Recording techniques for hip hop vocals

T

thexflamesxburn

New member
So I've been offered a good sized project, but its hip hop which i have very little experience in recording. He will be providing beats, so all i will be doing is the vocals. Are there certain techniques/mic types that work best for these? Here is the extent of my knowledge:

Doubling the vocals is popular, as well as high compression
Auto tune helps

Thats a bout it! any helpful info would be appreciated.
 
Close-up with a SM7b or RE20/27 through a good preamp - LOTS of headroom, no compression on the way in. Hard to beat for almost any aggressive vocal style.
 
Good man! Massive Master is a great guy!

I'd have to say... I dont know if you'd have a RE20 or SM7 if you do great! if not, grab your mics and test them on your talent let your ear decide. Record a few lines on each mic.

Now decide which mic suites the project.

Everything else is your call...

I like to add
Compression - medium attack, medium release.
EQ to my taste - usually apply a high pass filter
Delays to fit the tempo.
Adlibs
BG vocals

as a basic foundation.
 
I would have to agree on the sm7b i've been using for all of my hip hop vocals and it kills every other mic i have. Hopefully you have one. Also delay compression and sometimes reverb.
 
Yep. Big compression. Fast attack, slow release, high ratio, lots of GR. Hit em with some eventide. If you double, make them super tight.

Here is some vocals that were hit hard on the way in, and harder at mixdown -

 
NL5 said:
Yep. Big compression. Fast attack, slow release, high ratio, lots of GR. Hit em with some eventide. If you double, make them super tight.

Here is some vocals that were hit hard on the way in, and harder at mixdown -

Click to expand...

Good job NL5
 
~

I double up on all vocals and lower the volume on the second one, then adlib etc..but then again im not really a producer i just record my own vocals and I do whatever sounds right to me.


sample at myspace.com/bestofbothbg
 
one more question. does anyone know what effect is used on the vocals in the song "lollipop" i think its by lil wayne or something. i dont know mucha bout hiphop but this guy that im recording wants that robotic effect. im thinking a vocoder? i tried the orange vocoder and it doesnt give me that same effect. i also mixed it in with autotune as well and it still doesnt sound right. maybe i have to mess with it? any suggestions?
 
This effect is the Auto-Tune. Ive done it with the Antares Auto-tune. It'll give you that t-pain feel. and also..

*make sure ur artist knows how to "overdub." This is simply a dubbing technique, but the artist doesnt repeat every single line. he emphasizes for example.... every other line, or every line he wants to make stand out. A good trick is to take the overdub and double it so it is on two tracks. Then, slide one maybe .10 seconds to the left, and the other .10 seconds to the right. Then Pan each hard left and right. This will give a stereo enhanced feel on the overdub alone, and it will wrap around the main vocal quite nicely
 
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