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sorry its not a dubstep related question. (does it even matter anymore? havent been here in so long)

First, let me say, that I've been producing steadily for about 4 years now. I'd like to think that I know the ins and outs of my DAW (FL studio) fairly well and I have a not-to-shabby ability to write chords and melodies, program nice rhythmic percussion loops, all that stuff.

I can get pretty far into a song and not finish because of one thing; lack of vocals, or just some kind of vox. See, in 4 years of producing, as embarrassing as it is to say, I've only finished about 6-7 songs. Sure, I like most of the progressions, melodies, and chords that I come up with, it's just that I don't like the piece it's self because it lacks vocals. As most producers, my goal is to produce music that I would like to listen to, and all of my tracks feel dead to me without some kind of vocals. The kind of production I'm aiming for is that of house/future/garage producers like Karma Kid, Blonde, Bondax, Snakehips, and Asa, to name a few.

I know that in most of their music, the vocals they use are from older RnB and Pop songs usually, but I can never, NEVER in all my years find quality samples to use. Sometimes I try to use the song its self and EQ out unwanted parts, but the vocals then just sound like absolute shit regardless of how I then try to process it. No matter what tutorials and guides I look at for chopping and using vocals, they either do not apply to my situation or they all regurgitate basic things I already fully grasp.
So I come to you guys, with a tune I've been working on for way to long (93 hours) for me not to finish and upload with pride. Teach me how 2 find and better use vocals.


And also, heres an example of what I try to do: https://soundcloud.com/snakehips-1/after-i-met-u
Listen to it to the end! The last section of the song especially is an even more prominent example of what I try to accomplish when using vocals.

You could vocode your own singing.

If you really can't be arsed to get over yourself and try to record your own vocals either buy some sample packs, find a vocalist to collab with, or start buying promo vinyls from the 90's with a capella tracks. I find them cheap as fuck all the time. It doesn't even have to be signing, most of those rasta chants on jungle/dubstep tunes aren't even singing, ya know?

Honestly, you Millennials need to grow some fucking balls instead relying on your woe-is-me posts on music forums...not trying to be a dick, but get out of your fucking bedroom, parent's basement, dorm room or where ever your flippin' mac book lives and network with people. Shit there are probably some good-enough karaoke enthusiasts in your town that would love to record some vocals of popular songs for you.

Heres the ting man. 4 yrs is like 2 weeks in the grand scheme of things. ive been doing this for roughly 5 now and i must say im no where near as good as i want to be. you should try recording some of your own samples and sound scapes even just with your phone, that usually gets the creative ideas flowing for me!

Dont be such a fanny.

You dont have "writers block" because it doesnt exist.

Grow a pair.

wow good advice brooooooooooooooooooooooooo.
Everyone ends up in a creative pit of despair at some point.

Sinestepper wrote:wow good advice brooooooooooooooooooooooooo.
Everyone ends up in a creative pit of despair at some point.

Im a troll you emo retard, dont try and reason with me.

did a search on loopmasters:

http://www.loopmasters.com/genres/57-Vo ... nce-Vocals

http://www.loopmasters.com/genres/57-Vo ... ime-Vocals

http://www.loopmasters.com/genres/57-Vo ... ocals-Vol1

http://www.loopmasters.com/genres/57-Vo ... age-Vocals

http://www.loopmasters.com/genres/57-Vo ... ocals-Vol1

http://www.loopmasters.com/genres/57-Vo ... -MC-Vocals

http://www.loopmasters.com/genres/57-Vo ... llas-Vol-6

maybe take some $ and check out some of these... doesnt hurt to look around at some of the commercial places, at least they will be well produced and maybe you can find some to suit your needs. I know I personally wouldnt want to use my own vocals or try to get someone to sing for me...

your topic title has nothing to do with what you're saying in your post... are you asking for production tips, places to look for acapellas from (i can't believe u can't find em, is this your 1st time on the internet?) or ways to overcome writers blok? theres no such thing sometimes your creative flow comes off easier than other times.. sometimes forcing it is just what you need to make a good track

all you need is to practice your skills, remake tunes, watch tutorials, listen to music to get influences.. when you're becoming more skilled, even your daily doodles can sound impressive. the producers you namedrop haven't released anything groundbreaking, just really simple pop-style songwriting with a polished 2010's production

GeneralFire wrote:

Sinestepper wrote:wow good advice brooooooooooooooooooooooooo.
Everyone ends up in a creative pit of despair at some point.

