How are these vocals?

[mrtwidget]

**Explicit Lyrics** NSFW

The beat just an instrumental from another song, so this is technically a remix, so the music itself doesn't necessarily need bashing, unless you like. But my part in the mix are the vocals. I'm producing for this kid and would like to know if I have found the right style for hip-hop vocals, as this genre is completely new to me. I've always recorded rock/metal, so I'd like to hear some bashing.

[edub357]

Originally Posted by mrtwidget

**Explicit Lyrics** NSFW

The beat just an instrumental from another song, so this is technically a remix, so the music itself doesn't necessarily need bashing, unless you like. But my part in the mix are the vocals. I'm producing for this kid and would like to know if I have found the right style for hip-hop vocals, as this genre is completely new to me. I've always recorded rock/metal, so I'd like to hear some bashing.

the kid has a nice flow, he needs another beat to rip on tho, as far as the vocals they sound pretty good but there is alot of crackle or clicks going on that just draws me away from what hes saying. id say run the good ol noise reduction on the vox tracks and clean them up. as far as the style comment again for what hes saying he needs a harder beat but were not judging that.

[mrtwidget]

Originally Posted by edub357

the kid has a nice flow, he needs another beat to rip on tho, as far as the vocals they sound pretty good but there is alot of crackle or clicks going on that just draws me away from what hes saying. id say run the good ol noise reduction on the vox tracks and clean them up. as far as the style comment again for what hes saying he needs a harder beat but were not judging that.

I'm not really sure what he says, he keeps a notebook of his lyrics and he's never wanted me to print them up for him, so the best I can do is an acapella. You can hear him much better.

Thanks for the reply!

EDIT:
Now that I listen to this in acapella I do notice it needs a gate of some type. :S

[glenlata]

well with my traditional comment, the vocals are WAY out front for hip hop, the adlibs need to be turned up a little, on the talking parts, the kid needs way more swag then he has. he sounds like he's pretending and although we all no hip hop is full of pretenders, they all play the part. he might want to let you print some of those lyrics out for copyrighting or at least to get them notorized while he waits or saves for copyrighting. His flow could match that beat but he's gotta get his swag in tuned with the beat, he's not flowing over that beat it sounds like he's attacking the verse and that isn't the vibe that beat gives, needs to just lay back and spit it like he believes he's the shit and doesn't care what anyone else says. does need a gate though, the verse isn't that impressive that's why he needs to work on the swag. also i hate to say it, but he sounds white, and not in an eminem kinda way, in a white boy thats never rapped before and got tricked into rapping kinda way. but if he just started he'll be okay as long as he keeps at it. But yeah bring up the adlibs take those effects off them gate it, maybe turn the doubles down a bit unless he likes that, i find that alot of guys want the fullness of a double without actually hearing a double. i used to do that alot in my earlier recordings. but not bad at all for not being that experienced in hip hop.

[triton92]

Hey bro I think your headed in the right direction. For me the vocals needed a little work. Ok let's start with the Ss' they wor a little to harsh so in this example I used a Waves Desser. Another thing I noticed is that in your track the vocal was a little high in volume the reason is because you needed a little high mid to bring it out, all you had to do is bring in some 2.5khz around 6.0db. So you wor compensating in volume instead of the frequency it needed. The other thing was the dynamics needed tightening, "what i mean by that is:" that the vocal sounded loud on some parts it wasn't balanced (volume wise)so i compressed with the (waves SSL Channel Strip) getting in between 3-6db of reduction. And lastly I added a limiter just to catch the peaks! I did this quick track with the accapella you uploaded. I just wanted to add some flavor to the work i was doing with it. I chopped the hell out of it to make it fit in this beat I had created with Stylus RMX and Symphobia!! Well if you have any more questions PM me. If you want the exact settings for the vocals I will happily provide them to you. Good luck bud!!

P.S: The vocals are a little high on this example. I mixed them high in volume so you could hear the subtle diffrences!! Also the plugins that i used wor: Waves RDesser, Waves SSL 4000 Channel strip, and Sonalksis Limiter

[triton92]

Here is another example using the Waves Ultra Pitch 3 just to fatten the vocals up.

[mrtwidget]

Originally Posted by triton92

Hey bro I think your headed in the right direction. For me the vocals needed a little work. Ok let's start with the Ss' they wor a little to harsh so in this example I used a Waves Desser. Another thing I noticed is that in your track the vocal was a little high in volume the reason is because you needed a little high mid to bring it out, all you had to do is bring in some 2.5khz around 6.0db. So you wor compensating in volume instead of the frequency it needed. The other thing was the dynamics needed tightening, "what i mean by that is:" that the vocal sounded loud on some parts it wasn't balanced (volume wise)so i compressed with the (waves SSL Channel Strip) getting in between 3-6db of reduction. And lastly I added a limiter just to catch the peaks! I did this quick track with the accapella you uploaded. I just wanted to add some flavor to the work i was doing with it. I chopped the hell out of it to make it fit in this beat I had created with Stylus RMX and Symphobia!! Well if you have any more questions PM me. If you want the exact settings for the vocals I will happily provide them to you. Good luck bud!!

