| "I Broke It Down For Everyone Here: Peep!!"- lil sagz first i am gonna touch down on equipment, leaning more towards hardware equipment, and i will touch down on a few computer basics as well. Mics (and microphone accessories) alright here is my setup - - ElectroVoice Cobalt 7 - Regular Straight Mic Stand - 20" Cable w/ a Gold 1/4" jack (1/4" is the big size compared to the 1/8" computer jack) - Professional Gooseneck Pop Filter (soon a windscreen as well) that is my setup, and the equipment is average - we will be upgrading this summer hopefully. ANYWAYS. when we went to buy this setup we were introduced to all kinds of new products, and i did my research. and we found that there is something out there for everyone and everyone's style. cobalt 7 was our choice next to the shure sm58. why? cuz it was cheaper and it had the sound we wanted, it is a little less warm, but it is sure to pick everything up. if you decide to get a new mic here is what i recommend: test the mics before you decide to buy. while testing try these tests. first mic check in a low voice, to your normal rapping voice. if it has the warmth (warmth is the bass in your voice, and it is there to mold in with the beat a little better, if you listen to an r&b song - you will notice they have a nice warm bassy feeling in there voice, and this is what you are looking for more or less.) that you are looking for. next would be the s's just go "ssss sss ssss" in the mic and see what frequency it is picking up, so it don't sound all shitty and non-worthy. lol. there will be a little breath in it, but a windscreen and pop filter will take that out right away. so don't worry about the wind coming into it, unless it is picking up alot of the hiss. next do the puh's and buh's and see how much it is actually picking up, this is where we liked the cobalt 7 compared to the shure sm58. the 58 seemed to pick alot more of it up. and the cobalt 7 softened it up, and sounded really nice. a mic will make a HUMONGUS difference in your quality. at first from reading all of these post i was starting to think that it wasn't so much the mic that was the problem of our shitty quality but it was our soundcard. when it mainly had to do with our mic, a soundcard will make a big difference too if you don't want to get into hardware. i'm not going to get into soundcards because i don't record with them so i wouldn't know the difference. but i always hear good things about a couple and those are: delta 44 and 66 [and supposedly they got a little kit that is excellent for recording] sound blaster audigy and mainly all the soundblasters will give you somewhat good quality. and i say somewhat because recording with a computer is just not going to cut it, i've heard that the delta actually is really nice with power, but in any other instance, the soundcard is not going to give you the desired power. because there is not enough power coming from your soundcard, and alot of people say thet a preamp will solve that, which i don't think it helps. a soundcard seems one dimensional compared to recording with hardware. i've just noticed from experience that people might have good sounding stuff *ON THE COMPUTER, but once it hits on a home cd player or a car stereo system, it will distort. this is because most of the times the mics are not being use to their full potential because the soundcard will take alot of the frequency and quality away from your voice. alot of people seem to have their own opinion but since i stopped recording with my soundcard and moved onto hardware - the vocals do not mesh with the beat at all. next i will tell you what i am recording vocals through: my recording hardware setup my setup is made up of these components: - Boss Dr.Sample SP-303 - RCA Cabels (for running my vocals into the computer for sequencing and uploading i use this cable, it has the two red and white adapters on one end, and a 1/8" jack on the end, i think it is called a line cable, or something, lol) now this peice of equipment is prolly the easiest hardware i have ever set my hands on, and it was very cheap, at the cost of about $300 or around there. a sampler is mostly used for well, sampling. lol it is for putting certain effects on samples, and recording vocals and putting efects on them. it is basically the main view of cool edit. it has a shitload of effects on it and here are the effects: filter drive (cutoff, resonance, drive/level) pitch delay vinyl simulator isolator reverb tape echo chorus flanger phaser tremolo/pan distortion overdrive fuzz wah octave compressor equalizer lo-fi noise generator radio tuning slicer ring mod chromatic ps voice transformer c. canceler and all those effects can do amazing things for lyrics, unlike any plugin on the computer. the compressor, by far is the best i've ever seen. and there is quite a bit of cool effects you can put on for intro's as well as eq'ing and other essential tools. i personally do my basic EQ'ing with this, and my parametric equalizing with cooledit. the quality is excellent when recording vocals as well. there is HARDLY and hiss, which i easily remove with the noise reductor on cool edit pro. and the reverb is very 4 dimensional on this. i personally think, if you are recording with a computer (digitally) you should use one of these for vocals and effects. it is low in cost (compared to alot of other recorders and mixers) and is just as effective with a computer for sequencing. they have alot of samplers, and mixers, so i recommend testing them out and playing with them. and if you can't