How To Record Better Vocals For Hip Hop And Rap

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Written By JohnBarnes

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Although you ever been recording your music but have not got that vocal and clear sound that singers and rappers have? Follow some of my strategies and techniques and put them to use while recording your record and I guarantee you’ll see improvement!

Lets start with the basics of recording, I suppose you have a studio condenser mic with a pop guard of some type? Okay great that we’ve got that out of the way I will assume that you have right? If you do not have either of these vital elements then that is your primary reason your vocal presets fl studio are not any good and I believe you owe it to yourself to update your studio!

Moving on, lets get the basics. You need to have your mic. I see a great deal of people believing that they are getting a high quality and putting their microphone inside their closet thinking that is a booth. Wrong, and it is the most frequent mistake I see. The bigger the space, the cleaner and better these vocals will sound, now in case you’ve got a walk in closet you’re better off with that!

Thus, when I say”isolate” your mic, I mean have it at a place on your room/studio with some type of noise absorption material behind it. Lets do so, grab your microphone and place it in the corner of your room/studio, today in case you don’t have $100 to spare run to Walmart and get some bed foam. Lets say you have the funds for actual studio foam, study”Foam Factory” on Google and find some wedge foam out of them, it’s under $100 for over 50 square feet that will be plenty!

Assuming you have your foam materials get 3M Velcro strips or yourself some tacks. These may also be found at Walmart and are extremely useful, cut those strips into 1/2″ strips and use it to the back of the foam usually on the corners of each wedge. Next rod those foam wedges onto your wall behind your mic, you should cover a place on the wall that’s exactly the same height as possible even a bit taller maybe one additional wedge over your height. Doing so will remove that unwanted reverberation that comes back into the mike and bounces off the wall. This will make even or the improvement with your home studio your office setup!

Next thing, ensure that your gain on the interface/mixer is not blasted, you do not wish to record the vocals too sexy. It’s ideal to record them in a comfortable, non distorting degree, if you want to, turn down the beat in your DAW so that you can hear yourself better without yelling and distorting those vocals!

Ensure that you are installed towards your mic since you’ve got the levels right. Your mouth has to be level with the mic which means no looking down at your newspaper or telephone whilst reading your lyrics. Whenever you’re readying your looking through the mike Set your lyrics behind the mic. This will make the vocals come out and will keep the levels equilibrium crisp and clear.

Next thing is do not be so damn close to the mike, decent technique is about 6″ away from the soda guard. Offer your vocals a room to break away from these highs that are hissing and pops. These techniques are followed by you and you’ll hear some improvement on your recordings.

Getting that RAW seem to be noticed and sound great. On your DAW open your plugins and locate a”compressor” once you find one you like, use it to your vocal track. Read the presets in that compressor until you discover something for”vocals” unless you know how to adjust the parameters that is a excellent way to give your vocals a bright boost!

If your vocals are somewhat low, turn up the gain from the compressor and fix the”threshold” and”assault” knobs, experiment and see what each does by muting everything but the track you’re working on. As soon as you receive the compression to sound blend that is decent track with the remainder of the mix and you’ll notice some great sounding vocals!

Bear in mind, working and mixing compressors requires knowledge and time. Do not be lazy, do some research on each parameter and discover out what everything controls so that you may be more comfortable with everything, then proceed onto equalizers to your vocals as these will eliminate unwanted humming, low ends and high ends to make your vocals warmer or brighter.

Keep at it, and email me if you have any queries. Also check out my site and sign up to the newsletter for more tips on recording and make sure you see my website as well to see more articles on marketing and helpful tips and techniques inside your studio!