How to Get Travis Scott-Style Vocals in Logic Pro (Stock Plugins Only)

You hear it in a lot of modern trap: the voice is soaked in autotune, it floats in a big space, delays bounce around after every line and ad-libs pop up from every corner. Travis Scott is the name most people use for that sound. Good news if you use Logic Pro: you can build this style with the plugins that already come with it. Here's how, step by step.

What makes Travis Scott-style vocals sound like that?

Before you touch a plugin, it helps to know what you're going for. When people say they want "Travis Scott vocals", they usually mean a mix of these things:

• Heavy, audible autotune. The pitch correction isn't hidden. It snaps hard to the notes and becomes part of the sound.
• A lot of space. Big reverb and delays make the vocal feel wide and a bit dreamy, instead of dry and in your face.
• Stacks and ad-libs. Doubles, harmonies and ad-libs fill the gaps around the main vocal.
• Some grit. A bit of saturation or distortion gives the voice edge, so it doesn't drown in all that space.

No preset or plugin gives you someone else's voice. What you can copy is the approach: the order of the chain and how wet everything is. Your own voice and delivery do the rest.

Step 1: record a clean, dry take

All that reverb and delay amplifies every problem in your recording. Room echo, clipping and background noise get louder, not hidden. So:

• Record close to the mic in the deadest spot of your room (a closet full of clothes works surprisingly well).
• Keep your input level healthy but never clipping.
• Record your main take, then a separate double of the hook and separate ad-lib takes on their own tracks. You'll need them in step 7.

Pro tip: you can record with the autotune already on so you hear the effect while you perform. Many artists sing differently when they hear the tuning in their headphones.

Step 2: find the key of your beat

Hard autotune only sounds good if it snaps to the right notes. If the key is wrong, it pulls your voice to notes that clash with the beat, and that's the classic "why does my autotune sound off" problem.

Don't know the key? Drop your beat into the free Beat Lab key and BPM finder. It runs in your browser and gives you an estimated key plus the tempo, which you'll also need for the delay in step 6. It's an estimate, so check it by ear: sing or play the root note over the beat and listen if it feels like "home".

Step 3: Pitch Correction for the autotune effect

Logic Pro's own Pitch Correction plugin is all you need. Put it first on your vocal channel and set:

• Root and Scale: the key you found in step 2 (for example, Root C# and a minor scale).
• Response: this sets how quickly the voice reaches the corrected pitch. Turn it all the way toward fast for that hard, robotic snap. Slower settings sound more natural, which is exactly what you don't want here.
• Range: choose Low if you have a deep voice, Normal otherwise.

Hear notes that still sound wrong? Use the keyboard in the plugin to exclude notes from the scale, so the voice can't snap to them.

Step 4: EQ, compression and grit

After the tuning, shape the tone. Keep it simple and use your ears:

1. Channel EQ: cut the low rumble with a high-pass filter, take out a bit of muddiness in the low mids if your voice sounds boxy, and add some air on top so the vocal stays clear under all the effects.
2. Compressor: even out the level so quiet words don't disappear in the reverb. You want the vocal to sit steady, not squashed.
3. Saturation: a little ChromaGlow (Logic Pro 11 and later) or Overdrive, mixed in gently. This gives the edge that cuts through. If it sounds broken, it's too much.
4. DeEsser 2: a bright vocal plus lots of reverb makes S sounds sharp very quickly. Tame them before the effects.

Step 5: big reverb on a send

Don't put the reverb directly on the vocal. Put it on a send (an aux track), so you can control how much space you add and keep the dry vocal clear.

• Load ChromaVerb on the aux and choose a big room or hall.
• Set the reverb to 100% wet on the aux and control the amount with the send knob.
• Add a bit of pre-delay, so the first word of a line comes through before the space blooms.
• Cut the lows and some highs of the reverb with an EQ after it. That keeps the space big without making the beat muddy.

Step 6: delay that moves with the beat

Delay is half of this sound. Make a second aux with Tape Delay (or Stereo Delay) and sync it to the project tempo. Start with quarter notes or eighth notes and set the feedback so you hear a few repeats.

The trick that makes it sound produced: delay throws. Automate the send so the delay is only loud on the last word of certain lines. The word echoes into the gap, and the next line stays clean. Want to set the delay time by hand? Our guide on converting BPM to delay time in ms shows the math.

Step 7: doubles, harmonies and ad-libs

• Doubles: pan your double take a little to one side, keep it quieter than the lead and send it to the same reverb.
• Ad-libs: lower than the lead, more reverb and delay, and panned left and right. That gives you the "voices all around you" feel.
• Pitched layers: for a darker or higher layer, put Logic's Pitch Shifter on a copy of a line and blend it in quietly.
• Use the same Pitch Correction settings on every vocal track, so they all snap to the same notes.

Common mistakes

• Wrong key in Pitch Correction. Always check the key of the beat first.
• Reverb directly on the vocal. The lead gets blurry. Use sends.
• Too much of everything. Check your mix at low volume. If you can't understand the words anymore, pull the reverb back.
• A noisy, echoey recording. No chain fixes that. Re-record if you can.

Want a head start?

Building this chain from scratch takes time. If you'd rather start from a working setup, the Dopebwoy-inspired autotune vocal preset for Logic Pro is a good fit. Dopebwoy is a Dutch artist whose vocals are built around autotune as an instrument, with melodic flows over trap and afro beats. That puts his vocal mix style in the same corner as the melodic, heavily tuned trap sound described above. The preset uses only Logic Pro stock plugins, so you load it, set the key and add more reverb and delay to taste. It's an independent type preset: it's not a Travis Scott or Dopebwoy product, and it won't make you sound identical to anyone. It gives you a solid starting point that you then tune to your own voice.

Prefer to build it yourself? Grab the free rap vocal chain cheat sheet with the plugin order for Logic Pro and FL Studio on one page.

FAQ

Do I need Antares Auto-Tune for this sound?

No. Logic Pro's Pitch Correction plugin gives you the hard autotune effect when you set Response to fast and choose the right key. Paid plugins offer more options, but you don't need them to get started.

Why does my autotune sound off-key?

Usually the key or scale in Pitch Correction doesn't match the beat. Check the key with the free key finder, then compare by ear.

Will this make me sound exactly like Travis Scott?

No. A chain recreates a mix style: tuning, space and stacks. Your voice, melodies and delivery are what make it yours.

Can I do this in FL Studio?

Yes, the same order works. FL Studio's Pitcher handles the autotune, and you put reverb and delay on send tracks in the mixer.