guitars. They are just magical. Finally, I sent all the vocals through a Dolby 740. It's an old Dolby unit that was made for film music. It acts like a compressor, but it's an EQ. You can set it so that when the guy sings harder, he sounds a bit brighter. It's a really interesting device, and it gives me a glistening on the voice that no other EQ can give me."

Developed in collaboration with T-Pain.

Used on Flo Rida and T-Pain's vocals for "Low", as stated by mixer Fabian Marasciullo in this Sound on Sound interview.

"There were lots of vocals and I chose not to bounce them down, because I prefer to process every individual bit separately. It uses more DSP on the computer, but you have more flexibility in the way you can treat sections, and hence more depth in the overall vocal sounds this way. The 'Lead' and 'Dbl' tracks are the main verse vocals by Flo Rida, he's doubling himself like many vocalists will do. Flo has a keen melodic sense when he's rapping. The A, B and C auxes separate the three different parts of the verse. The 'Whine 1, 2, 3' backing vocals only occur in the third verse. Underneath 'Aux 4' are T–Pain's backing vocals. 'Main Hk1,2,3,4' are all T–Pain doing a unison of one note.

"As is usual for me, I began the mix with the vocals, set against the rough music bed. You can see the latter in the left pane track window in the Edit Window, where it's called 'T_Pain_5 LO'. Of course I later muted that track. After having cleaned up and EQ'd the vocals I worked on the drums, and then the synths. I then brought the vocals back in to get their levels in relation to the music and do some automation.

"I used the Waves Renaissance Channel on the A, B and C auxes. I use the RChannel on all my vocals. It's basically a combination of the RCompressor, the REQ, and the RVox, all in one, and it's great. For this record I used a pretty cool preset called 'CloseWarmVox', and I tweaked from there. You can see that it rolls off at the bottom and it has a little touch at the top. I almost used it as a filter on this particular song to get clarity in the bottom, add some high and have a bit of compression. I also used it on T–Pain's vocals.

Used on Flo Rida and T-Pain's vocals for "Low", as stated by mixer Fabian Marasciullo in this Sound on Sound interview.

"There were lots of vocals and I chose not to bounce them down, because I prefer to process every individual bit separately. It uses more DSP on the computer, but you have more flexibility in the way you can treat sections, and hence more depth in the overall vocal sounds this way. The 'Lead' and 'Dbl' tracks are the main verse vocals by Flo Rida, he's doubling himself like many vocalists will do. Flo has a keen melodic sense when he's rapping. The A, B and C auxes separate the three different parts of the verse. The 'Whine 1, 2, 3' backing vocals only occur in the third verse. Underneath 'Aux 4' are T–Pain's backing vocals. 'Main Hk1,2,3,4' are all T–Pain doing a unison of one note.

"As is usual for me, I began the mix with the vocals, set against the rough music bed. You can see the latter in the left pane track window in the Edit Window, where it's called 'T_Pain_5 LO'. Of course I later muted that track. After having cleaned up and EQ'd the vocals I worked on the drums, and then the synths. I then brought the vocals back in to get their levels in relation to the music and do some automation.

"I used the Waves Renaissance Channel on the A, B and C auxes. I use the RChannel on all my vocals. It's basically a combination of the RCompressor, the REQ, and the RVox, all in one, and it's great. For this record I used a pretty cool preset called 'CloseWarmVox', and I tweaked from there. You can see that it rolls off at the bottom and it has a little touch at the top. I almost used it as a filter on this particular song to get clarity in the bottom, add some high and have a bit of compression. I also used it on T–Pain's vocals.

Used on Flo Rida and T-Pain's vocals for "Low", as stated by mixer Fabian Marasciullo in this Sound on Sound interview.

"There were lots of vocals and I chose not to bounce them down, because I prefer to process every individual bit separately. It uses more DSP on the computer, but you have more flexibility in the way you can treat sections, and hence more depth in the overall vocal sounds this way. The 'Lead' and 'Dbl' tracks are the main verse vocals by Flo Rida, he's doubling himself like many vocalists will do. Flo has a keen melodic sense when he's rapping. The A, B and C auxes separate the three different parts of the verse. The 'Whine 1, 2, 3' backing vocals only occur in the third verse. Underneath 'Aux 4' are T–Pain's backing vocals. 'Main Hk1,2,3,4' are all T–Pain doing a unison of one note.

