Treating the rhymes

[Fylthy McNasty]

Longtime reader, first time poster ;-) I just registered and posted my set-up on the Intro page if you're interested:

https://www.illmuzik.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9930


I am real new to Hiphop production, man. Real new. I'm no slouch with electronica, synths, samplers, making beats etc but I have never recorded rap vocals before. I have a friend I'm helping put some shit together... he raps and I've been doing the music and production.

What's my question...? I'm not sure how best to take care of the vocals I've recorded (main vocal and adlibs on a seperate tracks). I've been trying to use my best judgement and have left them real dry, compressed a little, but haven't added any effects at all. I'm pretty happy with the results but I was wondering how much editing I should do. I had this idea that maybe it would sound cool if I edited out all the breathes that he takes between phrases... apart from the fact that this would be time-consuming, would this have an unnatural/crap affect on the vocals or would it sound good? What do the professionals do?

Anyone got any tips for rap vocals? Compression, effects, double-tracking etc. ?

 

[hobgoblin]

Listen to some tracks and you'll hear what they do in terms of the breathing.

 

[Architect]

sometimes hearing the breathing is a good thing it shows a natural feel to the song. If you edit out every breath he takes that could make it sound too electronic too processed. Best thing to do is first figure out what type of sound you want to get out of the vocals. Rough and gritty or smooth and perfect "processed", etc.

There is no single effect that all "rap vocals" will have it all depends on the producers will, just make sure it sounds appropriate for the song and the rapper/singer.