I'm in my friends car right now and he's playing some new tech stuff and I can help but wonder how in the hell he creates such lush vocal stacks during his singing parts? It's usually simple things like a high vocal, a lower octave and 3rd harmony. It's the lower octave section that sounds so good and I have no idea how they mix it so well. I know a lot of it has to do with tech being a talented artist but there's def some work on the mixers part going on to pump out such lush stacks. I can't really explain it much better than that right now. I'll be home to post an example of what I mean.. Just wanted to make the post before forgot.
Guess its not a third part harmony on the first track..just octaves. But either way the lower vocal always sounds so good and "full."
On this song, around 30 seconds
the chorus around 1:30
The entire chorus, but you can hear it best in the outro.
Another good example is around 5:22 in this track on the far edges of the stereo field.
all the vocals are so smooth, but still have a bit of grit to them. The grittiness def. comes from the artist, but the mixing is so good on them to my ear.
Even though we have some crazy tuning technology these days, I firmly believe tech has a more firm grasp on harmonies in singing than 90 percent of the other rappers and most people overlook that fact, but I really appreciate his work because its more interesting than the bland top 40 rap songs.
But I honestly dont know TOO much about him, I'm assuming Krizz does some of the low gritty stuff.
didnt hear nothing mind blowing that hasn't been accomplished in other songs over the years
I guess I should've prefaced this whole thread with a "Rap/hip-hop" isn't my primary genre," so I haven't heard it all or even cared to sift thru all of the garbage to find good artists. 99 percent of what I hear anymore is god awful, with artists like kreayshawn, lil wayne, and soulja boy, its hard to have faith in this genre. But I do really like tech. I guess I just haven't heard many other artists doing things like this, but I'm more interested in the production of those layers... and less interested in discussing how many times I missed this sort of thing in the past years
I give him credit for not doing the typical crap mixtape vocals and takes pride in putting out quality music. however, that vocal is typical mixing and recording by a professional who knows what they are doing. tech really on his mixing and mastering for his music hella props
I give him credit for not doing the typical crap mixtape vocals and takes pride in putting out quality music. however, that vocal is typical mixing and recording by a professional who knows what they are doing. tech really on his mixing and mastering for his music hella props
I haven't heard those low melodic styled vox on 99 percent of the other rap tracks I've heard, maybe I've missed it. I'm not talking about his usual rapping voice, I'm talking about the super gritty low vocal in the melodic sections. The mixing is just awesome, first and foremost, I know they're in a pro studio with heavily treated rooms and amazing mics...both which add to the sonic qualities, but the processing on that vocal seems really different to me. Maybe I just haven't heard many other artists layer in such awesome lows that it just seems like they are processed differently.
Form my perspective, when you have a great voice, you have a great voice...
I mixed tracks that ware recorded in Hotel rooms by good rappers (Meth and Ray for example) and they sounded better then 80% of things I mix form the studios.
Ofc chain helps but you have to have it in you at first place.
I haven't heard those low melodic styled vox on 99 percent of the other rap tracks I've heard, maybe I've missed it. I'm not talking about his usual rapping voice, I'm talking about the super gritty low vocal in the melodic sections. The mixing is just awesome, first and foremost, I know they're in a pro studio with heavily treated rooms and amazing mics...both which add to the sonic qualities, but the processing on that vocal seems really different to me. Maybe I just haven't heard many other artists layer in such awesome lows that it just seems like they are processed differently.
You could always book a session at Chapman and ask the mix engineer what you're looking for and see how that pans out. No other real way of telling.
I'm pretty sure most of it comes from the recording stage and not really mixing. Although mixing will have part in making it sound better and smoother as a end result but I'm sure tech wouldn't let it go without it sounding good in the first place.
I'm pretty sure most of it comes from the recording stage and not really mixing. Although mixing will have part in making it sound better and smoother as a end result but I'm sure tech wouldn't let it go without it sounding good in the first place.
For sure, tech seems like a perfectionist. He would do as many takes as it took and nail it.
I also like to make huge vocal stacks. Here's how I do it:
Record clean takes, pan them appropriately for stereo spread, and buss them through a single compressor. Then I chop each syllable so that they are all perfectly aligned and on time with my main vocal. This will make the stacks sound tight and huge. You can effect the vocal stack buss with verb, delay, distortion, or whatever else.
Also, I don't think you need a $3000 mic to make something that sounds slick. I use a Neumann TLM-103 and I love the vocal sound I can capture with it. But shit, if you have an SM-57 you can still make the most of it by being critical with your recording and mixing.
I also like to make huge vocal stacks. Here's how I do it:
Record clean takes, pan them appropriately for stereo spread, and buss them through a single compressor. Then I chop each syllable so that they are all perfectly aligned and on time with my main vocal. This will make the stacks sound tight and huge. You can effect the vocal stack buss with verb, delay, distortion, or whatever else.
