Power Producer: Apple Logic Pro X

1Perform it!

To sound like Capital Bra, it‘s important to deliver a good performance when recording the vocals. The musician is known for working with a lot of emotional emphasis. Don‘t be afraid to pretend that you‘re about to cry or burst with anger. You should also keep changing the dynamics of your voice to match the lyrics.

2 EQ it!

In today‘s Hip Hop, bass and drums need a lot of space. So the other instruments get a high Low Cut. For the vocals, we used the Channel EQ to set a steep low cut at 142 Hz and emphasized the frequency range for speech intelligibility around 3 kHz with a high bandwidth of 8 by 3.4 dB using Vintage Tube EQ.

3Tune it!

Using Pitch Correction, we created the Autotune effect, which is important for Capital‘s sound. With a low Response of 2.6ms, we made the effect extremely audible. You should turn on the Autotune effect when recording to improve the singer‘s performance. Autotune can be played like an instrument - use it!

4 Compress it!

We had to make the voice audible and make it come through better. Using the Logic Compressor in Classic VCA mode, a ratio of 4:1 and an excursion of around -5, we provided a moderate limitation of the dynamics. The subsequent Limiter with a reduction of about 3dB made the signal more present.

5 Reverb it!

Capital‘s sound image lives through an extremely audible reverb. In our case, we used the Space Designer on a bus. We set the send of the vocal track to a value of about -19. With a Pre-Delay of 24ms, a Length of 2.66s and a Size of 83%, we were able to create a reverb room that sounds quite powerful like Capital’s sound.

6 Keep it!

At first, it takes a while until Capital‘s vocal chain works perfectly with your own voice. Settings need to be adjusted and performance also requires some practice. Once you are satisfied with the result, you can save your settings as a preset and sound like the master himself in every track. Have fun with it!