This week, Splice is getting vocal with packs from 5 vocalists we admire. We asked them about how they like to work with vocals to get some ideas. Here’s what they had to say.
Sakima
Sakima is a London-based singer/producer bringing seductive queer lyricism to the pop radio scene. Get his vocal pack Blue Monday here.
“I love time stretching, warping and pitching vocals, and chopping them as well. Then I’ll add some distortion to bring out even more of those hidden harmonics and finish it off with some reverb to smooth it out and add some extra width.”
TT The Artist
Baltimore-based TT the Artist is a rapper, vocalist, producer, and visual artist with tracks that have been featured in Broad City and Insecure. Get her vocal pack Club Queen here.
“I love to sample and chop up my vocals in Maschine2. I come up with a lot of creative arrangements and sequences especially when I am creating club music which consists of a lot of repetition and hard hitting vocal chants.”
Scavenger Hunt
Scavenger Hunt is an electro-pop duo with a modern take on the sounds of 80s and 90s pop. Get the group’s pack Future Nostalgia here.
“I love chopping up the very end of a vocal and adding long, lush reverbs (like Valhalla Shimmer and filters like Fabfilter ProQ2). It creates a synthetic-like pad. Get weird and creative. Put vocals through processes that you wouldn’t think of using for a vocal. No rules!”
Janelle Kroll
Janelle Kroll is a New York-based performer with a powerful voice and soulful style and a resume that includes singing with Big Data and a feature with the Gorillaz. Get her vocal pack E-Sensuals here.
“I always love stacking vocals. In my recent single Pretty Lie To Me (produced by Sebastian Sartor) there’s a free-flowing interlude where I kept layering vocals until I felt the part had enough of a swell to it. The beauty of it is that the stacks aren’t perfect. The imperfections give it character. It’s the opposite of doing a slick stack of a line which serves a very different purposes.”
Devin Oliver
Devin Oliver is the lead singer of the Billboard 200 rock quartet I See Stars. Get his vocal pack Fear the Voice here.
“I really like finding a moment. It can be literally a slice in a 4-5 second vocal sample. If you can find a really cool reverb tail and compress it, you can turn it into a nice synth. Sometimes I spend hours just looking for that moment. And the cool thing is, no one can listen to what I’ve created with Splice samples and say “oh, this is from this pack.” That’s the whole idea.”
September 14, 2017