Im a troll you emo retard, dont try and reason with me.

Ooh big man.

go back 2 4 chan u prick

GeneralFire wrote:

Sinestepper wrote:wow good advice brooooooooooooooooooooooooo.
Everyone ends up in a creative pit of despair at some point.

Im a troll you emo retard, dont try and reason with me.

epik trol bro :^)
and yeah i get writers block a lot too, makign other genres seems to help

Honestly OP try doing your own vocals. Ive started getting into recording little spoken word bits and chopping and using them in tracks. I use a few fx and what not on em and it turns out pretty well. Is it some big breasted blonde crooning over my beats? Not even close. But it adds a bit of vocal flavor that wasnt there before. Just last night spotted a deal on a vocoder I have been lusting after and decide to pick it up.

^ i'm far from being on OP's side but frankly your advice kinda sucks

you see, not everyone who's interested in taking up on music production is for any possible reason ready or willing to acquire a soundcard / interface, possibly a vocoder and a mic and maybe even learn to sing just to get some vocals on a track. not only it is tedious work and expensive, it's not even getting him where he wants because as previously stated this type of music uses chopped up rnb / pop acapellas. you can hoot and yell all you want through any vocoder but unless u can sing it won't get you anywhere.

topmo3 wrote:^ i'm far from being on OP's side but frankly your advice kinda sucks

you see, not everyone who's interested in taking up on music production is for any possible reason ready or willing to acquire a soundcard / interface, possibly a vocoder and a mic and maybe even learn to sing just to get some vocals on a track. not only it is tedious work and expensive, it's not even getting him where he wants because as previously stated this type of music uses chopped up rnb / pop acapellas. you can hoot and yell all you want through any vocoder but unless u can sing it won't get you anywhere.

Fair enough. And I don't disagree at all. But you can also look at my other advice earlier in the thread were I suggest if he can't/won't try recording his own vocals he either purchase some vocal sample packs, go crate digging or try hooking up a collaboration with a vocalist. Besides acapellas4u those are pretty much anyone's options.

Go to the nearest Univ. and find the music department, put up fliers with a link to some samples of your work. Call out to artists who specialize in what you need. While I hate to say it coming here and asking us isn't really going to get the OP very far. For me this thread is just on the acceptable side of begging.

While I agree that him recording his own vocals might not be the answer, the whole willing to spend time and money thing is a bit of a cop out. Unfortunately we have all started a hobby that can get expensive. Can you get by with freeware, a decent laptop and a 50 dollar pair of headphones. Sure, enough evidence of that around for us all to see you don't have to spend an arm and a leg. However, there is a point where you might have to start investing in your hobby/career. Unfortunately music equipment and software is pretty much "get what you pay for". So, learning to sing a bit, investing in a 100 dollar Shure microphone and a decent interface (and maybe the vocoder) really doesn't seem like ridiculous advice to me. Shit, even if you find a vocalist to work with, who is to say they have the ability to record the vocals for you to use?

I love the DIY/punk aesthetic of electronic music, but there might come a point where you have to spend a few bones and learn how to do something besides make beats. But no one wants to learn anything. I'm just going to stop before this becomes a rant. But if someone isn't willing to invest *something* besides an a post on a forum into their craft, what are we supposed to do for them?

fragments wrote:If you really can't be arsed to get over yourself and try to record your own vocals either buy some sample packs, find a vocalist to collab with, or start buying promo vinyls from the 90's with a capella tracks. I find them cheap as fuck all the time. It doesn't even have to be signing, most of those rasta chants on jungle/dubstep tunes aren't even singing, ya know?

Honestly, you Millennials need to grow some fucking balls instead relying on your woe-is-me posts on music forums...not trying to be a dick, but get out of your fucking bedroom, parent's basement, dorm room or where ever your flippin' mac book lives and network with people. Shit there are probably some good-enough karaoke enthusiasts in your town that would love to record some vocals of popular songs for you.

