Chopping/glitching/slicing vocals

[tehlord]

One for Waxxy perhaps........

I've just started a remix for a guy in LA and it's going to be quite a poppy affair.

I'm just creating a rough outline of the track at the moment but the more I listen the more I want to start chopping up the vocals and using them in a percussive way.

I've started experimenting with the Cubase 4 sample editing and moving snippets round on a seperate audio channel but it's mind blowingly time consuming doing it this way.

I've used recycle before briefly so i'm familiar with slicing tools, but is there a free app that can speed the process up, or another way of working that doesn't involve manually doing everything?

Cheers

[Dave Boulden]

Have a read of this SOS article, that should get you going with a smoother workflow:

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/may0...etech_0508.htm

[JAYDMF]

Originally Posted by tehlord

One for Waxxy perhaps........

I've just started a remix for a guy in LA and it's going to be quite a poppy affair.

I'm just creating a rough outline of the track at the moment but the more I listen the more I want to start chopping up the vocals and using them in a percussive way.

I've started experimenting with the Cubase 4 sample editing and moving snippets round on a seperate audio channel but it's mind blowingly time consuming doing it this way.

I've used recycle before briefly so i'm familiar with slicing tools, but is there a free app that can speed the process up, or another way of working that doesn't involve manually doing everything?

Cheers

IMO depends on how you want things to sound. i used to do a lot of drum editing by just slicing breaks in cubase and recycle and the MPC and you can get a lot of different types of slicing depending on how you do things. I tend to find getting a tool to do it on auto usually comes out crap if you want things to be silky smooth and clean cuts. so if thats your aim, get the kettle on, get some good biscuits in and a good comfy chair as your in for the long haul. if you want a more dirty not quite pristine ala early 90s type editing then what the hell bang it through recycle and export all the slices seperatly.

Once youve done that you then have the choice of dropping into a sampler and triggering from the keyboard or you can do it by eye. i personally prefer dropping it in manually and then using the crossfade function to stop any nasty clicks an pops etc plus you can use sizing tools to make better stuttering effects and also its easier if you decide to do any mad timestretching or similar effects.

It all depends on what sort of sound your aiming for really

[tehlord]

Great find Dave, thanks

Why do I feel dirty for using the word poppy?

[tehlord]

Originally Posted by JAYDMF

IMO depends on how you want things to sound. i used to do a lot of drum editing by just slicing breaks in cubase and recycle and the MPC and you can get a lot of different types of slicing depending on how you do things. I tend to find getting a tool to do it on auto usually comes out crap if you want things to be silky smooth and clean cuts. so if thats your aim, get the kettle on, get some good biscuits in and a good comfy chair as your in for the long haul. if you want a more dirty not quite pristine ala early 90s type editing then what the hell bang it through recycle and export all the slices seperatly.

Once youve done that you then have the choice of dropping into a sampler and triggering from the keyboard or you can do it by eye. i personally prefer dropping it in manually and then using the crossfade function to stop any nasty clicks an pops etc plus you can use sizing tools to make better stuttering effects and also its easier if you decide to do any mad timestretching or similar effects.

It all depends on what sort of sound your aiming for really

Hmmm well that's the rub. It's just an experimental process right now although I'm 99% certain there will be some sort of slicing chopping involved. At it's simplest i'll be doing something like 't-t-take' where the initial t's are the last two 16th notes from a previous bar and the actual word take is on the downbeat. It's easy to do manually but over the length of a full track and using more complicated syllable and phrase manipulation it could take days.

[JAYDMF]

Originally Posted by tehlord

Hmmm well that's the rub. It's just an experimental process right now although I'm 99% certain there will be some sort of slicing chopping involved. At it's simplest i'll be doing something like 't-t-take' where the initial t's are the last two 16th notes from a previous bar and the actual word take is on the downbeat. It's easy to do manually but over the length of a full track and using more complicated syllable and phrase manipulation it could take days.

Could take days but good things come to those who slave over their work

Personally i would be doing it manually but im just used to doing things that way.

[tehlord]

Originally Posted by JAYDMF

Could take days but good things come to those who slave over their work

Personally i would be doing it manually but im just used to doing things that way.

To be honest I prefer doing things that way too, so it's probably a case of getting used to a workflow. I still do all my drums manually as I like to have minute control over each bar and phrase.