Hip hop is not just about instrumental beats. It is also about powerful vocals! In this music genre, an effective technique to engage the attention of listeners and to make rap lines more interesting is through vocal doubling. Hip hop and rock commonly involve vocal doubling. This transforms a song into a wonderful combination of words and instrumental beats that allows it to captivate its listeners. The primary goal of this technique is to make the main vocal rap more powerful. This can be applied to a choice of word for emphasis, to a single line, a verse or even the entire song. But there are a few ground rules that you should observe to make sure that you are doing it right.
Rule #1. Choose your best take as the lead rap line. A lot of takes, that's the first step in recording. As much as possible, make sure that you and your voice are up for recording, this means keeping yourself hydrated with water to lubricate those vocal chords. Also, keep the mic at the same distance at all times. With a good take, compiling would be easier. If you are gifted with a silver-tongue and you can nail down the entire verse or track in one take, you should go for it. Out of all those takes, choose the best one and make it your lead vocals.
Select a double for the lead. After making a couple of takes and selecting your lead rap, you can select another take and use it as the leads double. This is based on how closely it sounds like the lead. If you're into flowing and free styling, this might be hard. In this case, you will have to make another take that sounds closest to the lead rap. An easy way to achieve this is listening to the lead and rapping along. You can wear one headset to make it easy to rap along.
Hide doubles when mixing. The aim of vocal doubling is to make the lead prominent avoiding the illusion of two rappers singing the same lyrics. Keep the volume of the double so that it doesn't take over from the lead. 10dB to 12dB for the double works best as it ensures that the vocals are more comprehensible without giving away the fact that it's doubled. For a spacious effect, two doubles for the lead will work best. To do this, pan one double left and the other right by 0.10 seconds. This technique delays the track by 10 seconds using the left pan and times it earlier by the same time using the right pan. This makes the doubling effect virtually hidden.
Listen and tweak the final mix. After recording your vocals alongside the beats and instrumentals, it's time to listen to the final mix. If it the doubles don't bend well, tweaking might be necessary. You might also need to practice more to master doubling. Practice your vocals on beats and instrumentals to perfect the art of vocal doubling.
Rule #1. Choose your best take as the lead rap line. A lot of takes, that's the first step in recording. As much as possible, make sure that you and your voice are up for recording, this means keeping yourself hydrated with water to lubricate those vocal chords. Also, keep the mic at the same distance at all times. With a good take, compiling would be easier. If you are gifted with a silver-tongue and you can nail down the entire verse or track in one take, you should go for it. Out of all those takes, choose the best one and make it your lead vocals.
Select a double for the lead. After making a couple of takes and selecting your lead rap, you can select another take and use it as the leads double. This is based on how closely it sounds like the lead. If you're into flowing and free styling, this might be hard. In this case, you will have to make another take that sounds closest to the lead rap. An easy way to achieve this is listening to the lead and rapping along. You can wear one headset to make it easy to rap along.
Hide doubles when mixing. The aim of vocal doubling is to make the lead prominent avoiding the illusion of two rappers singing the same lyrics. Keep the volume of the double so that it doesn't take over from the lead. 10dB to 12dB for the double works best as it ensures that the vocals are more comprehensible without giving away the fact that it's doubled. For a spacious effect, two doubles for the lead will work best. To do this, pan one double left and the other right by 0.10 seconds. This technique delays the track by 10 seconds using the left pan and times it earlier by the same time using the right pan. This makes the doubling effect virtually hidden.
Listen and tweak the final mix. After recording your vocals alongside the beats and instrumentals, it's time to listen to the final mix. If it the doubles don't bend well, tweaking might be necessary. You might also need to practice more to master doubling. Practice your vocals on beats and instrumentals to perfect the art of vocal doubling.
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