Processing techno 'vocals' (warping, reverb, effects)

Electronic Music Production // Dark Arts
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ericfraser
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Processing techno 'vocals' (warping, reverb, effects)

Post by ericfraser »

I thought I would open up a new thread on something not discussed often...vocals in techno. I for one am not a big fan of vocals in general as I like the music to do the talking. That being said I would like to develop the skill sets to process vocals in the deep dark funky snippet sense. I would like to divide this up into the following segments:

a) Source - where do you source your vocals from? (mic, youtube, sample packs, synths)
b) Warping - How do you go about warping, pitching and 'funk'ing out vocals?
c) Effects - What effects do you like using to process the vocal samples?
d) Voices within percussions

Examples
http://youtu.be/3muTQgMaE8Y
http://youtu.be/oBSe_f0S-2w
http://soundcloud.com/skudge-1/preview- ... -substance
http://soundcloud.com/romanlindau/under ... fw-023-cut

Some techniques off the top of my head would definitely be using Ableton's waveform editing, vocoder effect on percs, transposing down or up with the correct algorithm selected for high quality, reverb 'one hits' with lower frequencies coming through.

Post your vocal tips here!

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helloitsmeagain
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Re: Processing techno 'vocals' (warping, reverb, effects)

Post by helloitsmeagain »

I randomly download from http://www.acapellas4u.co.uk/

i don't know what any of that stuff is so, it's a fairly painful process... usually i have something in mind and just randomly grab a few tracks in the hopes of finding "it".

This morning I managed to build a line "i know you wishing you were tripping" :o

in terms of processing... i randomly throw various things at it till it works. I find that what sticks is different according to each sample.

yup, a picture is emerging that i'm a fairly random guy...
Because of ACiD, i now know that butter is way better than margarine. I saw through the bullshit. - Mitch Hedberg

benjaminwilliams
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Re: Processing techno 'vocals' (warping, reverb, effects)

Post by benjaminwilliams »

Ah i hate this part of making techno. For making funky tech-house it's just too easy, but i find making dark choppy vocals or 'evil sentences' very difficult to make. It just goes wrong so fast. I guess its back to the drawing board. Couple of good tips would be welcome though. Right now i use freesounds.org and try to find 1 minute speeches. There's some really cool stuff there.

Program
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Re: Processing techno 'vocals' (warping, reverb, effects)

Post by Program »

Hi,

a. Your source could be anything really; movies, sample packs, audio books, radio, tv etc.
b. I'd try it out with warping off 1st as its least destructive, just shift it around with grid off over your beat & you might find nice sweet spots. Warping is also cool when you do extreme stretches with various modes.
c. Try to copy your vocal line into 3 or more layers. Change the pitch of each layer drastically & nudge them forward/backward a few milliseconds. You could also try to reverse it & reverb it heavily, bounce it down, reverse it back & side chain it with the dry version etc.
d. Never tried that, good idea :)

In terms of processing I'd use reverbs, compression, saturation, amp simulation etc. Since its techno I really think there's no rules to processing. Hope this helps :)

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helloitsmeagain
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Re: Processing techno 'vocals' (warping, reverb, effects)

Post by helloitsmeagain »

try this as a source for vocal snippets

http://boxfish.com

""BoxFish" is a free, non-registering search engine that enables users
to search the web for certain events on TV shows using just a few
words or phrases. The archive was created by voice recognition
software and stores programmes from the most popular American
broadcasters for up to one month. Searches show the channel,
broadcaster and the time when the keywords were used together with
their context."
Because of ACiD, i now know that butter is way better than margarine. I saw through the bullshit. - Mitch Hedberg

craigwilliamsmusic
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Re: Processing techno 'vocals' (warping, reverb, effects)

Post by craigwilliamsmusic »

I used to spend forever looking for the right sample to use but now if it's a spoken word or phrase I just record myself saying it and then pitch it to fit the track. If it's a phrase or a part that i want a person to sing (think TRW72) I look towards the old motown stuff and I try and chop out a vocal run or something like that.

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Chris Page
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Re: Processing techno 'vocals' (warping, reverb, effects)

Post by Chris Page »

I find engineering vocals to fit within techno to be a real ball ache. Monoloc is a man who does it well. Its cliche' to just pitch stuff down, but it works. Especially with a bit of distortion.

Try chopping up words/sentences in to syllables, then re arrange them. The finished effect is identifiable as a vocal (its amazing how the brain can pick out human voices, even those drenched in effects), but makes no sense. Its a noise. Maybe reverse the odd syllable for extra 'fucked-up-ness'.


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