GUIDE · DON TOLIVER VOCALS · ANY DAW
How to mix vocals like Don Toliver.
Don Toliver's vocals are smooth, airy and wet: tune that glides instead of snapping, a bright top end, whisper doubles and octave layers under the hook, and delays that throw on the 1/8. Here's the chain with stock plugins, then the one-click way.
By Jordon Lumley, producer and maker of SCRAMBLE. · Nov 2026
The sound in four parts.
Smooth, gliding tune (medium retune)
Lots of air on top
Whisper doubles + octave-up layers
1/8 delay throws, lush plate
The chain, step by step.
In this order, on the vocal track. The numbers are starting points: trust your ears.
- Pitch correction. Song's key, retune speed medium (15-25 ms), a little humanize so held notes breathe.
- Low cut + EQ. High-pass around 120-150 Hz. Cut a little at 250 Hz, gentle presence at 2.5-5 kHz, and a big air shelf (+4-6 dB) above 10-12 kHz.
- Compression. Fast compressor for 3-4 dB of reduction, then a de-esser, because all that air makes the S's loud.
- Doubles. Record a whispered double of the hook (or duplicate and filter it), tuck it 10-12 dB under. Add a +12 octave copy even lower for shine.
- Delay. A 1/8 note ping-pong on a send, filtered (cut lows under 300 Hz, highs over 7-9 kHz), about 30-40% feedback. Throw it louder on the last word of lines.
- Reverb. A bright plate, 2-3 s, pre-delay 30-50 ms so the words stay clear. Add some chorus or shimmer on the hook for the dreamy feel.
- Adlibs. Whispered, high-passed hard, panned, very wet.
Don Toliver is named only to describe a vocal style. SCRAMBLE isn't affiliated with or endorsed by Don Toliver. The settings below are our own starting points for the sound, not anyone's actual session settings.
Or do it in one click.
Load SCRAMBLE, open the VOCALS page, pick DON SWEET HOME (free) on the lead and DON 1/8 THROW (free) on the adlibs, hit MATCH SONG KEY. The Bundle has 21 Don-style chains.
Everything in the chain above, in one free plugin: Don Toliver vocal chain presets →
SCRAMBLE is free.
10 vocal chains, 8 FX modes for drums, 808s, hats, loops and the master bus, and a Rubik's cube with 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 positions, each a different FX chain. Mac + Windows, no card needed.
Questions
What delay does Don Toliver use?
We can't know his engineer's exact plugin, but the sound is a filtered 1/8 note delay thrown louder at the ends of lines. Any stock delay can do it.
Do I need paid plugins?
No. Every step works with your DAW's stock plugins (FL Studio, Logic, Ableton, Studio One all have a pitch corrector, EQ, compressor, saturator, delay and reverb). SCRAMBLE just does the whole chain in one free plugin.
Will it sound exactly like the record?
No chain will on its own: the voice, the mic, the performance and the beat matter more than any plugin. This gets your vocal into the same lane fast.