Lusho-Style Vocals in Logic Pro: Give Your Flow Some Room

Lusho raps with confidence. Sometimes angry, sometimes suddenly honest and personal, and often with details and jokes you won't hear from anyone else. That only works if you catch every word. At the same time, you don't want your vocal sitting on the beat like a dry voice memo. So you're after air and space, without your flow drowning in it.

Here's what you hear, how to record for it and how to use the preset's five channel strips in Logic Pro.

Hard on the beat, air around it

Lusho is from Amsterdam and raps just as easily over trap as over Memphis-style beats or even jersey club. Put on "Zo Boos" or "New Balance" and notice how the voice holds its ground through all that noise. This is what the Lusho Type sound leans into:

• The lyrics come first. No matter how busy the beat gets, you catch the punchlines.
• An open top. The voice sounds fresh and light, not dull or choked.
• Calm compression. The energy lives in the performance, not in a compressor flattening everything.
• Space behind the voice. A roomier reverb and delay add depth and fill the gaps between your lines.

The same dry rap vocal: first without a preset, then with the Lusho Type preset. Turn your sound on.

A punchline nobody catches isn't a punchline

With a flow full of humor and detail, everything hangs on being understood. A preset makes your voice clearer, but words you swallowed don't come back.

• Finish your word endings. The t, k and s at the end of a word are the first things to vanish on a busy beat. Say them on purpose, without over-pronouncing.
• Record with attitude, not volume. Sounding angry isn't the same as yelling. A voice that blasts the mic distorts and turns shrill. Put the energy in your tone and timing.
• Punch in your punchlines if you need to. Better to redo a line a few times than keep a full take where your best bar just sinks.
• Leave air between your lines. The more breathing room your flow has, the more room the delay gets to do something nice.

Space that doesn't swallow your flow

The biggest difference from a dry rap mix is the space. A roomier reverb and delay give your vocal depth, but with rap there's a catch: every echo is an extra word that can crash into your next line. You want space that fills the gaps and steps back as soon as you start rapping again.

The rest of the chain goes roughly how you'd expect: cleanup, tone shaping, calm compression, an open top and Pitch Correction. Set Pitch Correction to the key of your beat. The free key finder looks it up for you, and our guide to autotune in Logic Pro shows how Pitch Correction works.

How much space you can add before it gets messy, and how open the top can go before it stings: that's what this sound is all about. That balance has been worked out and it's saved in the preset.

Five channel strips, one voice

The preset is made of 5 channel strip presets: Main Vocal, Main Vocal Wide and Main Vocal Airy for your lead, plus a Backing Vocal and an Adlibs preset. You load them from the Setting menu at the top of your channel.

• Pick your lead by ear. Loop your verse and try all three lead versions. Which one works best depends on your voice and the beat, not on the name.
• Backings and adlibs on their own tracks. Don't put your doubles and adlibs on the lead channel. On their own track with their own preset, they sit behind the lead instead of fighting it.
• Fine-tune after loading. A preset is a starting point. Adjust your track levels and the amount of space until it fits your recording.

Mistakes that make your mix messy

Delay talking over your next line

A long echo sounds great in the pause at the end of a verse. In the middle of a fast flow it turns everything to mush. Listen for whether the first word of your next line still comes in clean.

Making an angry take even sharper

An aggressive take already has plenty of bite. Stack an open top on it without paying attention and it starts to hurt. If you rap with a lot of energy, listen extra closely to your s and t sounds.

Adlibs as loud as the lead

Adlibs bring energy, but if they're as loud as your main vocal, the listener doesn't know where to focus. Pull them back a step and let them answer the lead.

Not sure an airy sound fits your voice? Read which vocal preset fits your voice. Want to understand what each step in a chain does? Grab the free vocal chain cheat sheet.

More sounds in the same lane

• Chivv-style vocals in Logic Pro: soft and open
• Kevin-style vocals in Logic Pro: warm and relaxed
• Ronnie Flex-style vocals in Logic Pro: bright and playful

Want to hear them side by side? All Type vocal presets with before and after videos are on one page.

Lusho Type presets are inspired by the vocal mixing style of Lusho. This is not an official product and Lusho is not involved. Results depend on your voice, mic and recording.