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We’ve all been there, you’ve got the perfect track and the production is done but you know it needs a vocal. Not just any vocal but one that fits perfectly. But how do you find that fit? In todays world, with what seems like an over abundance of choice when it comes to top lines and feature vocals, it can be overwhelming trying to make the choice. 

While nothing beats working in person with a vocalist in real time to match the vision you have for the track, arguably there can also be an advantage in using vocals that are pre-recorded from sites like Vocalbuzz or Vocalfy, because it gives you the control of being able to match your track strategically with vocals that are a best fit. 

In this article we break down different approaches to choosing the right vocals to make your track really sing 😉

1. Vocal Range and Matching Key Signtures

Female voices (sopranos, mezzos, altos) typically all sit within a particular note range so its no surprise that from a music theory perspective this note range can compliment beats with particular keys. It is said that generally any song with a key signature that falls within D, E, F# or A major would suit a female voice better. This is obviously not a perfect science, but it can be helpful to have some general guides to work with. You can’t break the rules if you don’t know them first.

If you’re not sure what key signature your song is you can always use an analyser tool like ai vocal remover or similar tools to detect that for free. Alternatively if you still prefer using the ol’ noggin you can take clues from your track depending on what sharps and flats the song contain if you know enough music theory (circle of fifths and scales, etc). 

Male voices (tenors, baritones, basses) typically suit songs with the key signatures C, D or G (major or minor). Again however, this is a rule you can always break. It can just serve as a guide when you’re starting out. 

2. Tone

The second thing to consider is tone. Tone is what creates the overall vibe of the song and is crucial to knowing what style of vocal will suit your track. Often light, airy or ethereal tracks suit female vocal tones better due to their higher overtones. But this can also be flipped on its head and ethereal vocals can be used as a contrast to suit heavy bass tracks just as well. The key is to pick up on the tone and quality of the vocal. Is it raspy? Is it clean? Is it airy? Is it heavy and thick? 

In general the key is to think about whether you want your vocal to complement the beat/ instrumental or to be the feature. It’s true that the human ear likes contrast and can only take in a certain amount of information at a time. The best thing you can do is think about whether you want the vocal centre stage or do you want it to function as a layer that enhances and compliments the instrumental itself?

A great example of this is Just a Dream (Gerald Clayton, MARO). This track has the perfect balance and the vocal sits so perfectly seperate to the pianos that there is no clash of any kind- which is notoriously hard with piano ballad tracks- if you know you know. HAHA. 

This is achieved by the tone of the vocal, its raspy and breathy tone contrasting perfectly against the clean grand piano (also intentional) opposed to an old honky tonk piano. The tone of the piano contrasts to the tone of the vocal which gives both seperate definition. If you have the vocal and the beat competing too hard for the listeners attention your listener will get more ear fatigue and not feel that your track is something they can enjoy “on repeat”. A hit in my opinion, is often a track that has perfectly balanced the two elements to the point where listeners almost forget one exists and focuses on the other. You have to decide ahead of time which one you want to shine, they’re both crucial but they play different roles. As we all know, if you do this at the conception stage, mixing will be a whole lot less of a headache later on. 

3. Lyrics

“The trick is if you listen to the words, you get a story. If you listen to the music, you get a feeling.”

                                                   Joni Mitchell – 

The archaic debate over which matters more music or lyrics still rages on in the music industry and will probably never die but its undeniable that lyrics do play a critical role in your tracks success. I like to think about it like this- lyrics paint a picture that makes your listener care about your song because of what it makes them think, opposed to just what the music makes them feel. If you want a hit, you need to impress listeners on both fronts. 

