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i'm doin' hip hop. any tips/tricks on delays and reverbs and junk?

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baslotto Tue, 09/13/2005 - 00:31

Speaking about voice.
Reverb is something that gives you a sort of a "far into a big room" effect, like a church or a stairway (the walls are singing with you). I don't see it for hip hop but I could be wrong. If you have to apply this effect for this kind of music I would go very light. Meaning a short reverb. Delay is more like an echo effect. For example "Slap delay" gives you the imperession that the singer is singing in a bathroom (little tiles room).
My suggestion is this: make it musical! Apply the effect and use your personal taste to calibrate the amount of effect you want to use (percentage of wetness). For this kind of music the effects you've mentioned are very rare even though I have never mixed hip hop but they are used a lot for the side singers. I hear more doubling in hip hop then delay (meaning that you record the voice twice instead of having the eco effect on voice) For example: if you have a combination of main singer rapping and another one singing melodies, give these effects to the melodic voice, not to the rapper. A dry voice speaks in your face. An effected voice (reverb) is looking for musicality and for a pleasing sound. A delay gives more "live sound on the street, dry rooms, live concert, big room" sound.
My suggestion is for you to play with these and start from zero to the right amount of effect. For rap: less reverb and a little bit of delay to make the singer speak in a larger room (rare? maybe not!) and for a melodic voice a little bit of reverb that you can adjust on the spot to make it sit perfectly in the mix. Reverb also makes the voice feel a little further. Listen to it and feel it. I hope to be of any help.
Since I'm not direcly into this genre I give the word to somebody who actually worked on these things and might give you a totally different advise. The general rule is that the effects that you have mentioned are used to give "a space" to the effected instrument or voice. If you like the sound to be (where???) in a tunnel or huge church, give it a long reverb, if you like to place the instrument in a cave, or a canion put a long delay (that is an echo) these are the extremes, the good answer is in between the no effects and the exreme amount of it (dry and wet).
I hope to be of any help. Bas.