Recording Hip Hop Vocals Tips and Techniques

Vocals are the core of Hip Hop and recording them can be the make or break moment. All Hip Hop artists that come to record at Shine On Studio are looking for "clean" vocals that have transparent clarity and rich tone. Now, how do you capture these vocals to produce the next big hit song? There are a few steps that are crucial to the success of the track and they need to be taken care of before arriving at the studio.

First, the throat needs to be in good shape. This means no drinking cold fluids before coming to the studio. The iced coffee and 7-Eleven Slurpee are an absolute deal breaker. A cold throat is constricted and cannot provide the quality vocals that are needed on a hip hop track. Room temperature water or hot tea are a good idea to relax the throat and keep in loose for the performance. If your suffering from a cold or allergies, honey is a good way to soothe the throat and prep it for the session.

Second, warm up before the session. Just as athletes stretch and get loose before a game, vocalist need to warm up their voice before a performance. Recording is a permanent process and once the recording is complete, it is etched in stone for all time. When fans are going to listen to your recording over and over for the rest of time, it is a good idea to make sure you put your best performance on the tracks.

Writing your lyrics down is a good idea, but rustling papers in the vocal booth is a really bad idea. Here at Shine On, we've installed a magnetic board in the vocal booth for vocalists to hang their lyrics up on the board to keep the papers still, but also easy to see. Music stands also work, but you don't want to be looking down while singing, so a magnetic board or a cork board at eye-level is a really easy way to keep the head up and the throat straight.

Headphones are really important and the right pair can improve a vocal performance. It's good to have closed headphones that go over the ear to keep the bleed to a minimum. There are many types of headphones out on the market, but closed headphones work the best for tracking vocals. The Shure SRH840 headphones are a good choice for quality and performance at an affordable price.

These are just a few key tips and techniques that you should use when recording vocals. For more info on getting quality recordings, contact the studio staff.

Vocal mixing tips and secrets: Mic Placement

Everyone is looking for advice about how to get those sweet full-sounding vocals into their mix. There are many options out there and I can only offer my thoughts and experience, but I encourage all engineers to think outside of the blog, book, or videos. Come up with your own way of recording vocals and you'll be much happier with the final mix. It's a great idea to take information and techniques from multiple sources and experiment to find out what works best for the music and the equipment that you have access to at the moment.

Microphones are a major factor when you're recording vocals. Not all microphones are created equal and they certainly all won't give you the same sound. The price of a microphone isn't a concern that you should worry about when searching for the right mic for your vocal tracks. Focus on a mic that will give you what you're looking to track as a solid base for your vocals. If you're looking for clean and crisp vocals, try to find a mic that has a flat frequency response or one that at least has a smooth response in the range of the vocalist. Some mics are specifically tailored for vocals and they typically do a great job. If you have the ability to audition mics before you purchase them, I'd highly recommend that route.

Now for the first tip / secret that I use to get great sounding vocals. Placement of the mic is by far the most important place to start. Move the vocalist around the mic to find the right spot for the amount of presence and clarity. Don't just have the vocalist stand right in front of the mic. Many times, vocalists will stand too close to a mic. This causes too much presence in the low frequencies and tends to pick up a lot of sibilance. A pop filter placed right in front of the mic won't alleviate this problem. But it is a good idea to use a pop filter to guide the vocalist to the proper distance from the capsule of the mic. There's not a specific amount of space that you can use on each vocalist, you have to work with how loud and what type of tone the vocalist has for each individual track. That's why they have a goose neck for being placed in different places depending on the vocalist. Plus, it's a great idea to mount the pop filter on a separate mic stand. This allows you to move the mic around while maintaining the spot where the vocalist stands. Keep in mind that the vocalist doesn't have to be on axis with the capsule of the microphone. It's quite alright to experiment with having the vocalist sing off to the side of the mic. This technique may reduce the amount presence and help the vocal fit right into the mix.

I hope this information helps you get started with tracking amazing vocals. The vocalist can be the most amazing singer in the world, but how they're recorded is half of the quality. So work with your vocalists and talk to them if you're hearing something that doesn't sound good. It's perfectly normal to have a vocalist do another take if there are problems with the recording. Never fall back on the notion that it can be fixed in the mix. Strive to be the best engineer you can be and do everything you can to get solid vocal tracks. Less is more and this goes a long way when you start to mix and the vocals already sound perfect. A few tweaks here and there and you should be able to get the right sound for the mix. Please leave a comment if you have any questions about the techniques that I've listed here.

Vocal EQ mixing secret: High & Low Pass Filters

EQ can be the most elusive part of mixing. Presets are a good starting point, but 99% of the time they don't get the job done. You've got to know all the parameters of your EQ. HP & LP filters usually go overlooked when it comes to EQ. However, these can be some of the most critical tools you use. Extreme high and low frequencies can cause a lot of congestion in a mix. Take the time to use filters and roll off some of the high and low frequencies on each track in your mix. By sculpting your tracks with HP and LP filters, you will find that your tracks fit together sonically.

Maag Audio EQ4 (BUY NOW)

In addition to the filters, you can use the Maag EQ4 on your vocal tracks and get out-of-this-world results with a simple turn of the knob. The EQ4 has the "Air Band" built on the top end of the EQ and allows you to dial in the right amount of shine and shimmer in a vocal track. This allows it to open up and sit perfectly on top of the mix. At the moment, the EQ4 is only sold as a 500 series module, so you'll need to do a little investing in your studio to add this magical piece of gear. Trust me when I say that you will not be disappointed. There have been so many times when I just give the 40KHz a 3dB boost and all of a sudden the vocals come to life. And yes, I did say 40KHz. You just have to hear it to believe it. The rest of this EQ is also excellent on almost any track. The SUB knob also works as a filter and allows you to carve out any low frequencies that may get too boomy or muddy in your mix. This is the magical box!

Now in vocal tracks, there's not a lot of detail or useful information in the low frequencies. Use the filter to roll off the low end up to about 100 Hz. Don't stop there, move the curve up until you find the right amount of low end reduction to help the vocal sit in the mix. Use a gentle curve to make sure you don't get any phasing problems. A 6dB or 12dB curve will work best for this sort of filtering. A steeper curve will usually cause phase shift and this will result in the vocals going out of phase with the mix.

Be sure not to do this with the track in solo mode. You need to mix your vocal in the mix. The world is not going to hear your vocal tracks in solo mode, so don't mix them that way. You can solo the track to A/B the mix against your vocals, but ultimately you should make decisions while listening to the vocal in the mix.

Hope this is helpful in getting you going with your vocal recordings. Please leave a comment if you have a question. For more info and video tutorials on audio production, please check out my audio mixing master class on Udemy.