super random, but really into euro and dirty electro. big fan of Luke, Blanco, RedOne and such. I've always wanted to know how in the world kesha's vox sounds the way it does. Any opinoins?

 

Autotune with very fast tracking (attack and sustain). Try several autotunes in serial. There are free ones (Gsnap, Kerovee, etc) and commercial ones (Antares, Melodyne, etc).

Or you can use Antares autotune with MIDI input (like "autotune/songify the news").

 

Last edited: Sep 25, 2015

Yeah.. a good mic, pre, comp, reverb and delay like they always say. Anyhow, the signature sound comes from duplicating the lead vocal and using a harmonizer or anything else you want to layer in sync to give the lead vocal a rich distinct character. I rarely hear anyone talk about layering lead vocals. But in my opinion it's the best part of it because you can do just about anything you want and always get a unique signature sound at the end of the day. You can layer a lead vocal drastically or subtly to the point the listener knows something is there but can't tell what it is. In my experiences layering the lead vocal sounds better than the true singular take even if you layer it so low you can't detect anything is there yourself.. it adds a harmonic richness, smoothness, character, etc. if you just put "something" underneath that is in sync with the original lead. Like I said I rarely hear anyone bring this up often.. but take a listen around and most the time you will find it's not "just them" singing or rapping. It's them on top of them on top of them synced in multiples.. which is totally aside from the general thoughts and discussions about what's being implemented on the majority of modern artists vocals. And then comes auto-tune.. the tubes.. whatever in addition.

 

Last edited: Sep 25, 2015

Longtime rapper here. Listen to this guy.

I'm sorry I have nothing else constructive to add. But I just watched most of that video to get to the part where Kesha's voice was autotuned. I tuned out to mainstream urban music in the 2000's when Lil' Jon ushered in crunk music, because it thought shit was bad then. Fast forward to now. This has got to be right up there with the absolute worst writing I've ever heard, just made to sound even worse because, unlike Lil Jon, this idiot doesn't even have the delivery to compensate. Seriously who decided to pay him to make music? What's going on here?

Edit: I'll concede, the first 30 seconds or so was just normal-bad. The rest of this song is a shrine to vapidity the likes of which I've never seen.

I'm dumber than I was 5 minutes ago

 

You're right and wrong....

this is garbage....

but its not Hip Hop (or a derivative of) no matter how much they want us to think it is...

This is pop music...pure and simple...

 

I can get pretty close to ke$ha with antaras auto tune or melodyne,
creating harmonys with pitchproof. wich is handwork and might be easier some other way..

then the last thing, she (or in this case her producers) also uses formant envolopes, but I can't find a handy/practical plugin to do that (if someone can point me in the right direction for that?)

Ps.
I really enjoy auto tune, and don't feel ashamed, artist and fans ask. We deliver

 

Oh I agree. As a creative philosophy I don't really like to draw that line in the sand about 'real hip hop' because, to me, it too closely resembles genre identifiers and IMO once you start thinking in categories you limit yourself creatively.

However. I specifically called it 'urban music' instead of hip hop for a reason. I'm not the purist I used to be but I still can't call this shit hip hop or even rap.

 

simply autotune in manual mode, layering, split harmonizer and standard effects... delay, reverb, chorus