What you need to listen for is whether the story of the lyrics matches the vibe you’ve created in your instrumental. There usually needs to be a match so the song “clicks” and “makes sense” between the words that are used and the emotions that are being created. This is why its important to really listen to the lyrics and understand what the song is about content wise, before deciding. If the beat has a lot of “space” (which is something I talk about as a songwriter all the time) then it can lend itself more to a narrative and more of a story line in the lyrics. The listener has time to hear it and likely that song will lend itself to having a lyric focus. If the track doesn’t have a lot of space (for instance a lot of modern EDM tracks, but not all) then this lends itself to a vocal that is more for aesthetic affect, simpler lyric concepts, more repetition and more light and airy. It almost becomes an extra layer to the beat overall, than a intentional focus. A lot of EDM genres that have exploded recently like DnB for example, lend itself more to a narrative topline, with a lot of space created in the high end.  

Messy in heaven would be a great example of a narrative based topline that fits the DnB beat perfectly. There is a lot of space created for the vocal in the verses and even the drop has heaps of space in the high end which is perfect for vocals to be the main feature. (One of my absolute fav tracks lately). 

Holding on- Flume in contrast would be an example of the opposite in my opinion. The beat itself if the feature here, with its uniqueness and rhythmic vibes the instrumental sings all on its own. The vocals complement it as a layer but the beat itself is what you remember about the song the most. For that reason a repetitive vocal that creates an extra layer and creates a counter rhythm helps create movement in the track and drives it forward. The vocal here is being used as a musical element more than a narrative element, opposed to the song above. 

This is just one example and I could pull many, but its to illustrate the point of how lyric choices play a role in whether a vocal fits your track. And as someone who has worked as a topline vocalist and songwriter in the industry for years, this is the first thing I consider first when I start writing. I try to detect whether the vocal need to be the feature of the track because of its sparseness and space which needs to be filled to sound balanced OR whether the track has such a unique edge to it that the vocal is there purely to serve as extra driving force, creating more rhythm and movement. 

Both matter, but for different reasons. And this can apply to any genre imo. 

4. Vocal Sweet Spots

If your really advanced as a producer you can often times guess as to the kind of vocal that will cut through the mix better, and this will entirely depend on the makeup of your track. If you want to learn more about this you can check out this video here. If you know where you’re EQ is sitting and the different key elements of the song you might be able to guess where you need your vocal to sit ahead of time or at least estimate it. 

For example, If I have a lot of high end synths that I really love creating a vibe, I might look for male vocals that are punchy and can sit just underneath to complement that setup. StarBoy- The Weekend is the perfect example of this setup. 

 

This Vocal sits in the spectrum perfectly and allows for high staccato synths and layers above without overcrowding the vocals. If you tried this track setup with female vocals the synths would without a doubt conflict with the vocals more and that balance would be much harder to achieve. So thinking about the EQ frequency map of your track (roughly) before choosing vocals can help a lot. 

In conclusion, its obviously an imperfect science but there are tips and tricks to make the process easier. At Vocal Buzz we’ve been considering adding an extra label to our catalogue that describes the “tone” of the vocal (hard, soft, airy, raspy) to describe the undertones and potentially make choosing a vocal that much easier (will likely be something we test out soon). You can never go past the skill of just being able to hear what vocal works and which one doesn’t and sometimes nobody really can’t say why. Regardless of the process you use its handy to have some extra tricks up your sleeve and hopefully this article has made you ask some new questions and given you some new tools to use.

Happy producing! 💜

*Community Note

[would like to make a little community note here for any trans people in our community- I hope the use of gender in the title wasn’t triggering. I was referring to it in the traditional sense of vocal ranges however we’re totally aware that this is being redefined by exciting artists like Ethel Cain and Kim Petras. We know now that vocal ranges are not always defined by gender stereotypes and that is a complex and fascinating conversation all on its own. When writing this article I wasn’t sure how to get a catchy title without using gender binary’s but I am totally aware that is an over simplification. I hope you can see yourself in and identity with the note ranges I presented regardless. Just thought it was a nice little opportunity here to say the whole team at Vocal Buzz thinks trans artist are f*cking incredible and making really important art right now and we love and appreciate you as part of this community. With everything going on in the world right now I felt it was important to say that ✌️]