Using my voice in songs for things other than singing?

Vamecx

Vamecx

New member
One thing a lot of my songs lack is vocals, I know it'd really tie it all together to have a voice heard. However, the problem with that is I can't write lyrics, nor can I sing (also can't rap). I still think there has to be things I can do to give off that sense of vocals in a song using my own voice, without having the talent to sing. Plenty of EDM artists have songs without real vocals and are doing well (unless they get a girl in to sing in a few tracks which is done a lot :P). I don't really like dealing with vocal samples as decent royalty free ones are hard to come, so does anyone have any advice, tips/tricks, techniques, etc for using my voice in songs in sort of, unique ways? I already have a really good condenser microphone set up, I should be perfectly fine in that department.

Also, I don't want flat out autotuned vocals, either. I don't mind using autotune for some sort of glitchy vocal effect (for example, this song (0:28)) but yeah, that's not the route I want to take. That song's actually a sort of good example of what I kind of want to go for. The way he uses his vocal samples.

Thanks!
 
My first publically released (and another one later on) only had 'vocalisations' in it - no lyrics as such, just various ooohs and aaaahs and a bit of speech.
Peter Gabriel was one for adding bits of vocal garble to fill out his tracks with interesting textures. Queen also used their voices in place of brass instruments in many of their early tunes.
Plug in a mic, play the song and just do whatever comes to mind. Don't be afraid of how your voice sounds - you can always effect it later to suit.
Then you can cut up all the little bits and pieces and use them in your track. Experimentation is the thing!

Just reminded me of a track a mate played to me years ago called "Din Dah Dah" (or something like that) which was all vocal instrumentation and vocal emulation of drum fills. I think it was from the '80s film Electric Boogaloo.
 
You should Check out Mike Patton!
He is the singer from.....
Faith No More,Mr.Bungle,Tomahawk, Lovage, Dillinger Escape Plan (1 album), etc...

He does all sorts of crazy things with his voice.
 
Look up Sigur Ros. A lot of their "lyrics" are actually just made up words from a handful of sounds. Gives the impression that something is being sung, but no real meaning.
There's also the basic oohs and ahhhs, but I find that can get really boring, very fast. Not to mention, it doesn't exactly sound like a flowing verse.
 
You can always break out the vocoder. Use your voice as a modulator if you don't want to use words. You can come up with a lot of arpeggio type riffs, alien guitar sounds. There are many possibilities. Some songs contain only a handful of words like a simple phrase over and over.
 
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