figure it out, ask an employee to kinda show you how it works, and what they personally think of the item. once and a while you will get the jackass that has never touched a piece of equipment in his life, so be sure to ask if they have used it before. now this specific peice of equipment *IS NOT* a digital recorder with 4 different tracks. we do have a Boss BR532, we just have alot to learn about it. so i'm not going to go into any depth with that yet. i will once we get it figured out and mastered. i'm currently using the computer for sequencing. i like it a little better like that because it is visual, you see where everything is. we also have a Roland MC307 Groovebox beat machine, but that is for making beats. so i don't think yall want me to get into that, or else this post would be 25 pages long. lol. now i figure i will go into how i produce and what *I* use for mastering and how i do it. ---- Mastering "mastering...", as said by so many "... is an art form." which it truly and truly is. it is something that takes years of expirementing, and knowing limits, and styles of others. i am not a mastering genius. but i do know what sounds alright a little more in depth then most people. the problem with most of everyone on this site's *mastering* is that they do everything by the book, and they figure that if someone tells them the steps they go through, they will have good sounding quality. which is not always true. and it usually leads to people doing way to much to the vocals it starts to sound shitty. bottom line about mastering techniques is this: if your initial raw material sounds like shit, then it will never sound good. and i promise you. unless you are have a musical engineering masters degree underneath your belt, chances are it is just going to sound worse the more you do with it. so once again, if you think that your initial vocals don't sound good, then they are not, i repeat are not going to be studio quality. first thing i do is remind myself to keep it simple. so there it is i got my raw acapella right infront of me, untouched. first thing i do, is grab that noise reduction, and i do it like everyone else. just let the mic ride out for like 5 seconds. then highlight that, and goto the noise reduction and press "get profile from selection". now before i do anything, i make sure everything is where i want it. i have the noise reduction level at "90" instead of 95. why? because i think even 95 takes a little bit away from the voice. but once again, it pertains to different styles, so i'm not telling you to set your shit at 90 just cuz i do it. you can expirement, but i am just telling you exactly what i do. then i reduce all noise in the whole audio. then i go back, and delete the beginning of my audio (not the end though). then i silence the end. then i send it back into my sampler with everything reduced and silenced how i want it. then i compress it, i don't know the exact settings, because it doesn't really tell you exact #'s but i play it by ear, and make sure it sounds how i want it. this will amp your breaths and different backround noises, so be sure and have a quiet room for recording. and you will have to do a cut on your breaths, the 10db cut works good after you normalize it. *note that you will have to quiet your breaths AFTER you normalizing, which is explained in the next step next, i send it back into cool edit pro and normalize it to 95% - 98% depending on the track. i usually compare it to professionally made tracks. and if the beat still is flooding out the lyrics a little bit, i do the bass cut from the graphic equalizer, so it ain't as dramatically changed as the FFT Filter's bass cut. that will bring the loudness of beat down quite a bit, and be sure to preview it everytime before you do a filter. after that i send it once again back to the sampler for the reverb. like always i kinda play it by ear. i try not to overdo it too much with the reverb. it depends on the track. if the beat is kinda open with not much instuments, and there is a little silence in the beat, then i like to put a heavier reverb than i would on a beat with alot going on in the back round. no matter the case though i put a reverb on it. it helps expand the stereo and boosts the voice up a notch. a reverb and echo are alot different though. i stay away from all types of delays and echo's unless it is an intro. because an echo and delay takes away from the flow, and kind of throws it off a little bit. so once i again, i only use a slight reverb, and the beat will help me decide the intensity of the reverb. then i delete the end of my audio. making sure i don't cut out anything that has been reverbed. do it carefully, i'd say zoom in very close so you cut nothing out, cuz when it cuts out at the end it sounds very unprofessional. after that, before i mix down the lyrics and all i unhook the sampler and connect it to our home stereo. and i bump the shit. this helps you tell how 3D it sounds and the intensity of the voice based on the volume of the cd player. then i hook it back to the comp and put the acapella back on cool edit for the last time. then i sequence it with the beat in multitrack. next i will do my back ups. which should be fun, and not so much of a chore as rapping your verse. and it really depends on the rapper if back up vocals are needed or not. but it always helps highlight certain parts of your verse. with those i go through the same steps as before, except i turn down the backs to 70% - 60% normalizing. and don't put a reverb on em. and with the