03 December 2023

Being an independent Rap artist myself, I have picked up on various ways to get a clean sound when recording from my bedroom. I’m going to take you through what I consider to be the 5 most important and useful tips to help you do the same, plus a little bonus tip that may be harder to find anywhere else.

1. Use a Pop Shield and Vocal Isolator

When recording in untreated spaces such as bedrooms (or really just anywhere that’s not a music studio) a vocal isolator can greatly help with reducing unwanted natural reverb and give you a drier, cleaner vocal recording.

A pop shield is always a useful accessory, especially for rappers as when we record there are often a lot of harsh plosives (P and B sounds). A pop shield positioned around 2 to 4 inches away from the mic can reduce the low end plosive sounds from punching so hard and possibly causing clipping.

2. Understand The Proximity Effect

Rappers, here’s a little gem for you. The closer you are to the mic, the more low end will be recorded in your voice. This is known as the proximity effect. Although only a subtle difference, it can be a useful strategy to consider when recording your vocals.

3. Level Your Input Signal Properly

Before you start recording, set up your microphone, interface and DAW so it’s all ready. Have a run through of what will be the loudest part of your recording and set the input level on your interface so that it won’t clip at any point. Clipping is a form of digital distortion that occurs when the input signal exceeds the maximum level and gets cut (or ‘clipped’) at these peak points. This is usually indicated with a red light or some use of the colour red with most DAWs and interfaces. Set your input gain so that the signal is hot but not red (avoid the signal being too low too).

4. Minimise Audio Bleed

It may seem like an obvious one, but make sure there are no or minimal other sounds while recording. Turn off fans, remind family members/housemates that you are recording, don’t record while a train is going past and all of that obvious stuff. But as well as this, ensure that you have no keys or change in your pockets, no chains on your neck that will make sound and don’t blast the beat too loud in the headphones. All of these will reduce audio bleed in your vocal recording. The only thing we want the mic to capture is your voice.

5. Record Doubles and Ad-libs

This is more of a tip about what to record rather than how. This technique will enhance your vocals in most cases when creating rap music. Once you’ve recorded the main vocal line for your track, record another couple of times and just repeat certain words or phrases that you want a bit more emphasis on (can often just be at the end of each line). Get creative and experiment with which phrases to include, different inflections/tones that you use for your doubles and see which you like best. Personally, I like to record 2 lines of identical doubles that will be panned left and right in post-production. 

Also go ahead and record a few ad-libs. I like to freestyle with it; just hit record again and go through saying absolutely random stuff in the spaces in between the lyrics. This helps give the vocal more layers whilst subtlety filling in gaps.

BONUS TIP: Learn Your Lyrics First

Yes, an incredibly useful thing to do is to record a rough version and listen to it over and over across the next week or so until you know the lyrics without even thinking about it. This means that when you come to record the proper version, you can focus less on reading off of your phone/pad and getting the lyrics right, and more on the way you deliver those lyrics. This is definitely the way you can get your best possible vocal takes when recording.