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Hi guys, can anyone give my some tips on how i can deliver my rap correctly?

basically I'm going really wild on the mic but when it comes to listening back, it sounds dull and with no effort? Any advice / tips on delivery when recording and/or how to mix it to put life into it?

P.s I'm really new to recording/mixing my own stuff..

Heres an example of my work

http://soundcloud.c…"]Hipnotic - This is for (Prod. Red skull) by officialhipnotic on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free[/]="http://soundcloud.c…"]Hipnotic - This is for (Prod. Red skull) by officialhipnotic on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free[/]
Thanks for your time!

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officialhipnotic Tue, 03/13/2012 - 10:58

Thank you for the reply, im recording in my bedroom , i have a home made booth made out of cushions and blankets, im using a behringer c-3 condenser mic (Got a pop shield etc) im really new i dont even no what a pre-amp is!, the interface im using is a mbox mini 2, The way i process the tracks are by

1.Recording vocals
2. Re-recording same vocals (Doubling up) pan the audio left
3 . Re-recording same vocals again (tripiling up) pan the audio right
4. record adlibs

I use the compresser on everthing exept the adlibs on the following settings

knee 16.3
attack 5.1
gain 4.4
ratio 8.1
release 190.5
thresh 17.1

RemyRAD Tue, 03/13/2012 - 13:38

All of your settings are good. All of your equipment is quite usable. The only problems you are having is in the lack of understanding how to record and process your vocal. The muddiness comes from not utilizing the bass cut filter switch on your microphone, on your preamp or in your software. It sounds cool in the headphones but as you've already discovered, it's mud city on the monitors. And that's why professional engineers always utilized a high pass filter on the vocal recordings. That doesn't mean you won't have enough bass. It means you won't have any mud. Bass can still be there and it might also require a little boost around 125-150 Hz. Then you will sound full without sounding mushy. As you can already tell, your compression is effectively placing your voice in the mix where you want it to be held. Now you just need the extra equalization to make it all meld together properly. Sometimes you equalize before the compression. Sometimes you equalize after the compression. And sometimes you equalize before and after compression to get just the sound you want. Sometimes you compress and equalize during recording, other times you record dry without any equalization or compression. It all depends on how you like to work. And that's called workflow technique and practices. Everybody has their own workflow technique. My father had a peculiar workflow when he used to get dressed in the morning. He would put on his shorts and his shoes and socks before he put on his pants. That never made any sense to me. He should have put on his shorts over his pants because the comedic value would have been so much higher. It was funny enough just watching him put his pants on when his shoes were already on first. At least he was a great violinist. He was so good, he used to sight read his lessons. But that actually kept him from ever becoming a true violinist soloist virtuoso because he was a talented smartass like me. So I get it from dad. Mom was a perfectionist and her vocal technique and practices and as a result became a Metropolitan Opera Star. And I'm basically a Broadcaster who thought that broadcasting & recording engineering were the same thing. So I spent as much time in my career as a recording engineer as I have being a live network television broadcaster. At first, I was too stupid to understand the differences and thought I needed to learn both aspects since I thought they were a single combined concept. They are not. So I simply became good at both as opposed to maybe just great with one or the other. Though I think I'm great with both but that's only my opinion and the opinion of the Grammy, Emmy & Soul Train Music Awards. I never won those awards but I was nominated for those awards. So I know everything about a lot of nothing.

Always looking to learn new nothingness
Mx. Remy Ann David

RemyRAD Tue, 03/13/2012 - 17:10

XACTLY! For recordings you have already made, it's a simple matter to simply utilize the incredible filtering capabilities within your software. It becomes an issue of whether that switch is on or off, on the microphone, when you need to feed it to a compressor/limiter, compression and limiting in the software, etc. That's because the compressor/limiter will react differently with that extra low-end. Sometimes you want that switch off on the microphone when you are compressing and recording the compression. Other times you don't want to switch off before the compression. I can only tell you that you have to listen and evaluate that decision for yourself. But you have to hear everything first to make that decision. I would say if you are just recording that microphone dry/raw, I would turn that switch on and roll off the low-end for recording purposes and tracking vocals. You will be amazed at how well your vocals will then sit and respond within your mix. You're already good at what you're doing. So whether you do it at the microphone or you do it in the software really doesn't matter as long as it gets done. Sometimes when I'm recording announcers for commercials, I'll leave that switch off for that added low-end Proximity Effect before it goes into my compressor/limiter along with some equalization to roll off some of the low-end but not all. That's what I want that big clanging brass balls announcer sound. And then while you want the compressor to work, you may also want to " tell " the compressor's detector not to hear that extra low-end. And that's only capable if the hardware compressor has an external detector input patch or the software allows for an adjustment of the bandwidth of the detector circuit of the software compressor. That way the compressor will respond more to the active fundamental spectra of the voice than the tons of extra built up low-end that can confuse the compressors operation. Digital audio in the computer realm is simply a huge candy store for adults. And my favorite sound is that of the dark chocolate, coconut goodness of a Mounds Bar. Screw the milk chocolate and the almond, I do like that sound. You also don't want your sound to be crispy and crunchy. Well maybe crispy?

Kit Kat for the crispy crunch.
Mx. Remy Ann David

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