“With regards to the lyrics, Future has this unusual ability to glean things of substance from the conversations that are going on around him. He’ll often try to get the melody first and he may be mumbling as he’s trying to find the pocket. Instead he stops and starts, each time developing the next line. It’s not freestyling, because that’s all about keeping it going.
Instead he just goes into the booth and does his thing. I’ve spent thousands of hours with him, and this is an interesting process, because he doesn’t write anything down. He’ll be going through the folder with beats and will ask me to pull one out, and he’ll then overdub his vocals to it. Future and I work together in all sorts of situations: studios, hotel rooms, the tour bus, sometimes in my studio.
#FUTURE AUTOTUNE PRESETS FULL#
As a result I always have a large folder full of beats. “The beatmakers will send me stereo mixes of their beats via email or drop them off in person. During often drug-fuelled sessions, Future and Firkins then take it to the next stage. And you can only pack so much information into a WAV or an MP3, so you have to be careful about how you reach that maximum.” Beats WorkingĪccording to Seth Firkins, Future’s writing process always starts with beats - instrumental backing tracks - created by a wide variety of beatmakers, including Atlanta regulars such as DJ Spinz, Metro Boomin, Zaytoven and Southside. I want my mixes to translate in every situation. You can brickwall your mix, and it’ll sound great in a club, but I also want my mixes to sound good on headphones, in the car, on laptop speakers, and so on. The loudness wars mean that everyone pushes and squeezes things to get more volume, but I say: ‘Fuck it!’ Why should I be fighting other releases that don’t actually sound that good? They often don’t have any space or body. I love big drums, but I am not willing to sacrifice the dynamic range of a song just to get a loud 808. “Future’s sound and my sound are also about having a huge dynamic range. What I am imparting to my mixes is listenability and polish. Not that I won’t dirty up individual parts with a distortion plug-in sometimes, for an effect, but my overall mixes are attractive, modern, and translatable. But if you want something beautiful, I can do that. Some people want it grittier and dirtier, and I recommend that they go elsewhere. My sound is very clean, very wide, with everything in its own space, in its own pocket. “Our sound is directly related to the sound I’m imparting to music in general as an independent contractor. “Future and I have developed a sound over the years,” explains Firkins, from his 5X5 Studio just outside Atlanta. The creation of Future’s distinctive sound world owes a lot to his right-hand man in the studio, Atlanta engineer and mixer Seth Firkins. This impressionistic and atmospheric vocal approach is underpinned by trap-influenced backing tracks that tend to have an equally atmospheric vibe, and that don’t try to ram home attention-grabbing rhythms, chord changes, or instrumental hooks. Although there are a few guest vocalists on HNDRXX, including the Weeknd and Rihanna, most of the time Future’s unique, Auto-Tuned rapping and singing is the only vocal content, and his lines aren’t exactly sing-along earworms. In fact, he recently made history by having successive US number one hits with two different albums, released a week apart, when his eponymously titled fifth album was knocked off the top spot by his sixth, HNDRXX (pronounced ‘Hendrix’).įuture made chart history by having two different number one albums in successive weeks.His achievements are all the more impressive because his music is not obviously commercial. Though he has never enjoyed a US Top 10 single, his 2014 second album Honest hit number two on the Billboard charts, and his subsequent albums have all reached the top spot. The unique sound world created by Future and engineer Seth Firkins has brought the Atlanta rapper record-breaking success.įuture is that rare thing in the world of hip-hop: an album artist. Seth Firkins has become Future’s right-hand man in the studio.
0 kommentar(er)
