Case Study: Headlines - Drake

Produced by Boi-1da and Noah “40” Shebib off Drake’s 2011 album, Take Care. Written by Noah “40” Shebib, Boi-1da, Drake & Anthony Palman. Background vocals by Divine Brown. Additional Keys, Noah “40” Shebib. Assistant Mix Engineer, Noel Cadastre. Mixed and Recorded by Noah “40” Shebib, recorded at Sterling Road Studios, Toronto, ON and released on August 9, 2011.

An in-depth interview with Drake’s producer, “40”, on Sound on Sound, goes into great detail on how 40 records drake in his home studio in Toronto. 40’s studio has a traditional mixing console, the Control 24, a pair of Genelec nearfields, woofer and a pair of Sota 750 reference monitors and Bryston and Crown amps. He works with a Pro Tools HD rig and has a lot of other “toys and keyboards, these include a Hammond B3, Wurlitzer and a Studiologic Numa 88-key MIDI controller. 40 likes to mix on the fly using just his laptop and headphones which is a necessity of the modern day producer, being able to tweak things wherever you are without having to be in the studio. When he uses outboard gear, he will print the tracks into Pro Tools, having both wet and dry signals to work with. More on http://www.soundonsound.com/people/noah-40-shebib-recording-drakes-headlines

For the track ‘Headlines’, the original instrument came from fellow Toronto producer, Boi-1da and with help from A. Palman provided 40 with the starting point. The basic string staccato and synth. “Boi-1da sent us the beat as a stereo MP3, and Drake loved it, so I popped it into Pro Tools and Drake started going to town over it. He probably spent a couple of nights writing. I added quite a lot of stuff to it, like lead lines and extra basses and pads, some 808 rides, that sort of drive the record. All these additional tracks are marked '40' in the session.”

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40 then goes on to explain the recording process.

“At some point while Drake was writing to the stereo MP3, I was calling Boi-1da, begging and demanding all the exported separate files of his session. I then swapped those for the MP3 tracks, so by the time Drake had finished writing, he was working against the separated files, which I used to arrange the record. Some of Boi-1da original parts were removed or muted. I really buried my hands in the arrangement. I recall that we took all the drums out at that point, but then decided this didn't work, so we put the kicks back in. The arrangement got changed and edited and I added my parts, thickening the bass and adding pads and the melody synths. I looked at the Boi-1da track from a mix perspective and added things that I couldn't achieve just by mixing. We also called in Divine Brown to add some vocals, because there's some male-female call-and-response in the song, so she could give the female perspective and add thickness to the chorus. This happened over three or four days of Drake and I working alone at my studio. I am adding plug-ins and mixing and tweaking the record as I go along, but at some point, once we know the record is real and we need to step it up a level, I take sessions to Metalworks Studios for the final mix. Boi-1da and T-Minus both use Fruity Loops to do their beats, and until recently it only spat out 16-bit files, so I almost always end up putting these through the 80-input SSL 4000 G+ at Metalworks Studio 2. I also stick them through some other analogue gear, like a Pultec, or Neve 1073s or LA2As. Metalworks have a bunch of great Pultecs, and I love hitting them! It's to give these files more feel and life, and I then track them back into Pro Tools at 24/44.1. You can upgrade a 16-bit file to 24 bits in the computer, but this doesn't add anything; plus in-the-box processing will give you bit loss and degradation, and by the time you spit it out, it won't be the same. From Drake's perspective, it's also nice to go to Metalworks, because they have a big room and we can get a crowd in there that he can entertain. They have a pair of Augspurgers and subs in one room that we can really crank up! After running the 16-bit stuff through the analogue domain, I remained in the box for this record. As I said before, our approach is always different, so in some cases I lay everything out over the SSL, in some cases I do everything in the box, and sometimes it's a combination of the two, like in this record. But a lot of my instruments are Pro Tools-based, so why would I want to leave the box? Everything is recorded at 24-bit, at extremely high quality, so apart from the issue with upgrading 16-bit files, it's rare that I think about running stuff through old gear and risk having crackles and other headache-inducing stuff. In general, I want it as clean as humanly possible. Mixing 'Headlines' happened very quickly. Most of the plug-ins on it were opened during arranging and tracking, and because of the vocal chains we use, Drake's vocals are in pretty good shape by the time the recordings are done. In general, the records are nearly finished. Drake suddenly said, 'Hey, let's put it out tonight,' and I replied, 'OK, give me a few hours!' So I took the session to Metalworks, where I put the Boi-1da stuff through the analogue gear, tweaked the rest in the box for three hours, and before I knew it, it was done.”

The full content of the follow can be seen on http://www.soundonsound.com/people/noah-40-shebib-recording-drakes-headlines where 40 goes in depth on what processing he used for each musical element.

