Hey whats up guys. I recently came to a point with my music where i felt i was competent enough to try my hand at a vocal remix. However i cannot even begin because i fail at step one. When i find the vocals that i want, and i try to add the kicks....i can never get the rhythm right and it sounds HORRIBLE. Even when im doing just the 4 on the floor pattern. I understand that not all vocal rhythms work with 4 on the floor, but it seems that remixers just somehow make it work. I even tried delaying the kicks to match the vocal but that was a fail. I even tried i small amount of sidechain on the vocal to match the rhythm but that didnt work either. Is there a monumental step in working with vocals that I am missing? I understand that a lot of the rhythm is in the baseline/chord progression but obviously all of that revolves around the kick. I would greately appreciate any feedback.

quote:

Originally posted by runawaywaffle3 Hey whats up guys. I recently came to a point with my music where i felt i was competent enough to try my hand at a vocal remix. However i cannot even begin because i fail at step one. When i find the vocals that i want, and i try to add the kicks....i can never get the rhythm right and it sounds HORRIBLE. Even when im doing just the 4 on the floor pattern. I understand that not all vocal rhythms work with 4 on the floor, but it seems that remixers just somehow make it work. I even tried delaying the kicks to match the vocal but that was a fail. I even tried i small amount of sidechain on the vocal to match the rhythm but that didnt work either. Is there a monumental step in working with vocals that I am missing? I understand that a lot of the rhythm is in the baseline/chord progression but obviously all of that revolves around the kick. I would greately appreciate any feedback.

Try setting the tempo of the song to the tempo of the vocals.

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quote:

Originally posted by runawaywaffle3 I understand that not all vocal rhythms work with 4 on the floor, but it seems that remixers just somehow make it work.

The only vocals that won't fit with a 4/4 beat are ones that are in some other time signature. If you can't determine the time signature of a vocal line, you probably shouldn't try working with them just yet.

You did find out the BPM of the vocal line you're using, right?

i knew that the tempo of the vocals was not the tempo i usually work at, but i figured when i imported the vocals into my project that it would be assigned to the tempo i was working at? But ill try putting the track to the original BPM of the vocals

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Originally posted by runawaywaffle3 but i figured when i imported the vocals into my project that it would be assigned to the tempo i was working at?

No offense or anything, but why the fuck did you think that would happen?

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Originally posted by Kysora No offense or anything, but why the fuck did you think that would happen?

lol to be honest i dont know, just a lapse of thought.
okay but i set the tempo of the track to the vocal line and the kicks are still off.
i even managed to change the tempo of the loop and that didnt work.
do you have to move the kicks off the grid slightly to add a groove or something?
like the way you add groove to hi-hats?

this thread hurts

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Originally posted by runawaywaffle3 lol to be honest i dont know, just a lapse of thought. okay but i set the tempo of the track to the vocal line and the kicks are still off. i even managed to change the tempo of the loop and that didnt work. do you have to move the kicks off the grid slightly to add a groove or something? like the way you add groove to hi-hats?

think other way around. you have to move the vocals to the kick. look up vocal warping in whatever DAW you're using.

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quote:

Originally posted by runawaywaffle3 okay but i set the tempo of the track to the vocal line and the kicks are still off.

Then either the BPM is still wrong or the downbeat of the vocal line isn't syncing up with the downbeat of your kicks. Fix those two things and you won't have a problem.

i think im just going to have to keep working at it, thanks for your responses

This thread does hurt.

I don't really get the problem to be honest. If you have a vocal, solo it and you can hear where the kick should be - tap your foot or the table to the tempo that you hear.

Now is your track that tempo? adjust the pitch/time to fit your BPM (in logic you use the pitch and time fucntion, warp in protools, teimestretch in Cubase and warp/map in ableton).

Most vocals start on the beat or off the beat, so it's really just a case of phrasing, and that can be done by chopping it up.

Unless you are completely devoid of any basic timing ability or instincts, I think what you're probably having issues with is that the vocal is either in a different time signature altogether, or that it's so vastly different from your BPM that you haven't realised you'll need to double time phrase it to make it work.

Post up the vocal and we'll be able to help better.

Yea, just so you know, the tempo of vocals, is not always the tempo of track or vise versa. When I remixed Roger Shah's - Dance w/ me the complete vocal was at 120.5 or something, while the track was actually 122.5 or 125. I forgot. But nonetheless. The best way to get vocals to line-up is to cut em down and import them into a sampler. Then play the parts of the track that either have the most impact or you can play whatever goes together. I did a remix of Daft Punk's - Harder Better Faster Stronger using this technique.

I emported the accapela into ReCycle, which is used in order to create a .rex file.

I then cut down the samples into manageable parts.

I then created an instance of the NNXT advanced sampler and used my midi keyboard to play the parts that I wanted.

In an advanced step, I went into the sequencer/piano roll, and drew notes as to enhance what I played on the keyboard.

Listen Here:
Harder Better Stronger Faster by DJRYAN™

The other thing to remember, is, sometimes vocals do sound the way they're supposed to at the right tempo/bpm. But in order to get them to line up, always stagger the vocals 1/2 step off the beat. The vocals should come in not right on the beat, but just a milisecond later.

oh! and another thing you can do is open up an instance of whatever virtual dj software you use. Allbeit, Ableton, or Virtual DJ, Dekadance or whatever, and play your acapella through that, while simultaneously having you project play in whatever DAW. Then shift the tempo until your right on.

From there, you can then look through your music library for a song that matches the tempo and then sync it to perfection, seeing how most pitch adjusts on virtualdj software sucks.

And you'll need to re-record the acapella at the correct bpm in order for it to fit nicely into your project but you'll still probably have to play with some of it a bit in order for it to fit perfectly.

Also, here's a video demonstrating what you "could" do. Just substitute the fancy device for a midi keyboard.


Paul Oakenfold and Chuckie drop into Dallas Austin's studio after the Atlanta show on the Facelift tour.


Okay, good luck.

Last edited by DJRYAN™ on Oct-14-2011 at 23:31