Also, I don't think you need a $3000 mic to make something that sounds slick. I use a Neumann TLM-103 and I love the vocal sound I can capture with it. But shit, if you have an SM-57 you can still make the most of it by being critical with your recording and mixing.
I know you said you use a single comp on the group, but how do you approach EQ?
i know how he does it .. and he is the most talented person i have ever i say ever ever ever ever worked with... i have met no one with his timing... you want near perfect dubs he has em all day long. we used to fly thru songs...
i think we did the vocals on this ring in about 30 mins... the whole song..
its alive even quicker... and yes the engineer plays apart in it.. but technique is the most important thing and he has always brought that to the table... hell its part of his name.. but anyway i used to make them stack a gang of times... like 4 to 8 times each note... and pan them a lil.. run thru a bus and its there... eq them roll off and all that jazz. and there it is... i have worked with alot of people.. and still have met no one with his talent level... period ... if i worked with wayne or who ever.. they still cannot out rap out perform my homie my dog Tech N9ne... Period see the thing is not only can he put it down in the studio.. I groomed him to be able to do all that on stage as well.. and i will bet all the money i have on who ever wanted to have a show off... he would tear they ass up on stage.. period... i still dont know any rappers that do almost a two hour show... LOL and give it their all... every time... no vocalign at least when i was involved it was never used we were recording on adats back then... LOL
Form my perspective, when you have a great voice, you have a great voice...
I mixed tracks that ware recorded in Hotel rooms by good rappers (Meth and Ray for example) and they sounded better then 80% of things I mix form the studios.
Ofc chain helps but you have to have it in you at first place.
This is the truth right here. I firmly believe that it is in the persons voice, and I have had similar experiences with well known industry rappers vs. artists with lack luster voices recorded in good facilities. Nothing replaces a really good voice, not everyone is meant to be a vocalist regardless of how hard they press the issue. People don't give enough credit to a persons natural voice and think you need a special plugin (settings/presets), outboard gear, mixing board, mic, compressor, etc.
50cent, Lil Wayne, and Common to name a few would sound hot and like a superstar even if recorded with all Radio Shack equipment. Not to say that the proper equipment and environment wouldn't enhance the overall sound, but without the star quality voice it would not matter what equipment you were using or the recording space, as you would always be fighting for a sound that was never there to begin with.
This is the truth right here. I firmly believe that it is in the persons voice, and I have had similar experiences with well known industry rappers vs. artists with lack luster voices recorded in good facilities. Nothing replaces a really good voice, not everyone is meant to be a vocalist regardless of how hard they press the issue. People don't give enough credit to a persons natural voice and think you need a special plugin (settings/presets), outboard gear, mixing board, mic, compressor, etc.
50cent, Lil Wayne, and Common to name a few would sound hot and like a superstar even if recorded with all Radio Shack equipment. Not to say that the proper equipment and environment wouldn't enhance the overall sound, but without the star quality voice it would not matter what equipment you were using or the recording space, as you would always be fighting for a sound that was never there to begin with.
Yeah I watched a few long studio clip vids of tech tracking material and him and krizz kaliko both are perfectionists. They aren't the "souja boys" who just pretend they are awesome by laying down something and walking away. They know their stuff. They have amazing timing, flows, rhythm, accuracy, etc. Like I said earlier, I think it was Krizz who did the super low gritty stuff that amazed me....but I don't know for sure. Wish someone tech guru would be able to properly identify it for me.
Either way, those guys are epic.
oh and sweet! Happy 1,000 posts to me I guess lol.
i know how he does it .. and he is the most talented person i have ever i say ever ever ever ever worked with... i have met no one with his timing... you want near perfect dubs he has em all day long. we used to fly thru songs...
i think we did the vocals on this ring in about 30 mins... the whole song..
its alive even quicker... and yes the engineer plays apart in it.. but technique is the most important thing and he has always brought that to the table... hell its part of his name.. but anyway i used to make them stack a gang of times... like 4 to 8 times each note... and pan them a lil.. run thru a bus and its there... eq them roll off and all that jazz. and there it is... i have worked with alot of people.. and still have met no one with his talent level... period ... if i worked with wayne or who ever.. they still cannot out rap out perform my homie my dog Tech N9ne... Period see the thing is not only can he put it down in the studio.. I groomed him to be able to do all that on stage as well.. and i will bet all the money i have on who ever wanted to have a show off... he would tear they ass up on stage.. period... i still dont know any rappers that do almost a two hour show... LOL and give it their all... every time... no vocalign at least when i was involved it was never used we were recording on adats back then... LOL
Real talk! Thank you very much! I always knew that about N9ne! Respect from Russia!
__________________ I know the power of the words. V.Mayakovsky
New Reply 
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
didnt hear nothing mind blowing that hasn't been accomplished in other songs over the years
