Friday, August 16, 2013

Guide To Recording Vocals: Hip Hop Instrumentals

By Delroy Wilkins


Hip hop music is expressionism in popular language, where words groove to the rhythm of a series of beats. Since it is a leading music genre, the entire hip hop production led to beats for sale and silver-tongued vocalists for hire. Despite the booming professional hip hop industry, home studios are still popular and some of the best songs were produced at one of these makeshift recording studios.

You might have the perfect vocals paired with beats and instrumentals available for sale. However, you might not be able to get the right quality production. In music, having the perfect vocals calls for professional recording. In most cases, you will have enough money to book studio time. However, even with this limitation, you can still improve on your hip hop tracks vocals in your home studio. It does not necessarily mean investing in the latest analog to digital converter. You simply have to apply these three tricks.

Tip #1. Keep Your Recording Environment Quiet. Common sense will dictate that a recording room should be noise-free but this is often forgotten. Some people also think that a bit of noise won't matter because no one will catch a whiff of it in the final mix. Contrary to that belief, mixing, mastering and EQ'ing enforces these noises and they clutter up your final mix. Hence, you should control the noise that you can, the lower the noise the better. Every source of noise such as police sirens, snapping fingers, road traffic, construction, rattling chains and lawn mowing can all spoil your hip hop vocals even if your mix involves professional beats for sale. Better yet, time your recording at the quietest hour to reduce your background noise.

The perfect vocals are gauged by levelness of volume, audibility and comprehension. To achieve this, consider your distance from the mic. In general, keep your distance from the mic between 6 inches and 12 inches. Maintain this distance throughout the recording. Avoid holding the mic and instead use a stand. This way, any hand cable movements will not produce any noise which in turn would end up being audible within the song. In addition, use a pop filter between you and the mic to filter out the vocals. Although a rhythmic music genre, your final hip hop track should be free from any pops, plosives and hisses.

Every house has that perfect spot to set up your studio. All you need is to find it. The best spot is that in which your voice sounds natural without any form of echo or delays. Small rooms should be avoided. Small spaces don't work well as far as the physics of sound and acoustics are concerned. Besides, they are just plain uncomfortable to work in! A major disadvantage of small rooms is that the vocals will thin out, an effect that's hard to rectify even with mixing. An easy way to find the spot for your studio is walking into a medium size to large empty room and clapping your hands. If the sounds echoes back then you might want to add some things that absorb sound such as blankets on the walls. If you find that your ideal space does not create the sense of space in form of reverb and delays, these effects can be added during recording.




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