The gear demo thread.

[gregwar]

empire building

so I ran my friend kream thru the vocal designer on the v-synth gt. I was aiming for a 'wall of kream' but i think it sounds really full and sorta like 'fm radio' lol

I rap in this one too (swaggy lol) most of our tracks are crass and silly but since I didn't want to become a cariacature of myself we made a couple more serious ones

most of the sounds in the beat are from the fantom g (aka the holy ghost) except the drums and sub bass (razor)

it's actually one of the more simple beats with around 5-10 tracks (10 if you count the snare, bass drum, etc as separate) but i think it still sounds full like the 24-36 track ones

thoughts ?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/8g1r6u56boqc7 ... 202%29.mp3

ps, I know sum of u don't like drop box I can make a we transfer link if anyone wants. also, the guy who mixes my stuff is still working on it this is still a beta version

[selfinflikted]

The vox do indeed sound very full. Nice work!

I wish I knew how to thicken my vox stuffs with my current gear, other than just overdubbing.

[gregwar]

for a rap chorus the minimum is usually 2 main takes, one turned up 3db, one down 3db in the centre. then I do 2 more one panned hard left and one hard right, both down about 3 db

from there you can add a few aux sends. I usually use a doubler around -12 to -18 db, then a vocal plate around the same. I like to have them there but not obvious, just barely perceptible

my mixer knife usually adds short delays too

here's a couple more from a mix tape we're calling duologues:
summer clothes:
- https://www.dropbox.com/s/0zmhni4l39y19 ... lothes.mp3

helly hansen:
- https://www.dropbox.com/s/5ofho27svfa45 ... her%29.mp3

*edit: I will say the biggest difference didn't come from rec techniques but from upgrading my sm58 to a rode nt1a. capturing it well at the source just makes it sound better lol

[selfinflikted]

The problem I have with doubling is I can NEVER seem to get the meter/syllables/vocal rhythm to match well enough so it sounds like dookie. I do use a cloner though, which I'm sure is comparable to a doubler. I HAVE had minimal success with just copy/pasting the vocal track into a new track and offset the time by a few milliseconds. I probably just need some additional software plugins to make it fatter. Luckily, I don't sing too often on even my own music, so there is that.

[gregwar]

u mean when u rec extra vocal takes they sound off ?

I have a hard time with that when there's plug-ins (uad adds a lot of delay for doubling unless u use their console app).

when we're tracking vox normally I make a separate project. I bounce the whole beat to a stereo wav file and put zero plug-ins on anything until it's all tracked.

we normally aim for a buffer at 64, 128 is the absolute max. I like to hear my other takes while I'm recording so I can try to make them tight (with more or less success as I improve at rapping lol)

a lot of it is practiced in my truck listening to the beat while I write the lyrics. I usually won't record anything until I've practiced dozens of time and have the flow down

when you have it all doubled or more it's the slight variations in intonation, rhythm, etc that give it it's fullness.

as for signing I would try melodyne, it's prolly better than vocal designer. in vocal designer I made a low (centre), mid, and high (hard right and left) version and have enough of them there to fill it out (plus his original 4 chorus takes) it worked out to about 12 tracks or so

[selfinflikted]

u mean when u rec extra vocal takes they sound off ?

Yes. But it isn't due to any latency caused by plugins... just my own inability to sing the same thing twice the same way. lol

when you have it all doubled or more it's the slight variations in intonation, rhythm, etc that give it it's fullness.

Yes. When done correctly, it's a chorus-y sound. But my vox are usually so far off that it just sounds bad. Next time I aim for recording my vox, I'll just practice a LOT as you advise to try and get it tighter. Tight. Yes. That's the word for what I'm NOT doing right.

[gregwar]

lol keep in mind I only started rapping like 2-3 months ago as dare from one of my friends. I had been writing for a while mostly folky type acoustic songs (I do get tired of overly electronic stuff sometimes).

I told my friend who is a rapper that I'd written some stuff so he was like great let's track it tonight, we'll do it in front of sum chix no big deal right lol (that's the chix on the helly hansen track)

but ya sometimes we get to the 60 or 70 take mark (mostly because we're not rehearsed enough) until it sounds good (we've had to go back and retrack it too if it's not tight enough). generally we use a max of 4 at the same time for a verse but we keep trying until it sounds really tight.

I keep some of those takes around incase a word gets muffled and I have to make a comp during mixing for the vox stems. that way it's all sounding pretty tight for the guy who mixes the stems together. with empire building tho we really had it down it only took me 5-6 tries to nail it cause I practiced so much

[selfinflikted]

Well your rapping sounds fine to me. The production on it is buttery .

...but 70 takes? ooo my lordt! How you have a voice left after that is beyond me.

