Mixing a White MC

[Shwaz]

I have been recording some white MC's lately and its not easy to make their vocals sound right. I'm talking about the compression, eq'ing, doubling, and reverb. I have been studying a lot of eminem tracks to see what they did, and they have some heavy production on his voice. He has 3 or 4 treatments that they use depending on the track. Anyone have any tips for white MC vocal treatments? If you know what they do production wise to Eminems vocals that would help.

 

[sYgMa]

white MC vocal treatment?.... lmao!!!

Man, are you serious? I dont think you need special technics for whites mc, you need technics for a specific type of voice. Tell us what's the problem with their voice, then someone could help you.

 

[Sanova]

hahahahahahaha

never laughed so hard off a message board before

"oh this racism is killin me inside"
-dave chappelle

 

[Cleverwon]

What the fuck ?!?! YOu cant be fuckin serious. Fuckin ignorance right there boy... Pure unfiltered ignorance. LMFAO!!!!!

 

[karlman]

[deleted]

 

[Formant024]

I'd paint the mic white so it can get in the mood, if its monday I'd also stick your head in the sand and try to blow bubbles...

its a special technique

 

[shadeed]

I have been recording some white MC's lately and its not easy to make their vocals sound right. I'm talking about the compression, eq'ing, doubling, and reverb. I have been studying a lot of eminem tracks to see what they did, and they have some heavy production on his voice. He has 3 or 4 treatments that they use depending on the track. Anyone have any tips for white MC vocal treatments? If you know what they do production wise to Eminems vocals that would help.

Then puhleeeeze tell me what your methods would be for an MC such as Paul Wall.

 

[FuzE]

White MC vocal treatments ???

 

[MarkN]

i usually just add about 50% blackness to the mix works a treat maybe sum compression aswell ! job done !

 

[Chrono]

try these settings:
pitch: -400%
reverb: +200%

hah -400 pitch cause we all sound like screach on the mic an +200 reberb to freak it out but the preset flanger on Bad Leslie?? wwow we are fucked!

 

[Fade]

Ok c'mon don't clown the guy, he's asking a question. Maybe he didn't actually mean it this way.

 

[FistFulloDollaz]

I had the same problem when I first started recording a MC that is white that I work with

you usually have to do more to make it sound louder and audible because they're voices tend to have less bass and a higher pitch, some black people do too but its more prevalent amongst caucasians

what I did was use the these compressor settings
gain= +8 you probably gotta do more or less depending on their voice
threshold= b/w -20 & -35
ratio= 3:1
attack= 26ms
release=25ms
knee= about 200

you'll have to play around to make it sound correct depending on ur software, I use protools

and I eq'ed the bottom end, instead of totally cutting it u gotta leave a lil bit

I know u meant nothing racial

half the people that responded probably never recorded anyone in these circumstances or if they are white they havent recorded anyone else so they dont even know what u talking about

 

[classic]

wow intersting,
yea like fade said i dont think dude was trying to be funny

they defianly is a differnce between the way most blacks and whites(in this country) talk so to me its a legit question, im pretty sure folks would have the same issues if they recorded a british MC for the first time, they voices are differnt also

you gotta record differnt accents differently

So dont be so quick to judge...

class....

 

[Cleverwon]

Black people do thiiiiiiiiiis. White people do thaaaaaaaaaaaaat.

 

[Hi-Lo]

It's sad that our society has become so politically correct that a valid question like this just gets assailed by a lot of people on this board. I've been fortunate enough to be in the studio with a couple of big name producers (not working with, just watching and blazing) and I was specifically told by two of them that you DO NEED different post-recording work done on the majority of white emcees- and these were two very, very mainstream producers, so I'm gonna take their word on it.

That being said, I've never tracked in the studio with an emcee so I don't have specific advice for you myself. I just wanted to make some of y'all realize you are being way too sensitive and jumpy, and that is coming from a white person. Relax. The thread starter just so happens to be right, so what's the beef here?

 

[mikemat]

White emcees tend to have higher pitched voices that you need to dampen a little bit. I'm not the greatest when it comes to mastering but there is on average a difference between white and black voices, nothing racist about it, those are just the facts.

 

[Agent Smith]

im not even gonna comment on all the bullshit spewed before the last couple posts but try moving the mic up and down...i think the higher it is, the more high end it captures and the lower is likewise...that might help.

 

[M!nd_Ctrl]

First I must say I can't contribute to a solution to the vocal problems sorry.

But just because I want to say something:

I think the problem here is that people are making the mistake of associating White's with high pitched voices. Sure this thread has a valid question attached, but peeps are generalizing by saying "It's a fact that white MC's have higher pitched voices". Come on people, everyone is different. Don't base your beliefs on Eminem. Esham, SkeeLo, and others have higher pitched voices and they're not White. It's about pitch in general.


Do female rappers have deeper voices than White rappers?

Ctrl

 

[bigdmakintrax]

Hey but to be honest I tried googling this topic I was going to reply last night, there was an article about how Eminem will layer 3 or 4 and sometime more takes, i read over a year ago but I cant find it online anymore, including whispers and some other natural vocal techniques then the engineer sometime either change the frequency on those takes add additional effects to give a fuller and yes they said sinister sound to his voice, listen to his voice it is over effected and altered for the most part for reasons unknown to me...

 

[classic]

regardless if people wanna admit it or not, there are prevelant "accents" that exist amoung many ethenic groups here in the states...

White people as a whole DO sound differnt then black people in the states, people need to quit fronting...
of corse there are always gonna be expections, nobody is saying that a black person cant have a differnt voice, & vice versa,

But on general terms there is a differnce, in his comments if u replaced "white"person with "british" person, would yall be tripping?? I doubt it....

British MC's as a whole sound differnt then american MC's, voice tone its just the way it is etc....
so why are yall tripping bout black MC's and white MC's.

Anyway that EQ info that other cat dropped could be helpful