The idea for starting a vocal sample label came about in late September 2016. It was initially a solo project of mine (Kate Wild). In fact, the name “91Vocals” came from the year I was born. I’d been working in-house with some of the best sound designers and producers in the game, my friends at CAPSUN ProAudio.
After some initial discussions and meetings, we decided to team up on the project. At this time, I had released 3 vocal sample packs of my own. I had a pretty good idea of what was out there in terms of vocal packs, but I often found them to be a little dated, cheesy and geared towards one type genre or sound.
With CAPSUN ProAudio, we shared a mutual desire to improve the standard of vocal samples that people used. In fact, never before have we been so deeply invested in a concept. We understood each other’s strengths and decided to join forces to make 91Vocals into the No.1 Source For Premium Vocal Samples & Vocal Sound Design.
In December 2016 Splice announced that “vocals” were the most searched for type of sample. This added flames to the fire for me because this confirmed that there was demand for great vocal samples. I’ve worked extensively with singers, songwriters, and producers in the music industry for over 10 years, so I knew I had a unique opportunity to drastically improve on existing vocal sample packs.
I spent days googling and couldn’t find any sample label that specialized in vocals but discovered that very few sample labels were founded by females. I instantly knew that this was something I wanted to pursue. Women are hugely underrepresented in the world of music production and I wanted to help be a step toward that change.
In February of 2017, I started reaching out to the best vocalists I knew in the business. Being a singer, songwriter, and producer myself, I headed up the recording sessions for 91Vocals. I knew exactly how to prepare our singers because recording vocal samples isn’t your typical type of session.
It requires an understanding of how people are using vocals samples in their music. But on a performance level, it requires good songwriting and improvisational skills, confidence to experiment with the voice and the ability to not take yourself too seriously or overthink things. It was a great advantage being able to demonstrate vocal ideas, relate to the singer, co-write and communicate with them in technical terms.
Initially, I worried that being a singer myself might put them off, but that hasn’t been the case at all, we just have loads of fun. For me it’s a joy listening to other singers do their thing. It’s inspiring and keeps me motivated. We recorded on the best microphones and analog gear with the aim of capturing the cleanest and best vocals, so really we just geeked-out over gear, it was super chilled and relaxed.
We documented the process on film because we wanted people to see the story of 91Vocals, the recording sessions through to the editing stages. When people invest money in their music, it’s a big thing. You want to know: what went into it? Who made it? Where did the sound come from? And why is it worth the price tag?
With 91Vocals, we aim to be transparent so that people know what they’re buying. Most importantly they can be sure it’s 100% original and royalty free. I can’t wait to see where 91Vocals will take us – so far we’ve recorded in Brighton (UK), London, Greece, Boston (US) and Los Angeles. The team has worked extremely hard on adding their expertise to help create these amazing sounding samples.
’Premium’ isn’t just a word we threw in – we deliberated every single aspect, working 40-hour sessions sometimes but always focused towards creating what we now believe to be the finest crafted vocal samples available.
Get sample packs from 91Vocals on Splice Sounds.
October 16, 2017
