How to Sound Like Drake: The Vocal Sound, Explained
Published · by Loopin
How to sound like Drake is less about the vocal than the beat under it: 40 darkens the music so the voice owns the top end, then keeps the vocal close, dry and quietly tuned. Do the beat first and the vocal needs half the processing.
Start from what 40 has actually said
What's on the record (sourced): on “Headlines” (2011), Noah “40” Shebib described the plug-ins on Drake's main vocal track to Sound On Sound (March 2012): a Waves Q8 EQ, a de-esser, Renaissance EQ, RVox, a Pultec emulation and Avid's Smack! compressor, which he liked for the energy and anticipation it adds. Nine of the 12 vocal tracks had Auto-Tune, and he tuned the raps too, to centre the pitch.
Two more documented points. 40 told The Hollywood Reporter: “It's rare that I don't edit his vocals, I track everything.” And his “underwater” beats come from degrading the sample rate of the music rather than low-pass filtering it, which leaves the top end almost entirely to the vocal (ADSR's write-up of 40's explanation). No settings were published for any of it.
Hear the gap between the voice and the beat
“Marvins Room” (2011): the music sounds like it's in the next room; the vocal is close, dry, half-spoken, breaths left in. “Headlines” (2011): a rap, but listen to the word endings: they land on pitch with no warble, which is the tuning 40 described. “Hold On, We're Going Home” (2013): a smoother, stacked hook, still sitting above a soft, rounded track. “Passionfruit” (2017): a quiet, close lead over a muted groove.
Listen for: nothing in the beat competing above about 8 kHz, a vocal that's warm in the low mids rather than hyped at the top, very little reverb, and the odd delay throw on a line ending. The hooks get doubles and harmonies; the verses mostly don't.
How to sound like Drake: darken the beat before you touch the vocal
Put a sample-rate reducer on the beat bus (or on the sample, if you're producing), leaving bit depth alone. Lower it until the hi-hats lose their sheen, then blend back in if the drums go limp. A low-pass filter at the same point sounds smoother; downsampling adds a slight grit that reads as “sampled”. A/B both. Now solo nothing and listen: the vocal should already sound brighter without any EQ.
Then record close, 10–15 cm from the mic, at speaking volume, with your gain raised to match. Let the performance be conversational; don't project. See how close to be to the mic if the low end booms.
Build a Drake vocal chain from the Headlines list
Translate the documented list into generic types, in the order Sound On Sound lists them: a clean EQ (high-pass 80–100 Hz, cut 300–500 Hz only if boxy), a de-esser, a channel EQ, a smooth compressor taking 3–5 dB, a Pultec-style shelf for a little air, and a punchy compressor last for energy. The types come from 40; the numbers are our starting points. Add tuning at a medium retune speed, a short plate around 1 s on a low send, and a delay you automate only on the last word of chosen lines.
What goes wrong: a bright vocal fighting a bright beat. The fix is darkening the beat, not boosting the vocal. Cutting 200–400 Hz by more than 2 dB kills the warmth. Tuning a rap too fast sounds robotic; slow it until the word endings settle without flipping, as in how to tune vocals without sounding robotic.
Skip the Drake vocal preset and edit like 40 does
A preset copies plug-ins. It can't copy the edit, and 40 says he edits almost every vocal. Comp phrase by phrase from several takes, turn breaths down rather than out, and tighten doubles so the hook sounds like one voice. How to comp a vocal take has the method.
A preset also assumes a dark beat. Load one over a bright trap instrumental and it sounds thin, because the chain was never doing the heavy lifting. If balancing voice against beat is the part you keep missing, Project Jade is being built for that stage.
Get the rough mix to a finished one
Project Jade is an agentic mixing product we're building: drop in your rough mix, get back a studio one. It isn't released yet; access is waitlist-only. When the mix is done, run it through the free masterer.
Loopin isn't affiliated with or endorsed by Drake; the name is used only to describe a style. Want your track mixed toward this kind of sound? Join the Project Jade early-access list.
Frequently asked questions
What vocal chain did Drake use on Headlines?
Per Sound On Sound (2012), 40 used Waves Q8, a de-esser, Renaissance EQ, RVox, a Pultec emulation and Avid Smack! on the main vocal. No settings were published.
Does Drake use Auto-Tune?
On Headlines, 9 of 12 vocal tracks had Auto-Tune, including the raps, to centre pitch. It's set to be heard as in-tune, not as an effect.
How do I get the Drake underwater sound?
Reduce the sample rate of the beat, not the vocal, until the top end above roughly 6-8 kHz fades. 40 has said it's sample-rate degradation rather than a low-pass filter.
Is there a Drake vocal preset that works?
Not on its own. The sound depends on a dark beat, a close conversational take and heavy editing. Use a preset only as a starting layout.
How close to the mic should I be for a Drake-style vocal?
About 10-15 cm at speaking volume with a pop filter. Closer adds warmth; further adds room you'll have to remove.