The use of autotune
 

Hi Guys/Girls,

Im a fairly new MC and i have no trouble in writing what i think are quality lyrics. I have some home recording gear which captures good vocals but i just feel my voice isnt right for the type of music i like.

I write kinda grime/hip-hop lyrics but my voice just doesnt sound right. I would love a kinda urban voice like DJ Ironik or Tinchy Stryder. Is there anyway i could ever get this kind of effect on my vocals. I have began using autotune software but this only gets a kind of T-PAIN effect.

I guess i am destined to fail?
Any advice comments appreciated.

MC Chronic.

Are your vocals sounding a bit flat in the mix? If so your not alone - rapping is one of the hardest things to properly produce. A lot of guys just throw auto-tune over it because they don't know what to do with it, but it's frustrating because a lot of them don't like sounding like T-Pain.

My advice is to use a vocal compressor and a very light chorus effect. Then copying your vocals to several other tracks and play around with the pan, volume and FX on each one. You'll get it sounding right eventually.

A light distorted track in the background can work nicely.

reverb or some mild phaser/flanger on a voice also makes for interesting end results.

^ Nice but I think he wanted to avoid that. lol

my bad hehe i saw the grime angle and that's what it sounds like to me hehe

Whoops, wasn't responding to you. Was saying something to Proto-Punk but he deleted the post.

are any of these settings available in audacity/autotune/FL? Maybe if i could email a recording someone could have a fiddle? Im such a noob to all this but i will keep playing and hope i get a better sound soon :) thanks ppl.

Straight up, you're going to look back on your stuff ten years from now like you were in fucking Devo if you start auto-tuning your stuff. Keep playing with the production and try to do it right, is my advice.

This is anti-autotune, death of the ringtone
This ain’t for Itunes, this ain’t for sing-along
This is Sinatra at the opera, bring a blonde
Preferably with a fat ass who can sing a song
Wrong, this ain’t politically correct
This might offend my political connects
My rap’s don’t have melodies
This **** make n*****s wanna go n commit felonies
Ah, get your chain tooken
I may do it myself, I’m so Brooklyn
I know we facin a recession
But the music yall makin gonna make it the great depression
Ah, or your lack of aggression
Pull your skirt back down, grow a set men
Ah, ah.. nigga this just violent
This is death of autotune, ah moment of silence
la da da da… hey hey hey goodbye
Only rapper to rewrite history without a pen
No I.D. on the track let the story begin…
begin….begin
Holdup, this ain’t a number 1 record
This is practically assault with a deadly weapon
I made this just for Flex n Mrs. C,
I want people to feel threatened
Stop your blood clot crying
The kid the dog everybody dying
No lyin, yourboy’ jeans too tight
Your colors too bright, your voice too light
I might wear black four years straight,
I might bring back Versace shades,
This ain’t for Z100
Ye told me to kill yall to keep it 100
This is for Hot 9-7
This for clue for Khaled, for we the best n’
yeah this is just violent
This is death of auto tune, moment of silence…

Holdup, this might need a verse from Jeezy… ay!
I might send this to the mixtape Weezy
Get somebody from BMF to talk on this
Give this to a Blood, let a Crip walk on it
Get me foul to style on this
I just don’t need nobody to smile on this
You rappers singin too much,
Get back to rap you T-Pain’n too much
Ah, I’m a multi-millionaire
So how is it I’m still the hardest nigga here?
I don’t be in the project hallway
Talkin’ bout how I be in the project all day
I sounds stupid to me,
If you a gangsta, this is how you prove it to me
Yeah, just get violent
This is death of autotune, moment of silence
la da da da… hey hey hey goodbye
Only rapper to rewrite history without a pen
No I.D. on the track let the story begin…

i know this is DOA lyrics by Jayz lol. I just wanna change my vocals slightly to fit the more urban grimey kinda sound that lyrics have as mine is kinda plain and flat and doesnt sound rude enough lol. ill be happy to email across some vocals if anyone wants to help. Thanks for the comments above thought ill have a play around.

Cheers.

I would be happy to play around with them if i can do one thing... use your track in one of my songs as a guest verse :D.

what do u mean use it? whats ur email i will get some stuff sent across?

I sent you a Private Message with my email.

I mean use your vocals for a verse in a song I'm working on. I can't get any of my friends to guest rap for another couple of weeks so I thought it might be cool.

haa yeah go for it. you might think differently once you hear it! ill get some stuff sent through tommorrow.

Cheers mate.

"I would love a kinda urban voice"

translation = I want to sound black ... lol

what exactly is it about your voice you dislike? If your lyrics are good along with your flow and rhythm as well as delivery then your voice shouldn't be too big a problem. Look at some of the rappers out their, chali 2na, celph titled, canibus, big pun. Hardly voices for soothing the soul but it doesn't matter.

This thread is about production. His vocals are falling flat because he doesn't know what to do with them mixing wise. It has nothing to do with his skill.

I didn't say it had anything to do with his skill. He said he disliked his voice and wanted to sound more urban. I was trying to get him to elaborate a little. And trying to explain it doesn't matter what your voice sounds like.

I think he said he wanted it sound more "urban" in the mixing sense... but whatevs I guess.

good song

"I never thought that I would be on a boat."

Please don't use autotune... it is wayyyy too mainstream. You want to differentiate from the crowd!

Autotune is ok
 

I think the use of autotune is acceptable as long as the consumers and listeners enjoy listening to it. After all it is upto the listeners to rate the music, not artists stating whether autotune is good or bad. For example, Jay-Z came out with the song DOA (death of autotune) which where he stated artist who use autotune is deregulating their status as a rap artist, but if the listeners enjoy this type of music who is he to say it is bad in the music industry?

Good business, bad art.

i agree. i think ocassional use is okay but anyone that can't sing can use autotune and sound decent so it doesn't really show talent.

You like what lil wayne does with Auto tune?

first you need a decent mic. if you've got one of those you're set. FL has lots of stuff that you can tweak vocals with.

1st dump the vocal track into a channel. then assign that channel to a mixer track. each assigned mixer track has 8 effects channels. they're numbered on the right of the mixer panel. click on one of the arrows and you'll get a drop menu containing a whole bunch of effects.

the poster that said doing multiple tracks of the same vocal line (as in copying and pasting it into several channels) had a good idea. just make sure you pick one (or two that are near-identical) to be the main track(s) that come(s) through the mix. you can still have as many as you want, you just don't want them all out front or it will likely muck-up the instruments and whatnot in the rest of the mix.

you don't need autotune. you just need to experiment and practice. i'm not saying autotune is useless though. combine it with other effects or vocoders and you can do some pretty rad/original stuff.

Nicely worded. Couldn't have said it better myself. Well..I could. But I like to praise people every now and then. Evens out the hate.

Check out this cool auto tune song. Dumb video but cool tunes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGXrLdDp6fU

Post an audio clip of you rapping, and that may make it easier to critique and give advice on.
And, I don't see anything wrong with autotune, if it's used correctly.