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The mix

The headlines session is described as meticulously organised, looking at the pro tools session, the first track is a stereo track of Boi-1da’s original instrumental then 10 drum tracks from Boi-da, four ‘40’ drum tracks, four Boi-1da music tracks consisting of one low arpeggio and three string tracks, 6 ‘40’ synth tracks, a drum master track, 12 Drake vocal tracks and one Divine Brown vocal track, Drake vocal master and Devine Brown master four aux tracks, a general vocal master track and a general music master track, and the final stereo master. In total, there are only 37 audio tracks, and relatively few plug-ins, particularly on Boi-1da's drum tracks because, remarks 40, "I had passed his stuff through the SSL already and had done most of the processing I wanted during that process.” The eagle-eyed will spot the '-1380' markings in the comments box. Says 40, "I was working in full HD with TDM and then took it home to work on Pro Tools LE, and the first thing I always do is to check for latency, and I noticed that Auto-Tune was giving me 1380 samples of latency on every track it was on, so I compensated for that by hitting my great friend Alt-H, one of my favourite shortcuts in Pro Tools, and moving all the vocals 1380 samples earlier.”

Processing used for Drums and bass: SSL desk EQ, SPL Transient Designer, Waves Renaissance Axe and Renaissance Bass, Avid Lo-Fi and Xpand!

"I had the SPL Transient Designer on Boi-1da's kick, to get it a little bit more snappy and pointy. There also are very few plug-ins on the drum tracks I added, including some 808 tracks, one of them being a hi-hat ride ['40808']. On the drum master track, I had a Renaissance Axe compressor, working minimally, with just a -1 setting on the threshold. Boi-1da had a 'Sawbass' track, which I hit with a bunch of stuff.

Coming off the SSL I had probably given it a little bit too much bottom, so when I was mixing I wanted to push its top end a bit, and instead of having a huge, rumbling, low bass, give it a little bit more pop and harshness. I wanted to shape it a bit differently. I pulled back on some bottom end with the first EQ, while also adding some air to brighten it up. That gave me a better balance to work with, and at that point I hit it with some Renaissance Bass, to give it something under 100Hz, and I added a bit of distortion with the Lo-Fi to give it some anger. I also added a bass track, using Xpand!, which is a stock plug-in in Pro Tools, and again adding the Lo-Fi, in which I pulled the sample rate down to 4400Hz, so it's degraded a lot. I also applied EQ, ducking at 95Hz, and then a little compression to level it out. I depend on the Pro Tools Lo-Fi a lot. I can't use the Waves or Air Lo-Fi; it has to be the stock Digi one.”

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Strings and keyboards: Pultec and SSL desk EQ, Avid Lo-Fi, Sansamp PSA1 and Xpand!, Waves GTR Solo.

“"I had the Pultec and some drastic outboard EQ on the first marcato string part, and a mid-range EQ and some drastic top-end EQ on the second string part, but left the third string part alone. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Three of my five additional keyboard parts have the Lo-Fi, with, again, Sample Rate and Distortion being the buttons that I reach for. Those keyboards also have the Sansamp on them. 'Outro40lead' is my keyboard part, which is a synth lead. I used an instrument in Xpand! 2 and then the GTR Solo plug-in preset and, again, some Lo-Fi.”

Vocals: Antares Auto-Tune, Waves Q8, De-esser, Renaissance EQ, Vox Compressor and SSL EQ, Bomb Factory Pultec EQP-1A, Avid Smack!

"Nine of Drake's 12 vocal tracks, as well as Divine Brown's vocal track, had Auto-Tune on them. On this record I actually tuned the raps! Drake raps in a very melodic way, which is a conscious decision on his part. I therefore hit it with some Auto-Tune to centre the pitch a little bit. If I left it off, I'd be

surprised if many people would notice. It's just a bit of pitch-correction. But you can hear that it's perfect, which is abnormal, of course. In addition to Auto-Tune I also had the Waves Q8 EQ on 'Drake 1', and the Waves De-esser, the RE6, the RVox, a Pultec plug-in and the Smack! on the Drake master vocal track. I like the sound of the Smack! compressor, it adds some more energy and anticipation. The 'Reverb', 'Delay', 'Exciter' and 'Delay2' tracks are all aux tracks associated with the vocals on this record. I treated all the vocals on this song as one, which is a little abnormal: I normally have chorus processing and verse processing and rap processing, and so on. But for

me, the feel of this record was of a guy on stage singing the song, so it had to be coherent from the beginning to the end of the song. I sent all my vocals to one bus, and the drums and music to another bus, so I could balance them against each other just before I hit the stereo bus. There are three more plug-ins on that final vocal bus: the RCompressor, SSL EQ and Q8.”

