'Sum 2 Prove'
'Sum 2 Prove' is the second and most recent single from Lil Baby's My Turn, co-written by the rapper with producer Deundraeus Portis, aka Twysted Genius. [Check out the music track on this YouTube official video.]
Mann's mix session of the song has close to 50 tracks. It starts with an Instruments aux at the top, followed by five instrument tracks, and nine drum, 808 and sub–bass tracks. Some of these nine tracks go to a Drums aux, others to a Beat aux. The Instrument aux also is sent to the Beat aux. Below these is the main Lil Baby vocal aux track. There are eight vocal audio tracks, and more vocal aux tracks such as Lil Baby Ad Libs, Chorus, and Chorus Ad Libs. Next are 13 aux effects tracks and an aux bus called 2Mix, which sends to the MainPrint and Master tracks.
The full Pro Tools session view for 'Sum 2 Prove'. [Download the associated ZIP file for a hi-res large view of the screenshot.] 
protools-sessioninsidetracklilbaby-tillie0620.zip
"The 13 aux effect tracks at the bottom are part of my mix template. I regularly create new templates, and just created one with 47 effects ready to go! So when I think I want an eighth–note delay, it's already there. As I mentioned above, after tidying up the session I deal with the vocals, and this can include dealing with the tuning. Everything in urban music is a vibe and an energy, and Auto–Tune is a vibe and an effect. It is like using a synth sound. The vocals are normally tracked with Auto–Tune, which is the reason why it's always in my template. I have specific settings for different artists, and all that needs to be done during tracking is to set the key. I may adjust the settings during mixing, and I use Melodyne as well, sometimes just to correct one note that's kind of weird. But sometimes when you correct and clean the vocals too much, it's not what the artist wants.
Tillie: "I always say to an artist that individuality is the biggest thing. I'm very upfront about the vocal not sounding like anyone else."
"So I start with the vocals, and spend an hour or so on getting them sounding cleaner and closer to the end result. I may add some delays and reverbs and adjust the settings. After that I almost always start working on the music. It happens sometimes that you only get the stereo mix of the beat, but nowadays that happens a lot less. All mixers want the full track-out of a beat, because it all falls back on us at the end of the day. If there's not enough low end or depth in a track, we're responsible.
"I get the track to sit right, working first on the kick and the 808. Getting that blend right is the most important thing. I always start with the UAD Pultec EQP‑1A and often the Waves RBass on the 808, plus the TS Overdrive, the UAD version of the Tube Screamer, to give it some more punch. After that I work on the kick, using a parallel compression chain. I may have anywhere between two to five parallel compression chains on my kick. I may also side-chain them to each other, or with the bass. This is all about getting the kick and 808 to blend well together.
"Once I have the music where I want it, I return to working on the vocals. I often add plug‑ins that round off the brightness, because vocals often are too bright these days. The Sony C–800 microphone is my number-one enemy! By contrast, my favourite microphone is the Telefunken ELA M 251. Many artists want to record with the C‑800 because they see so many other artists use it. It may be a great vocal microphone, but for rap I think it is too bright. The only time I think it works for rap is when it is paired with the right preamp and compressor. I once was working on a record with Yachty and Macklemore and we were at the latter's house in Seattle. He only had the 800, but the chain was a Grace Design mic pre and a Purple Audio MC77 compressor and that was properly one of the best C‑800 chains I have ever heard. But because of the C‑800 I often am battling with the top end on rap vocals.
"Right at the end I widen the mix, on the master track, using the iZotope Ozone 8 Imager. It's part of my love of '80s R&B and wanting things to sound super wide. I widen the mix in certain frequencies before I send it to Colin Leonard for mastering. Sometimes I may also add a little bit of saturation, but I don't do anything else. I leave everything to do with the loudness wars for Colin to do. I actually hate the loudness wars. I don't like music completely crushed so it can be just loud. I like dynamics and smoothness, because, as I said earlier, music is all about feel!"
The Low End
The 808 kick was treated to some parallel processing courtesy of UA's TS Overdrive plug‑in and an instance of Waves' RBass.
Tillie: "The 808 has the UAD Pultec EQP‑1A on the insert, which is very much about the sound. It's one of those plug‑ins that does something even without you touching the settings. I have been using the Pultec for years to shape the low end. It just works. As soon as you engage it there's a pleasurable roundness to the low end. I am boosting 20Hz, which is very low, but it just felt right. I am also boosting 8kHz here, to give it some punch when those frequencies appear.
