Earlier this month, we went to Peter CottonTale's RCM Studios, where Peter and vocalist Rachel Robinson tested Warm Audio's new WA-8000. While that mic—an affordable take on the legendary Sony C800G—was fascinating all its own, Peter's studio is filled with lots of fun instruments. So we asked to learn how he puts them to use.
CottonTale—a producer for Chance the Rapper, Jamila Woods, and others—keeps busy as a musical director and as an artist in his own right. When we were at RCM that day, he was making a show track for one of the cuts off Catch, his solo record from 2020.
By dissecting the parts of that song, we got an inside look at how he builds up his productions, using an E-Mu SP-12 drum machine, a Fender Rhodes electric piano, plenty of backing vocals—again, with Rachel and the WA-8000—and more.
Check out the video above to learn some of the Grammy-winning producer's tricks.