Recording vocals/rhymes & effects

[perspective]

I'm working on a nice liquidy style track at the moment and its got a couple of bursts of me (oh dear) rhyming away being all gangsta innit

So what is the best environment for recording vocals in? The first set I did in my bedroom came out quite flat, it felt like i needed to pile loads of reverb on. Should I be looking to record in a more open space? I was thinking of using the basement in my house as its big and empty, with soft walls so not a lot echos.

Secondly, can anyone give me some tips to make the vocals really shine? When i've recorded before (for hip hop projects with friends) i've just eq'd all the bottoms out, sparingly applied a little compression and its sort of come out alright, but this is different as im working with dnb which is a lot more hectic and bassy than i've worked with before in this area...

Sorry if im waffling on a bit, I guess the easiest thing to do would be just getting on and doing it

 

[Alexi]

I'm working on a nice liquidy style track at the moment and its got a couple of bursts of me (oh dear) rhyming away being all gangsta innit

So what is the best environment for recording vocals in? The first set I did in my bedroom came out quite flat, it felt like i needed to pile loads of reverb on. Should I be looking to record in a more open space? I was thinking of using the basement in my house as its big and empty, with soft walls so not a lot echos.

Secondly, can anyone give me some tips to make the vocals really shine? When i've recorded before (for hip hop projects with friends) i've just eq'd all the bottoms out, sparingly applied a little compression and its sort of come out alright, but this is different as im working with dnb which is a lot more hectic and bassy than i've worked with before in this area...

Sorry if im waffling on a bit, I guess the easiest thing to do would be just getting on and doing it

When I record vocals (this aint DNB mind), it's mainly in a propa study but at home it's best to do it in a smallish room unless your doing mariah carey style singin for which you'll need a average size stadium, but preferably the room should have stuff to absorb excess echoes, sofas, carpet etc.

if your going to be doing a lot of vocals its worth getting a decent microphone, otherwise you can add all the fx you like but it will still sound like an old cassette recording.

when recording, make sure you get a good strong signal level, but make sure it doesn't clip

then to make them shine & powerful, make 3 (or more if you want to make a huge vocal sound) copies of the vocals.

EQ them to make the main frequencies stand out, so if it's a female singer you add more mid and cut some of the low end bass, and male boost mid/bass frequencies, just experiment

pan 1 to the left, 1 to the right and keep one in centre

add mild compression and reverb to the centre

on the two panned tracks, add a fair amount of compression, and more reverb than the centre track, but make the reverb slightly different on each, so it will give a wide vocal stereo field.

then add any other fx you want to make the vocals interesting, a little bit of chorus can sound good when used correctly.

Hope that helps