@Phillip Patterson 40 inputs??? duuuude what are you creating

@Phillip Patterson Wowwww...I want to work with you lol

Hi, I rap mostly. And, I'm probably such a noob for saying this, but I've rapped and recorded rap vocals for years and never bothered to do "vocal comping" I knew of the technique but just never bothered to do them on my tracks, I would always just record multiple takes, and mute/delete stuff that didn't work from the "best" take and just time align. Now I'm into the process of "vocal comping" and that was honestly the piece where I messed up on. It's definitely tedious but I realized this is why engineers want multiple takes. I've been doing this with old shitty recordings and my words are more coherent, it may sound counterproductive because your takes aren't going to be recorded the same but taking the time to do this and then applying the compression techniques have made my garbage recordings sound WAY better. Are they super professional? At this point, I can't say yes because I'm learning at a slower rate because of work-life balance, but I can honestly say I can get them to the best point near professional...and this would be recording in an untreated room. I don't know if you vocal comp, which I've learned is compiling phrases/words from your multiple takes into one cohesive take, but it truly has made a difference and when keeping this in mind during the recording phase, I've learned how important it is to keep things simple, for me, as a rapper, I like to record things all the way through..but..it is EXHAUSTING and that shit is heard in recordings, so yea..I agree with some of the posts here, where it's really in the initial stages and heavy compression. I learned something called "analog mixing" in the compression course video, and I don't use any hardware, so when I just applied these techniques to mimic analog recording (before i learned about vocal comping) the song I did it to sounded WAY DIFFERENT, I was impressed with what I managed to achieve just mimicking the chain it would possibly go through if I recorded in a facility. The UAD 1176 is my go to compressor, so when I read posts about the 1176, I would agree, I think it's wonderful for rap vocals.

@Eugene Meadows "Perhaps the most valuable lesson I’ve acquired is that an extensive plugin collection proves worthless without comprehensive understanding of implementation and timing. This principle mirrors culinary arts—possessing numerous ingredients means nothing without knowing when and how to utilize them effectively. For instance, clip gain automation should precede gain staging in your signal chain, and strategic automation serves as a powerful tool for maintaining listener engagement while building compositional energy toward climactic moments, regardless of genre." This. But to support the original post, have some decent plugins that emulate some of what commercial artists are using if you cannot afford the analog hardware, some mentioned UAD LA2A for example, I personally like the UAD 1176 on my own vocals, Dane mentioned that hip hop uses a ton of compression and he's absolutely right, so dive into the compression course from mastering.com if you haven't, that helped me A LOT as a rap vocalist, but overall gain staging/gain automation while doing your comps/edits. Think about the elements of hip hop which is generally drums, bass and vocals, those are the elements to focus on when mixing. Just looking back on the post, I recall I responded to it before, but hip hop vocals is all about getting it right at the source, the more you can get your environment in check, the better. For me, just based on where I record I try to dry out as much of the reverb of the room as I can (cause it sounds like shit) because a reverb is something I can always add, so getting a clean vocal take by throwing up some mattresses in a corner or setting up some thick blankets around can really help out, it's the nasty room resonances you don't want.

@ThoughtsLeavingPaper Mo I love how you called it Coffee with Cinnamon...first of all...great combination but are you inspired by Black Coffee 😉

This is excellent, I only got to listen to it once cause im on a break at work, I'll listen again when I get home, I'm not sure if I can offer any technical feedback as I only listen to this genre and can't figure out how to make it lol (definitely tried) you're very talented. This kinda has an astatine feel to it lol