"As is usual for me, I began the mix with the vocals, set against the rough music bed. You can see the latter in the left pane track window in the Edit Window, where it's called 'T_Pain_5 LO'. Of course I later muted that track. After having cleaned up and EQ'd the vocals I worked on the drums, and then the synths. I then brought the vocals back in to get their levels in relation to the music and do some automation.

"I used the Waves Renaissance Channel on the A, B and C auxes. I use the RChannel on all my vocals. It's basically a combination of the RCompressor, the REQ, and the RVox, all in one, and it's great. For this record I used a pretty cool preset called 'CloseWarmVox', and I tweaked from there. You can see that it rolls off at the bottom and it has a little touch at the top. I almost used it as a filter on this particular song to get clarity in the bottom, add some high and have a bit of compression. I also used it on T–Pain's vocals.

Used on Flo Rida and T-Pain's vocals for "Low", as stated by mixer Fabian Marasciullo in this Sound on Sound interview.

"For space around the vocals I used the Digidesign Revibe, and the Echo Farm delay and Waves S1 Imager on the Aux tracks called '1/4', '1/8', 'Tape1/4' and 'Tape 1/8'. Oh, and there was a Metaflanger spread on the 'Spread' aux track, affecting the hook. The '1/4' denotes quarter–note delay and '1/8' eighth–note delay, using the Echo Farm. I use that a lot. It's cool because it simulates tape delay and it gives this kind of old Beatle–esque delay. Basically, '1/4' and '1/8' are the clean–sounding delays, and 'Tape 1/4' and 'Tape 1/8' are dirty–sounding delays. I put the S1 Stereo Imager straight after the Echo Farm, to get the delay just a little bit out of phase, so you're feeling it more than hearing it. I do this pretty much on every record that I do.

Used on Flo Rida and T-Pain's vocals for "Low", as stated by mixer Fabian Marasciullo in this Sound on Sound interview.

"For space around the vocals I used the Digidesign Revibe, and the Echo Farm delay and Waves S1 Imager on the Aux tracks called '1/4', '1/8', 'Tape1/4' and 'Tape 1/8'. Oh, and there was a Metaflanger spread on the 'Spread' aux track, affecting the hook. The '1/4' denotes quarter–note delay and '1/8' eighth–note delay, using the Echo Farm. I use that a lot. It's cool because it simulates tape delay and it gives this kind of old Beatle–esque delay. Basically, '1/4' and '1/8' are the clean–sounding delays, and 'Tape 1/4' and 'Tape 1/8' are dirty–sounding delays. I put the S1 Stereo Imager straight after the Echo Farm, to get the delay just a little bit out of phase, so you're feeling it more than hearing it. I do this pretty much on every record that I do.

Used on Flo Rida and T-Pain's vocals for "Low", as stated by mixer Fabian Marasciullo in this Sound on Sound interview.

"For space around the vocals I used the Digidesign Revibe, and the Echo Farm delay and Waves S1 Imager on the Aux tracks called '1/4', '1/8', 'Tape1/4' and 'Tape 1/8'. Oh, and there was a Metaflanger spread on the 'Spread' aux track, affecting the hook. The '1/4' denotes quarter–note delay and '1/8' eighth–note delay, using the Echo Farm. I use that a lot. It's cool because it simulates tape delay and it gives this kind of old Beatle–esque delay. Basically, '1/4' and '1/8' are the clean–sounding delays, and 'Tape 1/4' and 'Tape 1/8' are dirty–sounding delays. I put the S1 Stereo Imager straight after the Echo Farm, to get the delay just a little bit out of phase, so you're feeling it more than hearing it. I do this pretty much on every record that I do.

In this photo, T-Pain is seen drumming on some Roland V-Drums.

In this photo T-Pain is seen with a Numark ns7.

In this video T-pain and kenny beats were using the keyboard from arturia to make a song, not a remix.

T-pain can be seen using the SM7B to record vocals in this post on Instagram.

In a photo posted by Lewitt Audio on Instagram, T-Pain can be seen using the Lewitt W9 Wireless Condenser Microphone Capsule, with his audio engineer, Grayson Barton, discussing its benefits: "The LEWITT W9 high capsule placement has been a game-changer for us in the T-Pain camp. It handles any mic cupping naturally, letting us keep a clean, consistent sound without compromise. It is our go-to mic for live shows."