In this video, I’m going to share with you
two ways to use VocalSynth 2 in a hip-hop
session.
The song I’m using is called GLD II and
it’s by STL GLD.
In this technique I’m going to show you
how to use the GLIDE function to really liven
up tracks that you’re processing with VocalSynth
2, especially for hip-hop sessions.
So I wrote some MIDI notes with my MIDI keyboard
and we can see them here in Logic in the MIDI
view, and you can also see them in the track
view.
Let’s play the before
And here's after
Now i’ll show you how I got this sound.
So first, I’m using VocalSynth 2 in MIDI
mode, which we can get to by going to the
mode tab and choosing MIDI, and following
the step by step instructions.
So what I did to connect these two tracks
is I decided that I wanted to play the MOE
VOX 1 track, that’s just the dry rap vocal.
I set up a software instrument track and then
I threw VocalSynth on it, and then I went
to the sidechain source in Vocalsynth 2 and
chose the Moe Vox 1 to be the track that I
sidechained to.
And there we go.
And now it sounds like this.
So, the way that I got this sound, was I decided
to start with a preset.
The preset I used is called Rex Luthor, and
you can find it in the global preset menu.
I started with the MIDI mode presets and I
went to classic and I found Rex Luthor.
It sounds like this.
And I made a few tweaks and eventually we
landed here.
It’s a super robotic, metallic sound made
up of BIOVOX, VOCODER, and COMPUVOX, but what
makes this sound really cool is using the
GLIDE function which you can manipulate from
the voicing menu over here, just gonna close
my preset menu.
GLIDE, when pushed to higher values affects
the portamento speed when switching between
notes.
So it will delay the amount of time it takes
from one note to get to the other.
If I turn this down.
And I’m also going to turn the pitch down
so we don’t hear the dry vocal bleeding
through.
You can hear that we have very quick transitions
between notes.
But if I increase the GLIDE knob here, it
delays the amount of time it takes from one
note to get to the other which adds a really
cool swinging effect between notes.
Have a listen.
We can increase it all the way, although the
danger with that is that it might take too
much time for one note to go to the other
and we might lose some of the pitch.
Let’s have a listen.
So I prefer it down here where we can really
make sure we are swaying a little bit between
notes but we reaching their full pitch.
So it’s important to experiment with Glide
to create fun, woozy transitions between notes,
specifically in this section here where there’s
actually a lot of activity in the MIDI.
And if you want to add MIDI to your tracks,
I’m going to undo what I did here, just
press record once your MIDI controller is
plugged in.
Now let’s move on to the next technique.
In previous tutorials we’ve done for VocalSynth
2, we’ve seen a few ways to add harmonies
either by using VocalSynth 2 in Auto mode,
or by going to MIDI mode and adding harmonies
with a keyboard.
In this example, I went a different route,
by activating Vocalsynth 2’s SIDECHAIN mode.
I’m going to play you the before and then
the after...and then show you how I came up
with this sound.
But first I want you to hear the dry materials
that we’re working with.
Here’s the vocal without any effects on
it.
And here’s the pad before I sidechained
it to the vocal.
And now here’s the two sidechained together.
So let’s talk about setup.
If you want to set up Sidechain mode, go into
the MODE screen and then choose sidechain.
You’ll notice that we have steps 1, 2, 3,
4 to help guide us through the routing process
and also if you noticed they’re specific
to LOGIC which is the DAW i’m working.
The thing I should mention about VocalSynth
2 is that , is that it can actually automatically
recognize the DAW that you’re working in
FL Studio, Pro Tools, Cubase, BitWig and give
you DAW specific instructions for routing
the various modes.
This means no more rummaging through a manual
to figure out how to route stuff and get started
quickly.
So the way that I set this up, is I went to
the hook, after pressing SIDECHAIN, which
sounds like this without the effect on it.
And I wanted to sidechain it to the PAD which
sounds like this.
So I followed the steps in VocalSynth 2 from
the MODE screen, and I decided to make the
sidechain input, the Pad Synth, so notice
that that is on audio track 24, and it’s
called Pad Synth, this means you go to the
input menu and find it and there it is right
there.
Make sure that it’s checkmarked and now
you press accept.
And now when I mute the pad synth.
We can see that its side chained to the vocal
hook.
So now.
We have the pad’s sound informing the melody
of the vocal hook.
And we’re colouring that sound effect further
by using the modules here in VocalSynth 2.
Let’s talk about those and how we got this
sound.
So the first thing I did was I used the VOCODER.
I’m gonna turn these other modules off so
you can really hear the effect of VOCODER.
So I decided to bring down the SHIFT about
60 or so, if I bring it up, we get a bit more
articulation, it’s a bit brighter, but I
like the darkness of bringing this down here,
to 60 or so.
I also decided to get kind of tricky with
my advanced options here, so if I click on
this button, we get access to more parameters
that we can tweak now what I did was I decided
to pan the VOCODER to the right at about 2
o’clock or so and I also restricted the
frequency content so I decided to perform
a low pass to make sure that VOCODER was only
outputting low frequencies from the effect.
And you can do this by moving these little
buttons around here.
So the next thing that I did was I turned
on COMPUVOX just to add a robotic kind of
grittiness to this vocal.
Here’s what it sounds like.
And if you noticed I go into the advanced
menu and I decided to pan this guy right up
the middle.
And not restrict of its frequency content
but if I go to TALKBOXand turn this guy on,
you’ll see that I decided to go a different
direction in the advanced menu.
By panning this one to the left and performing
the opposite of what I did on VOCODER.
So you’ll see here on VOCODER that I performed
a low pass and on TALKBOX I did the opposite,
a high pass.
So i’m giving the lows to VOCODER, and the
highs to TALKBOX and I’m also sending it
to the left in the stereo field.
Let’s hear what it sounds like.
And now here’s everything together.
And I’m going to bring up the level knob.
To introduce some of the dry signal.
So that we really fill out the sound.
So here comes the dry vocal, underneath all
the processing.
Have a listen.
The next thing I did was I decided to play
around with some of the effects down here,
which by the way are totally rearrangeable,
so we can move those to our liking and customize
the signal chain.
So, distort, I turned on, cause it’s just
a great way to add a bit of spikyness and
really help the vocal pop.
Here’s with it off.
And there it is on.
Next up is our brand new effect, CHORUS.
And this just adds a kind of creaminess and
smoothness to the vocal chain.
I’ll turn it off.
We 
can always increase and make the effect more
pronounced by the mix slider here so if we
wanted to hear it more.
I decided I wanted the chorus but I just wanted
it to be more subtle than that so I turned
it down a little bit.
And next up we have delay.
So this is just also giving a bit of air to
the vocal, I have it mixed down pretty low
but again it just lifts things up a little
bit and helps the vocal breathe.
That's obviously too much
And that’s just perfect.
And next I increased the width, cause I wanted
this vocal to be nice and epic in the global
options right here.
So here it is before.
Let me turn it up.
I should also mention it if you wanna make
a custom blend of the modules you’ve engaged,
you can do it right from the animation.
So a little less TALKBOX.
Little less VOCODER maybe.
In this case I like everything nice and maxed
out.
So let’s do another before and after here’s
before are used to side chain.
And here’s after.
Thanks so much for watching, please check
out our other videos on VocalSynth 2 to learn
how to make the most of this plug-in on genres
like rock and pop.