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"There's a [Waves] Linear Phase EQ and an L2 limiter on the master bus, which I use when printing reference mixes. I take the L2 off when I send the track to mastering, though I'll leave the EQ in sometimes. This song ended up being, for my doing, a little bit thin, other than some good bottom end in the chorus from the bass lines that I added. But I love the fact that the vocal is really loud and in your face. I hate the loudness wars and that artists and critics mistake loudness for quality, and I tried to stay away from it for most of Take Care. But because 'Headlines' was a roll-out single for the album, I wanted it to jump out when it came on the radio, and part of that was not having so much bottom end, which gave me the headroom to push it a bit further. Bass and kick take up so much headroom, but this song is more snare-driven. So I did my best to make the song super-loud and more impactful on the radio. Because a song like 'Marvin's Room' has a lot of bass, I had to do quite a bit of tweaking during mastering to make the whole album fit together. But it's part of the fun Drake and I have in fighting all the boundaries and limits, whether from a mix or a musical standpoint. We're just a couple of kids making records and it has worked out pretty good for us!”

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Stereo mix arrangement

Genre Summary

The genres of the track would be best described as southern style hip-hop or trap music with RnB vocals. Traps is described as having 808 kicks and or sweeping sub-bass, short snappy snares, 1/64th and 1/32nd note high-hat hits, electronic drum machine samples, layered synths, chopped vocal samples, strings, brass and other hip-hop style instrumentation. (http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/trap-rap-edm-flosstradamus-uz-jeffrees-lex-luger/Content?oid=7975249). These elements are clearly apparent throughout this track with some of 40's own unique tack on the genre which i describe as dark room ambient Toronto style, similar to other Toronto producers and artists styling such as Boi-1da, Majid Jordan and The Weeknd.

Track Structure

BPM:77

Time signature: 4/4

Bar Count: 74

Key: F#minor

Instrumentation:

Like 40 discussed, the track begins with some staccato strings for 4 bars and a synth arpeggio, after that the next 4 bars have the same staccto style strings being played lower than the first layer are added. After those 8 bars, drake begins his first verse which is layered on top of those elements, at the same time some percussive elements are added, those being 40 or Boi1da's snare and faint clap which seems to blend in and not very noticeable until the next 8 bars where is full up in the mix or layer with another clap. the follow 8 bars, an 808 kick is used to introduce the kick and 40's 808 hit-hats and ride. Followed by this 8 bar section is another 8 bar section that has added sub-bass then the element are removed and put back in during some sections to emphasis the bar before the hook where all the elements a reintroduced, this continues for the rest of the track with respect to the lyrics section. For the outro section, as 40 explains, for this track he used a different approach. "I treated all the vocals on this song as one, which is a little abnormal: I normally have chorus processing and verse processing and rap processing, and so on. But for me, the feel of this record was of a guy on stage singing the song, so it had to be coherent from the beginning to the end of the song". This is apparent as the vocal remain the same throughout, only changing during the outro where the 'Reverb', 'Delay' and 'Delay2' are exaggerated to add an ambient style distant vocal to transition into the end of the song where some soft keys are played on a synth, 40 explains, "'Outro40lead' is my keyboard part, which is a synth lead. I used an instrument in Xpand! 2 and then the GTR Solo plug-in preset and, again, some Lo-Fi."

Vocals:

For the outro section, as 40 explains, for this track he used a different approach. "I treated all the vocals on this song as one, which is a little abnormal: I normally have chorus processing and verse processing and rap processing, and so on. But for me, the feel of this record was of a guy on stage singing the song, so it had to be coherent from the beginning to the end of the song".

This is apparent as the vocal remain the same throughout, only changing during the outro where the 'Reverb', 'Delay' and 'Delay2' are exaggerated to add an ambient style distant vocal to transition into the end of the song where some soft keys are played on a synth, 40 explains, "'Outro40lead' is my keyboard part, which is a synth lead. I used an instrument in Xpand! 2 and then the GTR Solo plug-in preset and, again, some Lo-Fi."

Sound Stage:

The orange sections indicate where the Stereo Tool showed stereo width, the blue indicates parts of the mix that are shown to be fairly centred. As seen most of the track is centred because of its trap style nature, the kick and sub-bass are centred in the mix as well as Drakes fairly dry vocals. the first orange section is where the second layer of staccato strings come in creating width and filling the the lows and some adding some high frequencies.

Dynamics is very important to 40 as he explains in his interview with avid, he wish that the listeners of today where more responsive to dynamic range than loudness and trying to compete in the loudness wars (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtXazg4xXNw).

As seen in the picture above, 40's has successfully tried to maintain a balance and interest which is a key factor in the keys to a great mix, his soft intro and outro take capture the interest of the listener very well as is helps transitions between tracks on the album. The noise to music ratio at the end is something that the average listener wouldn't be able to pick unless they pulled up the level for the outro, you can hear that 40 is playing very close the noise level as he fades out the track however intentionally using that play of dynamics to tease us into wondering what will come next.