back ups i put a REALLY low chorus on it, this helps it expand in stereo. what are my settings??? ehh it depends once again. just preview what it sounds like and fuck with all the settings, the chorus is prolly one of the easiest filters to learn. either i use the one on my sampler or on cool edit, they seem to both work efficiently. then with any adlib or effect, i turn it down to about 50% - 70%. and this really depends on the effect or adlib, if i want it to be highlighted and noticed really well the first time around i may even go bout 80%. and i randomally pan em. i just now recently found a plug in, which i have yet to download or even try. but it looks really good for panning and expanding your stereo. it is called "Spin Audio 3D Panner Studio". i have yet to mess with it, i will drop some knowlege on it as soon as i screw with it a little bit. but it looks like it will come in handy for the panning/expanding. and i recommend panning as your little heart desires, but i say don't go to far out there, the furthest you should go left or right is prolly bout 40%. i know it doesn't sound like much, but on a home stereo it is perfect. but once again that is based completely on self preference. and that is my complete mastering. pretty simple, and not to overboard with anything. i personally choose not to mess with antares mic modeler, or aipl warmtone, simply on my personal feelings on the sound of it. i really think the mic modeler is shit. lol but yall can use it, i ain't telling anyone to swith it around. lol. oh and if i need i may do a little parametric equalizing, but nothing to serious. i just usually boost certain low-mid frequencies. ---- self preperation (before i spit a verse). i usually like to be emotionally unstable. maybe i'm happy as shit, or i am pissed as fuck. for me my still is like this: happy = cocky and arogant pissed = raw and rugged and it differs for everyone. now before i spit a verse i make certain preperations. i do mic checks, i make sure all volumes are correct so they are hardly peaking out* and that everything is where it needs to be. *note peaking out means when the volume of a certain input is maxing out, and is either popping, or getting damn near it, it is ok if it is peaking out a little bit, but you don't want your voice in the red unless you getting loud, and you don't want it to peak the whole time neither. there is a peak indicator on cool edit, it is at the gauges there at the bottom, while you recording, and in the far right you will notice 2 little black squares, and if it peaks out those black boxes turn red. it is ok if a mix down peaks out, but if you vocals peak out make sure they aren't too high. same with the beat. once again if it peaks out a lil bit that is ok. next i make sure my voice is feeling alright. i drink some coffee to help me warm up my vocals, but you can drink hot chocolate if you don't like coffee kiddo. and i also pop a cough drop, so it eases my vocal cords, and coats them nicely before i get into rippin shit. then i smoke a cigarette*. *note a cigarette don't really help my voice. lol, i just smoke a cig for the hell of it. and right before i spit, i make sure i have cotton mouth so i don't start drooling and shit while i rap. cuz you can't swallow while you rapping - you just --- can't. lol and depending on my mood i get jumpy and hype my self up a notch. you can really tell in someone's voice if they are actually hype about the track. Other Bullshit you Should Know you have a million influences right here on rm.com. just expand your mind, and listen to other people's shit. just get a feeling for there style and if you like something about there's maybe you can try and apply it to yours in your own way. i'm not saying bite. but i'm saying there wouldn't be a DMX if it wasn't for tupac. so keep in mind if you stuck on something... your influence is here, or if you like me, it is all around you. even in your cd collection or something. just try switching it up a lil once in a while, so you don't become to stuck on one aspect of rapping. expand yourself, as well as express. help someone else with there shit if you think they need it. if you think they could improve on something, tell them, instead of saying, that was MAD WACK, and all that. it will help you out as well because the more you tell people your shit, it seems like your shit will start becoming more concrete, as they tell you what you need to work on. take creative critisism. don't be a bitch and say fuck you when they tell you your flow was off point. lol i'm sick of that fucking bullshit. appendix i know where one of the best sites are if you haven't ever been there before. so if you would like to know maybe aim me or some shit. i will tell it to you here but i don't know if you will be able to see it. it is "sonicspot.c om" without the space. this site has tutorials, good explainations of things. plenty of plug ins if you looking to get some, and exellent software. check em out. this site alone has helped me alot with understanding certain shit in the passed years. and if you got any QUESTIONS feel free to hit me up. but i'd prefer it if you didn't send me a track asking for creative critisism, cuz i've been getting bombarded on aim by millions of peeps asking me to peep they shit. i guess its cuz i go in depth.. fuck this is one large post. lol. well i hope i kinda opened all your eyes a lil more and helped you troubleshoot a lil bit. and i say to you "goodbye" 0ne-sagz P.S. i didn't write this for anything, don't ignore this shit. lol. |