Summer Breaks: Vintage Soul Stacks

Summer Breaks: Vintage Soul Stacks pays tribute to classic soul motifs, nostalgic compositions and vintage rhythm & blues. Many of the most recognisable samples in hip-hop history sample records of this era and this collection channels those special moments when needle hits vinyl and reveals the perfect inspiration.

Created in collaboration with Arthouse Acoustics, we recorded electric guitar, crisp live strings, smokey horns, upright pianos and electric keys, a horn section and live drums with true-to-era microphones, recording techniques and post production. The team worked with professional musicians to compose and arrange full song concepts and ideas. These ‘stacks’ are included as full studio compositions, ‘vintage masters’ and solo’d instrumental layers for full flexibility.

We studied the work of producers, engineers and labels of the time to give more insight into the recording and mixing techniques used. A combination of DI, ribbon mics and vintage Neumann condensers were used on every instrument with valve preamp warmth. Where possible, spring and plate reverbs added 70s colour and feel. A strict selection of limited post production tools were consciously employed including hard stereo panning, vocal multi tracking, tape saturation and compression and re-amping via vintage guitar pedals. All the sounds are 100% royalty-free and every loop has been carefully key tagged and tempo-synced.