WAV | 501MBChop Shop: Vintage Soul Stacks pays tribute to the nostalgic sounds of cinematic soul music and vintage rhythm & blues.

Created in collaboration with Arthouse Acoustics, we recorded vintage electric guitar, live pianos, a horn section, orchestral arrangements and gospel inspired vocals with true-to-era microphones, recording techniques and post production.

Many of the greatest samples in hip-hop history are lifted from classic records of this era and the soulful motifs, recording techniques and instrumentation choices echo on to this day.

The compositional process took influence from genre defining, legendary artists and groups of the late 60s and early 70s including Sam Cooke, Aretha Franklin, Dionne Warwick, Minnie Riperton and The Delfonics.

The Arthouse Acoustics team worked with professional musicians to compose and arrange full song sections and ideas.

These ‘stacks’ are included as full mixed compositions, intro sections and solo’d instrumental layers for full flexibility.

We also included a collection of one shot ‘stabs and hits’ featuring bass guitar, vocals and guitar licks.

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.