Pitch shifted vocals are used a lot in southern hip hop production. Most of the time this involves a simple catch phrase that is shifted either up or down and repeated several times (normally as a hook or breakdown). A good example is Wiz Khalifa’s recent hit – Work Hard, Play Hard. Another example is Kanye West’s Mercy. The hook consists of a 2 bar phrase that’s shifted down and repeated.
Pitch shifting vocals is easy. You just need a pitch shifter, a vocal phrase to shift, and a beat to throw behind it.
Take a listen to the example we’ll be working with:
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Getting Started…
Step 1 – Write and record your vocal phrase.
Keep it simple. It’s probably best that you limit your phrase to a max of 2 bars.
We chose the phrase “I got money in the bank” and repeated it several times.
Step 2 – Pitch shift your vocals.
In Logic Pro, you have a built in pitch shifter. If you don’t have one in your DAW, you can easily find a free one on the web. Just do a Google search.
Decide whether you want to pitch shift your vocals up or down. Try both and see which one sounds better. Make sure your vocals are still in tune after you pitch shift them.
We decide to shift our vocals down 3 semitones. We’ve also maxed out our Wet mix and set our algorithm to Drums, which actually works better in this case.
Step 3 – Process your vocals.
Process your shifted vox, much in the same way you would normal vox. Add some compression and EQ. Roll off a good bit of the lows so your vocals sit well in the mix.
Lastly, polish off with some Tape Delay. Don’t overdo it, unless that’s the effect you’re going for. A mild delay will do the trick.
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Summary
You can easily add some vocal stutters to your phrase, by slicing it to MIDI and sequencing in some chops. You can also give it an edgy, stadium-like feel, by running it through a guitar amp emulator like Guitar Rig.
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