Rapper's Delight

This was a pretty fun project to complete. I decided to go into the WCU CMT studio and try to record vocals with an actual microphone. I used a Warm Audio condenser microphone with a pop filter. I had to figure out how to set the USB audio interface correctly because there were some dB settings I had to fiddle with. I ended up needing to click in the switch labeled +48V. After some research, I found out that this switch allows for phantom power meaning the microphone needs a source of electricity to work properly. 

I feel more comfortable inputting drum beats and bass lines with vintage synths, but I'm grateful for the accessibility that has been programmed into newer technology. I played around with the tones of the synths to get something I thought sounded pretty cool. I made the bass line a square wave instead of a saw wave and changed the resonance tuner. The square wave had a smoother sound and the resonance tuner changed the tonal character. 

Once in Soundtrap things were a little simpler. When recording the vocals, I had to turn the monitor off because the slight delay was messing me up. I couldn't find a "monitor off" button, so I just muted the vocal track while recording. After listening back to the recording, I noticed that was a slight delay between my vocals and the backing track. To fix this, I recorded a new track where I clapped right on a snare hit. When I zoomed in I could tell that there was a very slight delay by comparing the clap waveform and the snare waveform. This was easier and more precise than trying to line up vocal wave forms because the percussive sounds have a very clear attack. To fix the delay I highlighted both the clap track and the vocal track and moved them both together until the clap synced up with the snare hit of the backing track. Assuming that the delay on both tracks is the same, it should work out. Listening back, my rhythm seemed much cleaner. Then, I just deleted the clap track and exported. 

Fred · Rappers Delight