3 Tips For Better Rap Vocals

[HIMbeats]

The two biggest indicators to tell you if the mix was done by a professional mixer or an amateur is drums and vocals. Why? Because these are two of the hardest sounds within the mix to get right. But with some study and some practice your mixes can sound just as good if not better than a professional engineer.

For now let's talk about vocals. Vocals are tough because every vox is difference, but there are a few things that you can apply (or at least be thinking about) while mixing your vocals.

THE PROBLEMS......

1. Location - Most vocals recorded in a home studio were recorded in not so ideal locations. Closets, bathrooms, etc. despite what many believe they are not the best locations for recording. One of the biggest problems with this is comb filtering. Comb filtering create a series of peaks and valleys within the frequency response.

The other problem with small spaces is that they can cause short echoes which can thicken up the sound. If a wall is too close to the mic then the sound comes back too soon and instead of a nice echo what you have instead is something that creates mud in the sound.

2. Balance - With hip hop vocals it is key to get a good balance between vox and snare.Finding a way to get the vocals and the snare to share the spotlight without steppin on each others toes is paramount.

3. Shape - Shaping your vocals to the rest of the track is an area often overlooked, but very important. Compression is a great tool for shaping vocals, but a lot of hip hop vocals are over processed. This is really only good it there are a lot of things fighting for sonic space within your song. But this is not good and often unnecessary if not.

THE FIXES......

1. Location - Both the comb filtering and short echoes can cause your vocals to sound boxy due to reflection. One solution would be to record in a bigger space. Not a closet or a bathroom and to also add some absorbent material on the walls to help with reflections. If you have to record in a small space like a corner of a room, put the corner of the room to your back and record into the mic towards the center of the room. You will have less comb filtering issues this way.

2. Balance - There is no one magic answer here, but knowing where you want to go with your vocals from the start is helpful. Do you want the snare and vocals to be equal in importance? Do you want the vocal louder than the snare? You should know the answer to these questions before you sit down to mix. Both methods are done in hip hop songs and neither one is wrong. You just need to get an overall feel for the song and decide which way fits the mix better.

3. Shape - Shaping you vocals through effects like compression when done correctly will make all the difference in the world. A little compression is good and often allows your vocals to sit in the mix better. You don't want to over compress unless you are going for a certain sound or something. Some of the other tools in the toolbox for vocals, like reverb, are used much more rarely on rap vocals than on let's say a dance track. But if done correctly, a slight reverb can also help shape your vox to the mix. You may have better luck using a flanger or a telephone effect depending on what you are shooting for. Just remember moderation is the key.

 

[Step Soprano]

# 1. Location, you made that pretty clear, and your absolutely right.
#2. Levels, dont fuckin clip, lol. If using logic, switch to linear exponential metering. Pro tools metering is by far better imo, but I love logic all the same.
#3. Don't over compress from the start... stage your compression over multiple levels. Meaning, compress your individual channels a small amount(2-3 db of gain reduction each, imo). Then, bus similar channels(ie: leads, backgrounds, drums, synths, strings, etc...) in groups, then throw another compressor on the mixbus. 3-4 stages of compression will really glue it together.

 

[UNORTHODOX]

Things like the beats arrangment, Voice/Beat chemistry, writing, Mic technique, and pre-mixing will make a vocal shine before any outside technique or effect would be needed. Those are good once you've mastered these elements

 

[Relic]

Excellent post , the follow ups are very good too, kinda surprised there havent been more responses.
Although I struggle with room sound I have foam on the walls and even bought an expensive ass reflexion filter to help combat it I find that I can still hear "the room" from reflections and what not.
To help combat this I do use a reverb on vox I record, in fact every track I record the the main vox take I split into stereo using D-Verb and then turn the input up all the way and the effect itslef no more than 6% and generally use plate.
That sort of absorbs that reflection and makes it sound more intended lol.
After that you can EQ and compress to taste..

BTW if you guys havent picked up the "Vocal Rider" plug in , do so .
It is fantastic.

 

[Step Soprano]

BTW if you guys havent picked up the "Vocal Rider" plug in , do so .
It is fantastic.

THIS, and izotope Nectar is pretty fuck sick to impress the clients real quick on their vocals, some great presets and options to shut them up and get them out of the studio to get to the real mixing by myself.

