Not sure if there’s anyone into weirder-style rap tunes around here, but thought I’d share this piece from my psyche/hiphop/experimental group Grey Yard as it’s all generated from scratch via hardware synthesis. Has a broken, distorted video clip accompanying it.
All the sounds you hear (besides vocals) originate from hardware and were recorded in real-time (i.e. no midi sequencing): the drums are from a Bass Station 2 (sampled into an Ableton drum rack and finger-drummed using a Midi Fighter 3D), main pads and rhodes from a Nord Lead 2, additional stabs and “twinkly” bits (hard-panned in the verses) are OP1. All the chopped vocals were phrases sampled into the OP1 drum sampler and pitched around. The solo in the final chorus is the BS2 again.
Hope some people get a kick out of it! Got a full EP coming out in November and there's heeeeaps of OP1 across it, so will share it here if people are interested :)
Dig it all. The accents sound great too! Been on repeat play since clicking on the thread. Great track. Looking forward to the EP. One question: how did you record/process the vocals?
@5StarNomad thanks man, much appreciated! You actually made me re-think the disclaimer about the accent, so I took it out of the post. I probably should’ve just let people make up their own mind
Yeah I’m super pumped for this release, it’s definitely a big step up for my production from our last releases, I put a lot of work into the mixes etc.
Vocals were Sm7B> Golden Age Pre73> DBX160x> Audient id22 interface> Ableton
I like to record all the vox pretty slammed these days, and compress about 6dB on the way in - it helps stop “option paralysis” within Ableton for me. I try and get things as close as I can as early as possible, otherwise my ADD kicks in and I tweak a VST compressor forever…
I’ll have to dig up the session to see exactly what I did for all the vocals, but most of the sci-fi vibe comes from the Acon Multiply (free chorus plugin - my magic weapon), and a return track with some waves H Delay with an autopanner after it - so there’s lots of delays buried in the stereo image. Got the idea from Run The Jewels, which seem to have lots of stereo delays on their vocals - pretty rare for hip hop in general.
Filter sounds were all the EQ Eight in ableton, and there’s a splash of either Valhalla Plate or the Ableton verb (can’t remember) in their for some washes after the filtered parts. Oh yeah and there is a tiny splash of Melda Autopitch on the chorus which just gives it a slightly metallic zing on some of the notes
Most important, lots of takes from the vocalist to get the vibe right and the BV’s super tight.