I get tired of strictly electronic stuff too. Tis why I wanted that Kurz I got, so I could do orchestrations. I also do a lot of traditional rock music too, so I never get stuck just doing one thing. I have never done rap, though. SEVENTY TAKES MY GOD! That borderlines on Enya production, though they probably leave all SEVENTY OMG takes in the mix. Now THAT'S some vocal production right there - Enya.

[gregwar]

here's an orchestra one I did called freak magnet:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5wvqawpctcdg2 ... 0final.mp3

it's just the instrumental cause the vox, etc are still being mixed. this beat took me 2-3 weeks it's prolly one of the most complex I've ever attempted. there's something like 48 or more tracks.

tons of kontakt, battery, esx24, etc all layered with synths, etc

[selfinflikted]

here's an orchestra one I did called freak magnet:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5wvqawpctcdg2 ... 0final.mp3

it's just the instrumental cause the vox, etc are still being mixed. this beat took me 2-3 weeks it's prolly one of the most complex I've ever attempted. there's something like 48 or more tracks.

tons of kontakt, battery, esx24, etc all layered with synths, etc

That's awesome! This makes me want to synth more this weekend. Thanks for the inspiration!

[Plink Floyd]

That is impressive! The rappy ones also. The production sounds really top notch.

the biggest difference came from upgrading my sm58 to a rode nt1a

I'm not surprized. I'll bet not many pro studios use dynamic mics for recording voice. Yeah, 58s are great for live, but a nice silky condenser is usually way more better for recording vox, and anything else acoustic for that matter.

[gregwar]

thanks guys !

my first rap mixtape is almost done we've got maybe 2 tracks left and some loose ends like some of the mixes need work

here's one I put together really quickly since I was tracking a hype man that night and wanted to get him on 3 songs

it's just a basstrumental in early beta. I've been saying forever that I don't care about all the mid and high freqs in a beat and that an all-bass beat would be awesum

so the challenge was to make a beat from mostly bass sounds with a clap (I did some 'field recordings' and got sum booty slapping 'clap' sounds to put in when I get back to the studio lol)

anyways this is made from trilian, razor, es1 (sine waves), ultra beat 'analog' kicks, and a few more. in total it's about 15 bass tracks layered. it's for twerking lol

I did throw in a crappy theremin melody for sum high freqs but that patch still needs work

It's for my next tape internally called 'plastic' and I want no acoustic samples like strings, brass or drums just electronic sound sources for the beats

twerk:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/7ppnmnjep32gt ... eta%29.mp3

[MetroSonus]

Is this a jams with tape or demo? I haven't heard it yet I just want to make sure its in the right thread...

[Purity_Control]

Ok, I didn't plan on this being a Mam Vocoder demo but since it's now go 12 tracks of vocoding based on a coral arrangement lol I suppose it has gone that way... the arrangement is fairly minimal in it's own way so I wanted the voice work to really be able to carry it.

First version of treble, alto, tenor & bass voice parts was done with the vocoder output running into the Boss CE-20 with the spacialiser effect on, which seemed too cold so I bounced each part individually through the Lexicon MX300 to add reverb and more effecyness, which was kind of ok, then I did another vocoded version of each track using the rich chorus on the CE-20 and mixed that in with a slight detune... lol and then realised that bouncing the spacialiser effect parts through the Lexicon had buggered up the spacialisation as it relies on playing with the phase of the left/right channels, so then I put the 'dry' parts before I bounced them back in too with a slight detune lol

It's very rough but not a bad start as a proof of concept.



I should come in this bit of the forum more often... need to cycle out and pick something up from the sorting office, then will listen to some of the stuff in here!

[Purity_Control]

here's an orchestra one I did called freak magnet:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5wvqawpctcdg2 ... 0final.mp3

it's just the instrumental cause the vox, etc are still being mixed. this beat took me 2-3 weeks it's prolly one of the most complex I've ever attempted. there's something like 48 or more tracks.

Smart, I approve of this. Nice use of violin stabs in there too (is that what you call them?)

[Purity_Control]

Twerk! Teh boingy! It haz it.

[christianrock]

Today I should finally get around to listening to gregwar's tunage.

[selfinflikted]

Twerk! Teh boingy! It haz it.

What, what, what? What has you?

[Purity_Control]

Teh Twerk haz teh boingy!

twerk:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/7ppnmnjep32gt ... eta%29.mp3

[selfinflikted]

Teh Twerk haz teh boingy!

twerk:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/7ppnmnjep32gt ... eta%29.mp3

WTF? I clicked this, and got this, verbatim:

"Invalid Link

This link wasn't well formed"

Damn you and your ill-formed links!