Why are Rap Vocals so Clear?

Robertt8

Robertt8

New member
Why are rap vocals so clear even though they often double or tripple up vocals? Is that from the lack of reverb? Or probably that and an expensive mic, pre, and a shit load of processors...hmmmmm...
 
if you notice in most rap songs theres no distorted guitar....so the frequencies are all around the actual frequency of the voice.....plus the voice is usually higher in the mix than the music. if you can, listen to nappy roots - aww naw and then aww naw remix. the remix has distortion guitar from the guitarist in POD. if you listen the vocals are more in the mix on the remix than they are in the original.
 
rap vox are clear because the engineer and mixer intended it to be that way...listen to older rap it wasn't so clear but that had to do with the equipment
 
Last edited:
Now, I'm not a Rap Guru or anything, but I've noticed that the vocals on most rap & hip hop that I get in here have been limited beyond reality during the mix. I know that a lot of commercially available stuff is also (as many of my clients send a disc of "we like this sound" stuff).

That, combined with the lack of instrumentation in the vocal range... Yeah, that's gonna make the vocals hard to miss.
 
and with every tevon, khalil and J-money (tom, dick and harry) rapping no matter how bad the pronunciation; its good that you are able to hear the vocals...sometimes you can catch what they are saying
 
I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that most of the instrumentation on rap tracks is synthetic or sampled. The human voice is often times the only thing on a rap song that is actually miced, which probably helps it stand out more. I could be way off...I've never recorded rap, seems logical though.
 
well since samples are just actual recordings of things that were probably recorded mic'd, isn't your theory a little self-defeating?
 
well guys don't forget the good old APHEX AURAL EXCITER

i'm not pleased with my 104 with big bottom,
but i got that BBE SONIC MAXIMIZER plugin,
and it rocks , rocks, rocks, jezus christ

yes, to take annoying bottom end out of your mix,
but especially to ADD HARMONICS to the highs


my 104 isn't good enough, but i'd like to check out the aphex 250
cause it sucks when the plugin is better than the hardware!

so guys, don't boost the treble to get crisp clear vocals or sounds,
do it normal, and add a nice aural exciter to it

at least, my clients are happy with my way of working,
i do cheap and underground rap/hiphop

my two cents
earworm
 
Yeah i think its probably got a lot to do with the vocals being recorded VERY well, and also that the whole rest of the mix has no vocal freqs in it at all.

I've never heard of this Aural Exciter thing, but it sounds like it might have somthing to do with it. (It looks like a magic "hey presto, great music" button to me. )
 
Pretty much what they were saying because that is mainly what I track and mix is Rap, R & B. Rap vocals stand out more because you sometimes you double, sometimes you don't but the vocal is the only thing that is mic'd that's why it sounds "clearer"
 
Teacher said:
since when does over limiting make things clearer?
Click to expand...

Hate to say it, but that's really what happens when you squash the f*ck out of a vocal track.



Listen to this teenage rock band I recorded last year. They insisted on being "clear but grainy and most of all LOUD," and frankly I had no problem giving it to them, given their style of music.
The ONLY effect I applied to the vox (on a Rode NT1) was an L2 limiter with the manual release set really short, which added some grain. But listen and tell me those aren't clear vox.
I realize it's not pristine and sparkling like hip-hop vox, but the effect of the limiting is the same: intelligibility is increased tenfold as a result of extreme limiting (along with the requisite ear-fatigue). The lead vox stayed pegged at the limiter threshold and did not move for the entire song... heh.
 
Rob, not sure about the answer to your question.. but the Vox on your tracks seem pretty clear to me and better than any rap I've heard... and I can identify with your first track!! Good work ... I enjoyed listening to them all...
Zeek
 
another quality that most rap artists(minus) Jay-Z, Biggie, and a few others apply is recording the sh!t out of the track, recording and re-recording and re-recording till they sounds like god would if he were an MC. Plus the vocals are mixed up just as high as the turntables i've heard in rap that i thought sounded good anyway, so really

I DON'T KNOW!!!!!!!!

i just thought i could take up space on the server and get away with it.
 
Zeekle said:
Rob, not sure about the answer to your question.. but the Vox on your tracks seem pretty clear to me and better than any rap I've heard... and I can identify with your first track!! Good work ... I enjoyed listening to them all...
Zeek
Click to expand...


Hey cool thanks for the kind words!!!:p

The stuff I do isn't actually even very close to rap (or hip hop), but it's always struck me as amazing how the words always really pop out at me even when they sometimes double up the vocal tracks.

I'm guessing everyone is right to some extent...
*slim to no mid range competition
*no reverb to muddy
*heavy compression

Thanks for the incite folks! :D
 
AS stated by other posters.

The biggest difference I have encountered with rap (Comparing Samples/Syth Tracks.etc) to Rap over live band is the non-instrumentation in some of the commercial rap. Meaning fewer freq ranges to deal with. I track,mix,etc some live band with rap and it's a lot harder to mix. Ie I would have to try to move more tracked material out of conflicting freq ranges making it hard to place the vox.

In other words,, with a good/decent mic/micpre, its a like easier to mix rap vox with samples, sampled drums, keyboard , live bass maybe than it is to mix rap vox with a 6 piece hip hop live band.

Malcolm
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top