I hear all of what youre saying, and can't argue with it. But as of now, I don't have a microphone, or even an interface to plug it in to! (and I can't sing) however......

fragments wrote:Honestly OP try doing your own vocals. Ive started getting into recording little spoken word bits and chopping and using them in tracks. I use a few fx and what not on em and it turns out pretty well. Is it some big breasted blonde crooning over my beats? Not even close. But it adds a bit of vocal flavor that wasnt there before. Just last night spotted a deal on a vocoder I have been lusting after and decide to pick it up.

....I've honestly have been thinking of doing my own vocals for a bit. Spoken word wouldnt fit in my style of tracks, but in a few weeks I plan on taking advantage of some singing lessons at my university when they start. It's just that, until I'm able to both write my own lyrics that aren't 200% cheesy, sing, and have some basic equipment to record, I was hoping to get advice on here on basically taking already existing vocals and basically rewriting with them.


My question might have confused some of you guys, so here's a short version of it:
1. I hear a song by a producer I like, and he used samples from an old song.
2. I found the song, I look it up, and see theres no acapella ANYWHERE. 3. I then assume they just used the original track, and did a lot of processing and filtering to get rid of the original instruments and drums as best as possible.
Basically, I cannot replicate step 2 at all. I don't get how these producers are able to take an original song with instruments and all, and use them in their own tunes and make it sound as if the original instruments arent even there.


Look at the example I posted. The intro of that song uses vocals from this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyMtH2XTh6c (GO TO 0.59). Now after some research, no acapella found. I assume they used the original track. HOW THE FUCK is it so clear, and I can't hear the original instruments when I listen to snakehip's track?!?

Yea. The are using the original vocal track IMO. Having listened to the original tune a bit I would say this is the kind of track that promo vinyls (maybe CD now?) would have an a capella b-side. As said in my first response to this thread, go crate digging for vinyl. In the 80's and 90's lots of "promo vinyls" to pop music got released to DJs to promote songs. Many of these had a capella or instrumental b sides.

There is pretty much no reliable/quality-assured way to "remove" a vocal from a full track. Theoretically if you have the instrumental track with no vocal you can use phase cancellation to separate the vocal, but in my experience trying and listening to examples it doesn't really work well. You can try EQ and filtering and attempt to work around what is left the instrumental.

I would assume most people don't share their a capellas when they find them. Honestly after I spend a whole afternoon off crate digging and spend my own money to buy vinyls with vocal only tracks, I'm not racing home to upload them and share them with the world. Also, that would be copyright infringement ;p

Crate dig. Crate dig. Crate dig.

fragments wrote:Yea. The are using the original vocal track IMO. Having listened to the original tune a bit I would say this is the kind of track that promo vinyls (maybe CD now?) would have an a capella b-side. As said in my first response to this thread, go crate digging for vinyl. In the 80's and 90's lots of "promo vinyls" to pop music got released to DJs to promote songs. Many of these had a capella or instrumental b sides.

There is pretty much no reliable/quality-assured way to "remove" a vocal from a full track. Theoretically if you have the instrumental track with no vocal you can use phase cancellation to separate the vocal, but in my experience trying and listening to examples it doesn't really work well. You can try EQ and filtering and attempt to work around what is left the instrumental.

I would assume most people don't share their a capellas when they find them. Honestly after I spend a whole afternoon off crate digging and spend my own money to buy vinyls with vocal only tracks, I'm not racing home to upload them and share them with the world. Also, that would be copyright infringement ;p

Crate dig. Crate dig. Crate dig.

I always always aware of crate digging, but as someone born in the later 90s, I've never heard of promo CDs that include both acapellas and instrumentals of singles. (looking this shit up now). Well, I've never been to a record store (digital purchases only), so looks like I'll have to familiarize myself now

Not sure if youll find promo cds. But the vinyl is out there. For sample you could get yourself one of those 99 dollar usb turntables and be up and sampling right quick. I just got two Rick James promo vinyls w vocal b sides fornlike 2 bucks a piece jot long ago...

yea my version of vato/candy by snoop dogg has an acapella on the b side

Just do a YouTube search for a capellas.

you can hoot and yell all you want through any vocoder but unless u can sing it won't get you anywhere.

I disagree. Spoken word can sound melodic through a vocoder.

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