 

[paradigmshifter]

Great post.
I record vocals in Pro Tools, my signal comes into an Aux channel where I put a HPF with a high cutoff at around 80hz to eliminate hum, I used to set the HPF on my mic as well but I found that it cuts to much of the lows (filter starts at around 110hz)
Then I put in a gate if necessary, but my room has good acoustics and the mic is isolated with a home made booth with good quality foam.
After that, a compressor with soft compression, maybe 2 or 3 dBs of GR
Then I send the output of that Aux to a mono channel and record that signal.
Old-school engineers call this technique "compressing to tape", it is automatically done by some vintage tape recorders.
Then I usually try to manipulate the vocals to fit the beat... If the beat is broken up into the separate elements, I sometimes send the snare track to a mono bus and feed that to the side-chain input of a compressor on the vocals (post) and use the compressor as an "expander" so that every time the snare hits, the side-chain opens and the vocals are compressed up a little bit, ratio, attack and release are key for this to work.

 

[Step Soprano]

Excellent post , the follow ups are very good too, kinda surprised there havent been more responses.
Although I struggle with room sound I have foam on the walls and even bought an expensive ass reflexion filter to help combat it I find that I can still hear "the room" from reflections and what not.
To help combat this I do use a reverb on vox I record, in fact every track I record the the main vox take I split into stereo using D-Verb and then turn the input up all the way and the effect itslef no more than 6% and generally use plate.
That sort of absorbs that reflection and makes it sound more intended lol.
After that you can EQ and compress to taste..

BTW if you guys havent picked up the "Vocal Rider" plug in , do so .
It is fantastic.

a trick i learned for combating reflections are to take a mirror and move it around the surfaces in your room. For recording, anywhere you can see the mic reflecting in the mirror, you need absorption on that part of the wall. Same for mixing situations. Move the mirror around and anywhere you can see your monitors in the mirror, you need absorption.

Another thing is, sometimes absorption can rob you of your high end. A better solution can be to use diffusion instead so that instead of losing the sound, it is dispersed. Again, in a mixing situation, putting diffusion on the backwall(the wall parallel to your monitors) can make the room open up and make the room seem much larger than it actually is.

Also, I recommend broadband bass traps in all of your corners. The denser the material the bass traps are made of(ie two thick ass pieces of wood with 4 inches of rockwool inbetween) the broader the frequency range they can help.

 

[Shonsteez]

Great feedback guys, I miss threads like this.

 

[UNORTHODOX]

I havent had room issues too much but that mirror trick sounds dope! Thanks for sharing!

 

[Relic]

a trick i learned for combating reflections are to take a mirror and move it around the surfaces in your room. For recording, anywhere you can see the mic reflecting in the mirror, you need absorption on that part of the wall. Same for mixing situations. Move the mirror around and anywhere you can see your monitors in the mirror, you need absorption.

Another thing is, sometimes absorption can rob you of your high end. A better solution can be to use diffusion instead so that instead of losing the sound, it is dispersed. Again, in a mixing situation, putting diffusion on the backwall(the wall parallel to your monitors) can make the room open up and make the room seem much larger than it actually is.

Also, I recommend broadband bass traps in all of your corners. The denser the material the bass traps are made of(ie two thick ass pieces of wood with 4 inches of rockwool inbetween) the broader the frequency range they can help.

excellent advice thanks!

 

[dacalion]

I'm kinda haviing a problem with this mirror trick, even as a reference. I'm not debating that it won't help to some degree but to approach this as a possible solution to your reflection problems has me tripping...lol. I gotta do some research on it but based on mathematics and taking account that most rooms are square, the angle of your mirrored reflection would depend solely on the distance between your eyes and the mic/monitors.

 

[DJ Excellence]

Great thread, I totally agree.

 

[Step Soprano]

I'm kinda haviing a problem with this mirror trick, even as a reference. I'm not debating that it won't help to some degree but to approach this as a possible solution to your reflection problems has me tripping...lol. I gotta do some research on it but based on mathematics and taking account that most rooms are square, the angle of your mirrored reflection would depend solely on the distance between your eyes and the mic/monitors.

Yea, your right, sounds iffy the way I explained it. My bad, what you do is you put yourself in the recording or mixing spots(your sweet spots) and have another person move the mirror. If YOU can see your monitors while your boy moves the mirror around the walls, thats where you absorb. Thanks for bringing this up, my post was misleading.

 

[Dolo Dark]

Great thread, I have to try that mirror trick as soon as possible.