GET THAT SOUND… Josh breaks down his in-the-box approach to treating vocals

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The first step is to comp vocal takes. Josh does this in Logic Pro, selecting the best moments of each take. Next he applies Auto-Tune. “I don’t record with AutoTune active,” he explains. “I like to have a bit more control to take it off afterwards.”

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“We record all of our vocals two semitones above the track’s pitch,” Josh explains. “We then pitch it down with [SoundToys] Little AlterBoy.” Josh uses both the formant and pitchshift parameters to capture their signature tone. “It can be long and very confusing, but that’s how we like to do it,” Ethan adds.

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That lead vocal is then processed using iZotope Nectar. “If you don’t really know what you’re doing with vocals, like me, this is great,” Josh tells us. Nectar’s Vocal Assistant adds a gate, EQ and de-esser to help tidy up the recording.

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The next processor is Soundtheory’s Gullfoss intelligent EQ, applying dynamic processing. After this, Xfer’s much-loved freebie OTT applies some parallel multiband compression. “I only use it at around 10%,” Josh explains.

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The next stage is to layer additional vocals in. Josh uses VocAlign to get several vocal takes in time ready for processing. “This is honestly the GOAT,” he tells us. “It saves so much time getting everything in sync.”

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Doubled vocals are spread into the left and right stereo channels. Josh also records high doubled versions of the vocal line and octave above the original. “They don’t sound very good on their own,” he admits, “but all together it really brings them to life.”