P.S: The vocals are a little high on this example. I mixed them high in volume so you could hear the subtle diffrences!! Also the plugins that i used wor: Waves RDesser, Waves SSL 4000 Channel strip, and Sonalksis Limiter

Thank you so much for your time on this! That mix you made sounded great and really put what I've done into perspective nicely.

First, I'm very interested in frequencies recently, so what you said about the mid-range boost on the vocals really made sense to me. I'm by no means a pro, so all this EQ-ing is sort of new for me. My monitors (Behringer Truth B2031) sound perfect with those high frequencies (S's) but on a normal, for example, car stereo, the high frequencies are WAY to high. Perhaps I need to tweek the settings on my monitors? hm.

I will have to show this kid the remix, he will love it. Do you mind if we use it in his release? I can discuss this in more detail via PM if needed. Also, I will be sure to look into that Waves program, *sounds* very handy. Again, great job on the mix, it sounds so much more "punchy" with what you did - I love it.

In closing, are there any good sources for frequency settings for specific instruments? (ie. vocals, guitar, bass, etc). This process still eludes me and I'd like to learn much more. I understand there is no one way of doing things, but perhaps some documentation regarding general frequency ranges? If not, that's just as well too.

Thank you all again for your kind patience and helpful reviews!

[edub357]

Originally Posted by triton92

Hey bro I think your headed in the right direction. For me the vocals needed a little work. Ok let's start with the Ss' they wor a little to harsh so in this example I used a Waves Desser. Another thing I noticed is that in your track the vocal was a little high in volume the reason is because you needed a little high mid to bring it out, all you had to do is bring in some 2.5khz around 6.0db. So you wor compensating in volume instead of the frequency it needed. The other thing was the dynamics needed tightening, "what i mean by that is:" that the vocal sounded loud on some parts it wasn't balanced (volume wise)so i compressed with the (waves SSL Channel Strip) getting in between 3-6db of reduction. And lastly I added a limiter just to catch the peaks! I did this quick track with the accapella you uploaded. I just wanted to add some flavor to the work i was doing with it. I chopped the hell out of it to make it fit in this beat I had created with Stylus RMX and Symphobia!! Well if you have any more questions PM me. If you want the exact settings for the vocals I will happily provide them to you. Good luck bud!!

P.S: The vocals are a little high on this example. I mixed them high in volume so you could hear the subtle diffrences!! Also the plugins that i used wor: Waves RDesser, Waves SSL 4000 Channel strip, and Sonalksis Limiter

see this is excatly what i meant by he needed a harder beat, what a difference, the whole vibe swung around on this good work triton! I see you use waves also, i have the diamond bundle and i just downloaded the 9million pages of manuals time to start reading them now again good work.

[triton92]

Originally Posted by mrtwidget

Thank you so much for your time on this! That mix you made sounded great and really put what I've done into perspective nicely.

First, I'm very interested in frequencies recently, so what you said about the mid-range boost on the vocals really made sense to me. I'm by no means a pro, so all this EQ-ing is sort of new for me. My monitors (Behringer Truth B2031) sound perfect with those high frequencies (S's) but on a normal, for example, car stereo, the high frequencies are WAY to high. Perhaps I need to tweek the settings on my monitors? hm.

I will have to show this kid the remix, he will love it. Do you mind if we use it in his release? I can discuss this in more detail via PM if needed. Also, I will be sure to look into that Waves program, *sounds* very handy. Again, great job on the mix, it sounds so much more "punchy" with what you did - I love it.

In closing, are there any good sources for frequency settings for specific instruments? (ie. vocals, guitar, bass, etc). This process still eludes me and I'd like to learn much more. I understand there is no one way of doing things, but perhaps some documentation regarding general frequency ranges? If not, that's just as well too.

Thank you all again for your kind patience and helpful reviews!

Thanks bro! Glad I could help "As I am no pro either" jeje. Going back to what you said about the monitors, they could be lying to you, I haven't heard those monitors really so I couldn't tell you exactly. But I will tell you this: (if you can, buy some foam from auralex the 2" wedge foam buy like 4 of them if you are in a squared room, which most rooms are anyway) put one across on each wall, that should help represent the highs a lot better. That's what I have in my studio and they do the job. And I am also going to dig for a .PDF book that I have about frequencies, and will send it to you via email (just be sure to PM me with it!) That should at least get you rolling as far as frequencies go. You will get a pretty good understanding about each instrument's frequency range. And also you commented about you guys using my work on the album, no prob's here, just PM me with details!! Thank you once again for liking my work. Peace!!

[triton92]

Originally Posted by edub357

see this is excatly what i meant by he needed a harder beat, what a difference, the whole vibe swung around on this good work triton! I see you use waves also, i have the diamond bundle and i just downloaded the 9million pages of manuals time to start reading them now again good work.

Thanks Edub! for liking my work. Als good luck in reading all those 9 million pages of info jeje looks like your going to be busy for a while man. Anyways thanks for the positive critique. Take care Bro!!