Hey, I have been rapping, recording and mixing myself for a couple years now and I am always looking to better my ears and my technique. Even if you may not like rap my questions are pretty general. First of all, we only have one vocal chain available to record through (very basic home setup) and we record in a treated room so the vocals are pretty dry (no room acoustics). We use a Blue baby bottle mic with the Focusrite Platinum preamp recording directly into Cubase using a m-audio card.

The problem always seems to lie in my voice. I have a somewhat deeper voice and a lot of the times it comes out sounding hollow and hard to understand. Along with my deep voice I rap pretty quickly so it makes it even more difficult to understand. Even though I strive hard to announciate every word it doesn't seem to come through in mix down.

I have had some success in a few songs so I do get it right every once in a while but it seems to be a hit and miss. I guess what I am looking for is tips from poeple that have delt with an artist with a deep voice...tracking tips. mic position. eq tweaks. Again, I know it is different for every voice but maybe you can share a few things that would apply to me. The ideal result would be clear vocals but still have that power from the lower tones without being muddy.

You can hear me on the first verse of "fall in" on our sound page. Beware there is explicit lyrics.

http://www.myspace.com/shutdownproductions

I know that the myspace streams sound horrid but it might give you and idea of what I sound like. Thanks

-C