Rap Trap Vocal Pipeline Tips

General

– Fill Gaps when Recording Vocals, i.e. Create Short Adlibs in Pauses Beside the Standard Double that Mostly Plays Only Along Main Vocal

– Don’t Throw Fixed Vocal EQ Curves but Listen, Low Cut but Not Too High and Not Too Low, Around 100Hz, for Rap Boost the Mids for an Upfront Signal

Main Vocal Chain

1) Auto Tune, Increase Tracking on Auto Tune if you have Clean Vocals

2) Clean EQ to Low Cut (Quite High for Trap) and Add Presence

• can Be LC at 200Hz

• Do this in Solo and then in the Mix

3) Compress / Limit 

• as for Vocal Compression, 0ms to 8ms = Fast Attack, 8ms to 25ms = Medium Attack, 25ms Upwards = Slow Attack

• i.e. Up to 8ms it is that you Rarely Get Anything Through as the Compressor Works on Entire Incoming Signal

• if you Want the Vocal to Cut Through More Choose Something Between 25ms to 40ms

• as for the Release Don’t Keep it Too Long to Not Keep on Compressing to the Next Words (e.g. Often Max 200ms so Compressor Releases Before the Next Word)

– Make Use of Make Up Gain if you Compress the Vocals, i.e. Bring Back the Lost dB During Compression

4) Use a Parallel Compression Tool (OTT) to Fill Signal

5) Use a Saturation Tool to Colorise the Upper Part of the Frequency Spectrum  

• Be Aware that Sometimes it is Better to Leave the Main Vocal Clean but Distort the Doubles

– also it is a Good Idea to Use the Same Distortion Throughout the Different Sources, i.e. if you Use Saturn on Vocals then also Use Saturn on Drums/Bass/Synth/Guitar etc.

6) Now Remove Resonances Mostly Between 4kHz to 8kHz

– if you Feel Like Taming the Resonances in the Upper Spectrum Makes the Vocal Too Dark, Use a Dynamic EQ (or De-Esser / Dynamic Multiband) Instead, or then a Special Tool Like Sooth / Reso / Smooth Operator)

7) Create Depth with a SC Reverb, i.e. Reverb Fills Holes but is Ducked when Voices Play

– Always Low Cut Reverb on Vocals (from 450Hz) and Often also Hi Cut Reverb

8) Now you Should have a Decent Vocal and Add Maybe Another Clean EQ to Tweak Minor Things

Adlibs Vocals Chain

1) Copy the Main Vocal Chain

2) Low Cut the Adlibs Much More to e.g. to 300Hz-400Hz and also Reduce Presence

3) Turn Up Retune Speed a Lot More on Adlibs

4) Reduce Level of Adlibs

5) On the Adlibs you can Remove the SC Function on the Reverb, i.e. it is Nothing Wrong to have a Little Washed Adlibs

6) Make the Adlibs to Modulate from Left to Right, i.e. Do Not Just Pan to on 1 Side but Make it Move  from Left to Right

7) Create a Ping Pong BP Delay with Quite Some Feedback and Put the Delay Before the Reverb

Backing Vocals Chain

1) If you have 2, Pan Them Hard Left / Hard Right

2) Correct the EQ so the Backing Vocals are Mainly Only Playing Mid Frequencies

3) Compress Them a Lot so They Not Stick Out on Their Own but They Blend with Main Vocals

– also Remove Noise with a Noise Gate

4) Remove Distortion Effect from the Backing Vocals

5) Do Strong De-Essing so the SS to Not Compete with the Main Vocal, (or Special Tool Like Sooth / Reso / Smooth Operator)

6) Remove Reverb on Doubles but Use a Room Reverb with No Decay

7) Reduce Level of Doubles Quite a Bit

8) If you have Only 1 Double, the Mimic the Stereo Effect with a Stereo Plugin

• e.g. Ozone Imager to Create Artificial Stereo, you Would then Need to Back Off the Highs a Bit in the EQ as Ozone Imager Makes Them Louder

• also If you have Only 1 Double, Definitely Use Room Reverb to Add Some Stereo (Again, with No Decay on the Double)

9) Optionally Compress the Doubles Different with a Dual L/R Compressor, i.e. Either Different Threshold or Different Ratio for a Whacky Doubling Effect