Maverick87
New member
How many tracks do you guys use to get a nice thick, but not muddy sound on your rap vocals? Im assuming you do it differently for your hooks and verses to make them sound different.
The way I do it so far is:
One lead vocal centered(Whole verse)
Two supporting vocals panned -35 and 35 (whole verse also)
Two overdub tracks panned -45 and 45 (accenting phrases and words, sort of like second halves I suppose)
Two adlibs/extras panned -55 and 55
For the hooks/choruses I do pretty much the same thing but I pan a lot harder to make it sound a little different, and Ive always heard you should hard pan your hooks anyways.
So you can say I set the main vocal centered and do the rest around it sort of like a pyramid. Some people have the kind of voice where they can hit the verse just once and start to do overdubs and adlibs around it, I dont like how my voice sounds like that, but I do like how it sounds a little more thickened, so I suppose its a matter of figuring out how to EQ properly to reduce muddiness and increase clarity.
The reason why this is an issue for me is because Im gonna be experimenting with how I track and mix, and one thing that caught my attention is a technique called the 'exciting compressor' where the lead vocal is split into two signals, one is lightly EQ'd and modified and brought to regular level, and the other is super compressed and the high frequencies are brought up and accented, and this signal is brought up only enough to make the first one stand out more. In other words there will end up being two lead vocals acting as one.
Anyways, Id love to hear how you guys record your vocals, more specifically how many tracks you use for each part and how you pan them and anything else you do to it, and what differences you make for the hook/chorus, and how to do this effectively.
The way I do it so far is:
One lead vocal centered(Whole verse)
Two supporting vocals panned -35 and 35 (whole verse also)
Two overdub tracks panned -45 and 45 (accenting phrases and words, sort of like second halves I suppose)
Two adlibs/extras panned -55 and 55
For the hooks/choruses I do pretty much the same thing but I pan a lot harder to make it sound a little different, and Ive always heard you should hard pan your hooks anyways.
So you can say I set the main vocal centered and do the rest around it sort of like a pyramid. Some people have the kind of voice where they can hit the verse just once and start to do overdubs and adlibs around it, I dont like how my voice sounds like that, but I do like how it sounds a little more thickened, so I suppose its a matter of figuring out how to EQ properly to reduce muddiness and increase clarity.
The reason why this is an issue for me is because Im gonna be experimenting with how I track and mix, and one thing that caught my attention is a technique called the 'exciting compressor' where the lead vocal is split into two signals, one is lightly EQ'd and modified and brought to regular level, and the other is super compressed and the high frequencies are brought up and accented, and this signal is brought up only enough to make the first one stand out more. In other words there will end up being two lead vocals acting as one.
Anyways, Id love to hear how you guys record your vocals, more specifically how many tracks you use for each part and how you pan them and anything else you do to it, and what differences you make for the hook/chorus, and how to do this effectively.