Essential Plugins for Hip-Hop: Tools for Rap Vocals and Beat Production
Essential Plugins for Hip-Hop: Tools for Rap Vocals and Beat Production · Source: AKAI Professional
We explore some essential plugins for Hip-Hop production for cleaning up rap vocal recordings, sampling, and elevating the sound of your beats.
In this Article:
Over the years, Hip-Hop has become one of the most diverse styles of music. Just like any genre that has stood the test of time, it has continually evolved from one era to the next, influenced by the technology and cultural context of its time. Looking back, there have always been two distinct aspects to Hip-Hop production: the rap vocals and the beat or instrumental underneath.
Essential Plugins for Hip-Hop
Hip-Hop beat production grew out of DJing and turntablism, and using samplers like the AKAI MPC60, the E-mu SP1200, and the Ensoniq ASR-10 created the blueprint for what we call Boom Bap today. With the advent of DAWs, however, hardware samplers were no longer the most accessible way to make music.
Instead, software like FL Studio provided producers with a platform that had the creative immediacy synonymous with the genre. This gave rise to new styles like Trap and Drill, which were dominated by pitched 808-style basslines and creative drum programming rather than sampling existing records exclusively.
Today, there are plugins which have become standards for any style of music production from companies like Antares, Celemony, FabFilter, Oeksound, and XLN Audio. Rather than replacing these, we’ve put together a few recommendations to expand your workflow to capture some of the cornerstones of the Hip-Hop sound.
Essential Plugins for Hip-Hop: iZotope RX
The best way to enhance and clean up rap vocals is to use the industry standard dialogue processing suite, iZotope RX. This gives you access to a wide range of tools for enhancing and correcting almost every aspect of the voice recording. From removing ambient background noise to eliminating sibilance, plosives, breathiness, and mouth clicks, RX has simple modules that get results quickly.
Besides vocal processing, there are also tools you can use for sample-based beat production. This allows you to record a sample from an old vinyl record, remove crackles, and use spectral editing to remove any artifacts. In addition, the Time & Pitch module is useful for changing the sample to your desired key and tempo without degrading the audio.
Meanwhile, a stem separation tool like Music Rebalance can be used to reduce the volume or remove elements from the music you’re sampling. This allows you to separate the vocals, bass, and drums from the other instruments in the mix so you can chop them up separately or process them individually with different effects. Get it at Thomann.*
Essential Plugins for Hip-Hop: Serato Sample
Whether you’re working with samples from records in your collection or loops from genre-specific sound libraries, Serato Sample provides a flexible creative platform for making these sounds your own. While most DAWs have built-in sampler plugins, and some also have stem separation and time stretching tools, Serato Sample combines these features into one cohesive instrument.
As you drag the sample in, the plugin automatically grids it and allows you to create up to 32 slices per track. Serato Sample provides a great deal of workflow flexibility, as you can play it mono or polyphonically, triggering it as a drum machine or a chromatic instrument, and you can set the output routing of each sample pad to process it separately in your DAW.
Overall, Serato Sample combines intuitive analysis features for creating cue points and assigning them to pads with sound-shaping tools for manipulating each slice so it hits just right. So if you just want a sample to work in the context of your beat’s key and tempo, or you’re designing a new sample-based instrument from a sound, you have the freedom to explore. Get it at Thomann.*
Essential Plugins for Hip-Hop: Soundtoys Little AlterBoy
The way Little AlterBoy allows you to quickly manipulate vocals and access a range of usable sounds is why it’s a popular choice for Hip-Hop production. Because the interface is so simple, you can find your sound fast without interrupting your creative flow. With the Quantize mode, you can get that classic hard tune effect heard on so many songs in the genre.
Meanwhile, you can adjust the pitch and formant to get more variation in different parts of your hooks and verses. These controls can be used independently or linked, so you have a few ways to approach the processing to suit the style of your track. Also, you can use Little Alterboy to create harmonies that immediately make your chorus more dense.
With the MIDI control feature, you can use your keyboard to control the pitches of the vocal transposition. In addition, there is a drive control, which adds tube saturation based on the Decapitator plugin. Overall, Little Alterboy is a powerful vocal effect with a wide range of sounds that doesn’t require too much technical experience to get great results. Get it at Thomann.*
Essential Plugins for Hip-Hop: Future Audio Workshop SubLab and SubLab XL
Getting your kick and bass right is absolutely essential in Hip-Hop production, and this starts with having good source sounds. Luckily, SubLab is a hybrid platform specifically designed for creating the thunderous kicks and 808s used in modern Hip-Hop. For sound generation, SubLab uses a three-layer system with different engines that create the core components of each sound.
The synth engine gives you access to classic subtractive synth waveforms, including sawtooth, square, triangle, and sine. This is particularly useful for giving your bass a mid-range bite and harmonic presence that translates on small speakers. Next, the sample engine allows the triggering of audio files and gives you access to an extensive sound library.
Finally, the X-Sub™ engine generates psychoacoustic sub-bass energy, giving kicks and basses the low-end scale needed for Hip-Hop production. Meanwhile, SubLab XL expands this feature set with a Super Oscillator, extended modulation capabilities, a wide range of effects, and macros for sound manipulation. Get it at Plugin Boutique.*
*Note: These products are on sale until 31 July
Essential Plugins for Hip-Hop: Output Portal
If you’re looking to give your production a more cinematic sound and add textures to melodic elements to make them stand out, Output Portal is a versatile multi-effects platform that gives you quick access to creative processing. With the granular synthesis engine, you can add movement and texture to sounds by altering the amount, size, shape, pitch, density, and scale of the grains.
This is especially useful when you want to draw the listener’s attention to a solo instrument or vocal passage during an intro or pre-chorus section. Alternatively, you can also use Portal as an additive sound processor for adding depth to any element to fill out your mixes. You can also build complex effects chains with the seven integrated effects.
This includes distortion, bit crusher, reverb, delay, filter, chorus, and phaser effects, as well as a global compressor to glue the sound together. Also, the powerful time-stretching engine is useful for creating dreamy, pitched-down effects, while the XY control interface lets you manipulate your sounds in an organic and musical way. Get it at Thomann.*
More about Essential Plugins for Hip-Hop:
*Note: This article contains affiliate links that help us fund our site. Don’t worry: the price for you always stays the same! If you buy something through these links, we will receive a small commission. Thank you for your support!
This might also interest you
