name that effect....if you can

[sdp530]

Hey, I have been mixing hip hop vocals for a couple years now and there is a certain effect that I am trying to recreate. Its kinda hard to explain but a lot of the mainstream rap has it. It sounds almost like the lead vocal is over processed, it sounds like there is some sort of light grain distortion applied to it....let me know if you have heard what I am hearing and how that could be recreated...thanks.
-C

[d(-_-)b-Phones]

like fuzz?

A sample would help, especially for those of us who don't listen to hip hop.

[sdp530]

A lot of the westcoast mainstream rap has it like Dre, 50 cent.....someone mentioned it might be a vocoder but its a very suttle sound, almost like a clean distortion if that makes any since, haha
-C

[daveblue222]

maybe a shit load of compression? i doubt it would be a vocoder. I pretty sure its just realy good enginnering at the end of the day, i to find it hard to get what i hear on records in my own recording.

[six]

i'm not into hip hop, but something very typical seems to be the double-tracking of the vocals. maybe even do 4 or 6 or whatever takes. of course the rapper has to be quite tight then.

and then i'd compress the hell out of it, as mentioned before. you might also distort only one of the tracks so you still got the clean vocals. mix to taste.

[legionserial]

Possibly extremely tight double tracking? I've heard a lot of what I guess is that. One that sticks out to me is Eminem in 'the way I am'. Sounds very processed. But I often mistake that sound for autotune because double tracking, like autotune, is, so I hear, another method for fixing crap pop singers like Britney. Where they overlay someone who actually can sing with her godforsaken voice.

I don't know if the above paragraph makes sense. I don't know if I'm wording it too well

My reference to crap pop singers has no relation to my opinion of hip hop BTW, which I actually kinda like. As long as it's good stuff obviously.

Back to the autotune... Does anyone know if it's feasable that some hip hop vocals get run through autotune to bring it closer to the key of the music? Or is that an entirely stupid and pointless notion on my part? I only say this because sometimes double tracked hip hop vocals to me sound almost like they are harmonised.....

[six]

hmmm... interesting thought. I guess whenever you talk (and rapping basically is talking) you do this on a certain pitch. i think if you pitch your talking / rapping to a note of the song-scale, the result will sound more like very monotonous (spelled right??) singing than like rapping.
but give it a try if you have autotune installed.

[legionserial]

Heheh I don't have or use autotune. And I don't make hip hop. Rather I make mostly instrumental metal, and therefore don't have any experience of (or much in the way of equipment for) recording vocals well.

It's not something I need to know for future use or anything. It was just interesting to me. But yeah, now you mention it, I imagine it probably would sound like monotonous singing. And pretty damn synthetic too. I spose you could overlay a subtle track of autotuned rapping over the two 'natural' (for want of a better word) tracks you already have. I'm not sure what that would sound like...

[Mindset]

Originally Posted by sdp530

A lot of the westcoast mainstream rap has it like Dre, 50 cent.....someone mentioned it might be a vocoder but its a very suttle sound, almost like a clean distortion if that makes any since, haha
-C

Actually, in the west rap scene, it's less processed signal. If your a listener, there's almost no effects used for vocals. just light compression & what signal chain.

In the east its different, there's extreme processing going on, and in the south, it's usually the mixture of those & the London type mix.

I'm originally from the west, and I got a west coast flavor in my tracks, and I only drop maybe 2 vox doubles (bearly processed). My friends down here in TX now, they got a southern flavor of course, and they lay down 6-8 vox tracks (heavy processed). And my new york people, they lay 4 usually when I record them, and they get theirs extremely processed.

[Mindset]

Originally Posted by sdp530

A lot of the westcoast mainstream rap has it like Dre, 50 cent.....someone mentioned it might be a vocoder but its a very suttle sound, almost like a clean distortion if that makes any since, haha
-C

50 Cent, Eminem, G-Unit all them guys are mixing with the east coast (NYC) type sound. 50 Cent and his 'crew' are from NYC.

Dre, well you can tell a Dre west coast banger from the rest.

[northsiderap]

Perhaps you are talking about modulating the vocal signal with higher frequency white noise?

[ecktronic]

Originally Posted by sdp530

Hey, I have been mixing hip hop vocals for a couple years now and there is a certain effect that I am trying to recreate. Its kinda hard to explain but a lot of the mainstream rap has it. It sounds almost like the lead vocal is over processed, it sounds like there is some sort of light grain distortion applied to it....let me know if you have heard what I am hearing and how that could be recreated...thanks.
-C

Check out the first song at this link: www.myspace.com/crystalmixing (HIP HOP mix 3)
And let us know if that is the sound you are talking about.