tempos change because it’s all tempo-mapped,”
Moore explains.
For plug-ins, he uses an Eventide Ultra
Channel and a Waves Doubler, two AMS
RMX16 reverbs from Universal Audio, the
Eventide Blackhole reverb, TC Electronic’s
M30 reverb, and Waves’ H-Delay analog de-
lay, plus a couple of the stock distortions in
Ableton. “Per scene, you’ll see when I go to
certain songs, certain plug-ins turn on and
it’s all MIDI-mapped within Ableton. It’s just
coming out of my console via BNC into a
MOTU 112D thunderbolt, which has almost
no latency – the latency is the bare mini-
mum – and I use 16 stereo effects channels.”
In concert, Moore is in service to the
creations of Drake and the superstar’s
longtime producer, Noah “40” Shebib. The
distinctive “Drake sound” has become so
identifiable that 40 is now one of rap and
R&B’s most talked about producers. “For me,
if 40 came to a show and I didn’t replicate
what he had on the album, I would feel bad
because this is what he has created. This is
the sound that he has made, so I try to make
sure I am replicating the sound that he has
made in the studio and just bring it to life
live,” says Moore. “I’ll call 40 if I hear some-
thing on the record and I’m like, ‘What is this
that I need to duplicate?’ I’ll call him and say,
‘Hey, what did you actually do on this?’ He’ll
tell me how he did it and I’ll replicate it live,
but sometimes the way he does it in the
studio, you can’t do live, so you have to fig-
ure out another way, but I start with the way
he did it in the studio and if I can’t replicate it
that way, then I start tweaking it to where it
is replicable.”
As an example, Moore picks out the
vocal sound on the track “Marvin’s Room” from
Drake’s 2011 album Take Care. “The vocal on
‘Marvin’s Room’ is really innovative. As he’s
singing, there is a reverse vocal going on at
the same time. ‘Feel No Ways’ on Views has the
same feel. It’s like a reverse delay. So that’s the
thing; when I hear it, it has to be done.”
When it comes to monitors, much like
the FOH mix, Sturge says the aim is to make
Drake’s JH Roxanne in-ears sound like the
album. “The recording process is one thing,
but the live aspect is another. When he’s re-
cording, he listens differently than when [he’s
performing] because it’s not a finished mix.
When he’s doing the show, he wants to listen
to the finished mix, so we have 16 tracks
stemmed out of Pro Tools and my job is to
recreate the mix,” explains Sturge, who pulls
double-duty as a n employee of both Eighth
Day Sound and Drake.
Unlike, say, a rock band in which the
players typically like their own voice and
instrument at the front of the monitor mix
and the rest of the band much quieter,
Sturge says a more album-like monitor mix
is typical in rap. “I do a lot of effects changes
because, as you know, he’s also a very good
singer,” he continues. “I have channels of re-
verb. I use the onboard reverb, I also use the
[Waves] IR-Live, as I have two Waves servers
connected to my [Digico] SD5.
“I am very impressed with his talent, his
skill, his capabilities of being able to remem-
ber, I would say, 95 per cent of his songs. In
my history of working with several different
artists, a lot of times people need tele-
prompters for help. Sometimes they need a
reference track in their in-ears. Drake, more
or less, he just remembers his songs,” chuck-
les Sturge. “He works hard to give a good
show. He’s very self-conscious about giving
the audience what they want and what
they’re there for. If it is that album cycle, if it’s
the hits, if it’s what’s popular on social media,
he’s very aware of what he needs to deliver
and how he needs to deliver it.”
At the eighth annual OVO Fest, fans
certainly got what they were there for and
more. What made it even more special for
those Torontonians lucky enough to get
tickets was that this was clearly a show un-
like any other to come through the city. This
was a gift to Toronto from one of its own.
Someone who, no matter the stratospheric
heights his pop stardom reaches, always
comes back home to share the spoils. And as
Drake and fellow hometown superstar The
Weeknd reprised their 2011 collaboration
“Crew Love” in the shadow of the CN Tower, it
was hard to imagine how the Six God could
top himself next year.
We’ll just have to wait and see…
Michael Raine is the Senior Editor of
Professional Sound
Demetrius Moore at FOH with his Digico SD7 console
OVO Fest stage in daylight with Adamson E-Series & S-Series PA
Eighth Day Sound’s Sean Sturge mixing monitors
with a Digico SD5 console
PROFESSIONAL SOUND • 29