"I have a parallel distortion aux track on the 808, with the UAD TS Overdrive for some colour, followed by the Waves RBass. The distortion adds to the perception of the 808. It is just a vibe. For some reason a bit of distortion on an 808 makes it feel like it hits a little harder. I add the RBass because I want to add some low end to that distortion."
Mann's UAD DSPs also get a workout on the sub bass part. "I again use the UAD Pultec EQP‑1A on bass here, while the Plugin Alliance Black Box adds some saturation and distortion, to make you feel the sub bass a little more."
Snare
UAD's SSL 4000 E channel emulation applies a high-pass filter at 75Hz, as well as boosts at 800Hz, 3kHz and 10kHz.
Tillie: "I pretty much always use the UAD SSL 4000 E Channel Strip on the snare. I am doing a roll-off on everything until 75Hz, and I am boosting a little top end at 10kHz to add some presence. I am also boosting at 3kHz and around 800Hz, to give the snare a snap. I feel that snares often miss mid and low–mid frequencies."
Synths & Effects
The main synth hook gets a little compression from the Softube Drawmer S73, and some reverb courtesy of Soundtoys' Little Plate plug‑in.
Tillie: "This is the main synth, and I didn't want to change too much, because I liked the way it sounded. I just used the Softube Drawmer S73 to compress it a little bit for some control, and the Soundtoys Little Plate to give it more feel. I boosted the decay a little bit. Because I added it on the insert, the mix is set very low, to maybe 20 percent. There's also a low cut.
For the transition effect, says Mann, "I'm rolling off below 100Hz using the Focusrite d2, and I added an eighth–note delay from the Soundtoys EchoBoy to make the part move a little more in the track."
Instruments
The instruments all go through their own aux track, which is set up to provide analogue-style summing. Audio passes first through Slate's VCC, then to Waves' J37 tape sim, and finally to the Softube Harmonics plug‑in.
Tillie plays with the stereo width on the strings: "I am widening the strings a little bit with the Waves S1 Stereo Imager, and moving them a little in the soundfield, so they sit better in the track. I also use the FabFilter Pro‑Q3 to add mid and high end, to make the string more present."
As with the main synth part, Mann's processing on the piano sound was pretty minimal. "The Brainworx bx_2098 EQ is Plugin Alliance's version of the Amek 9098, and I used it mainly to roll off low end at 60Hz. The Waves Greg Wells Pianocentric sounds great, and it has a Doubler and a Delay. I did not need it to do too much, because the piano already sounded decent. I just wanted to add a little bit of vibe.
"All the instruments then go through the Instrument aux. It is like a summing chain. When I am in the box, I use digital summing, and in this case I use the Slate Digital VCC channel as a summing mixer. Then I have the Waves J37 for tape saturation. It adds a vibe. There's also the Softube Harmonics plug‑in, which is probably one of my favourites. It just makes everything sound more analogue. These three plug‑ins together simulate running all the instruments through a console."
Vocals
Lil Baby's vocal aux-track processing setup in Pro Tools.
"All Lil Baby's vocals go through an aux track," says Tillie, "on which I have the Waves DeEsser, Avid EQ3 7-band, Waves SSL Channel and Compressor, Waves RCompressor, UAD J37 and the FabFilter Pro‑DS de-esser. There are two sends to reverb aux tracks and one to a half–note delay. The Waves DeEsser is there because I felt the vocal was too bright. The EQ3 has a pretty involved curve, with a low cut at 69.8Hz, notches at 184.7Hz and 425.2Hz, and me adding at 2kHz and high end at 5.37kHz, because I wanted some more presence. The SSL Compressor is not doing much, it's just there for vibe. I do the actual compression with the RCompressor.
"The J37 adds analogue vibe — it's one of my favourite plug–ins on vocals. It really brings them to life. I did all the heavy lifting with the first de-esser, and the Pro‑DS is just to catch anything that's the result of the EQ curve that I added. There's also a Vocal Parallel aux with the Softube Tube‑Tech CL‑1B to add more body and a bit of beef. I think that compressor just makes everything sound better. It gives you a different tonal character.
"The first send goes to the Verb aux track, which has the DVerb, set to a Large Hall, and an EQ3 7-band, taking out low end below 100Hz. The second send goes to the Verb 2 aux, with the Waves RVerb, the Waves REQ, again rolling off low end, and the Waves S1 Stereo Imager. I use the Imager on my reverbs probably 75 percent of the time. My style of mixing is very wide, so I tend to spread out my instruments and my effects, and I place things in different places in the stereo mix. I always like to add width and depth, so you can feel things and they are not necessarily right up in your face. But I leave the vocals to be the centre point of the mix."