Vocal Samples: How to use them in music production

Mastering the art of vocal samples in your music can be a unique challenge. Vocal samples have been used in popular music for nearly 50 years, and with time, sampling techniques have become more complex and layered. When done correctly, they can inject relatability, humanism, emotion and uniqueness into productions. If they sound amateurish, it can be a major distraction and sound uncanny. 

This guide will break down the methods and approaches used by some of the best producers in the game, and give you some insight into how to use vocal samples in your productions. Ready? Let’s get started!

What are vocal samples?

Vocal samples are small segments of vocal performances found in already recorded songs, which are chopped up, looped, rearranged, and modified. They are typically found in music genres that are more electronic leaning, such as Hip-Hop, House, Techno, and Drum & Bass. With many of these genres, there is a lot of low frequency information in the instrumental tracks, and vocal samples provide some higher frequency information, often in the form of catchy pop melodies and hooks. They can quite often start as the foundation of a track, which the instrumental is then built around, and similarly to vocals in pop production, they tend to take centre stage in terms of mixing. 

Why use vocal samples in songs?

A sense of humanity

The human voice is the oldest instrument we have at our disposal. Having the contradiction of things like synthesizers and drum machines, which are some of the newest instruments we have, can inject a great sense of contrast between old and new, highlighting the raw emotion and power of the human voice. With the addition of a human voice comes relatability and a chance to set the mood of the song. 

Earworm Potential

It’s no secret that having great lyrics is a great way to make a song more catchy. Audiences can sing along and have some tangible words and ideas to remember a song by, which makes them more likely to remember and hence replay the song. If you’re struggling with finding a catchy hook for your track, sometimes a vocal sample lifted from a vocal hook in another song can really elevate the earworm potential of your production. 

The Call Back

One great way to really get audience attention is by using a vocal sample from a popular song, TV show, or movie. If audiences recognise a vocal sample from another environment, the pattern seeking part of the human brain will kick into gear, and audiences will suddenly be listening to your song as they recognise a part of it already. Using popular samples in all of your songs might not be the best idea in the long run, but a few songs with popular vocal samples can help bring in some new listeners to your music. 

Breaking Barriers

The wall between an artist and the audience has been disintegrating since the advent of social media, but vocal samples can be a great way of breaking that barrier through music, which is useful if a listener is discovering you through streaming services. You can use samples from your favourite songs, TV shows, movies, and speeches, to help communicate what kind of culture you consume and what kind of messages you want to convey. This will give people a clearer picture of who you are and what you like. 

Popular Techniques used on Vocal Samples

Layers & Layers

Layering vocal samples can be an excellent way to experiment with different textures and tracks, adding dynamism and movement. Try layering performances from male and female vocalists performing alongside each other, or having multiple phrases playing at the same time to give a more abstract feel. Panning background vocals is another good way to add layers that occupy the stereo field, which can be more exciting for headphone listeners. 

Chop Chop

Chopping samples is of course, one of the most well known and recognised methods of implementing vocal samples into your music. Splicing them and rearranging them into an interesting pattern can be a simple but effective way of integrating vocal samples into your music. Fragmented, fractured vocals can be a great way of injecting that humanity, whilst also maintaining an air of mysteriousness, as listeners attempt to interpret the words being sung. 

Spatial Effects

You’ll hear vocal samples frequently run through spatial effects from DJs, quite often in anticipation of a huge drop. Reverb and Delay are your best friends when it comes to creating dreamy, distant vocal samples for your tracks. However, try and use these effects sparingly, as too much reverb and delay can push your vocal samples to the back of your mix and they’ll barely be audible. 

Structure & Arrangement

Quite often, vocal samples can be arranged into a structure which is similar to pop music. One of the most effective songwriting methods when it comes to toplines and vocal melodies is the Tri-Loop Twist. Essentially you repeat a melody three times, and on the fourth occasion, you introduce a variation of that melody to keep things familiar yet interesting. You can use this by repeating your vocal sample three times, and then on the fourth time get a vocal sample from the same song which is in the same key, and place it after the first three samples. This is a super effective way of writing toplines for pop music, and it can easily be incorporated into your beats using vocal samples. 

Pitch Shifting

Pitching shifting, like chopping, is one of the most ubiquitous means of altering a sample. This quite often is necessary if your vocal sample is in a different key to your production, and you need to lower the pitch to get it to sit right melodically in your song. You can also use pitching shifting to muddy the gender or the identity of the performer, which can be very interesting. Making your vocal sample too low or too high can sometimes be distracting, but quite often this is down to the genre of music you’re making. 

Where can you find vocal samples?

Royalty Free Sources

An easy way to avoid the headache that comes with using copyrighted samples, is by making sure your samples are already cleared. Platforms like Soundtrap are integrating with Freesound, one of the largest sources of royalty-free sounds and samples available today. Having a folder easily accessible which contains a number of your favourite vocal samples is something I always recommend. Building up a massive arsenal of samples that can be reused will make your workflow quicker and more efficient. 

Creating your Own

Are you a singer, or do you know someone who is? Get collaborating and create your own! Singers will quite often lend their voices to sample packs, so why not commission a singer you know to do some for you. The collaboration features in Soundtrap make this process streamlined and straightforward, so you can create your own vocal sample packs and melodies with ease. 

Copyrighted Sources

When we think of vocal samples, perhaps the most well known samples come from sources that are copyrighted. These can include anything- songs, TV shows, movies, some YouTube clips etc. The main thing you have to consider with copyrighted sources is whether or not you have cleared them appropriately before you release your track. Artists can get into situations where they haven’t cleared a sample on their main single, and find out when it's too late that the sample was not approved. This can be devastating- artistically and financially.

Sample Packs

Vocal sample packs are a great way to find plenty of well organised, structured vocal samples that can be used in your productions, often for a one-time fee. With platforms like Soundtrap, sample packs are released on a bi-weekly basis that include vocal samples for you to use in your productions- all absolutely free. Plus, you don’t have to worry about copyright issues impacting your song further down the line. 

Things to consider

• Copyright: This is the single most important part of using vocal samples and sampling in general. You have to make sure that you have cleared your samples before you release music, otherwise you could find yourself in serious trouble. 

• Quality: High quality samples are key. You can sometimes get away with using more lo-fi vocal samples, but making a habit of is not recommended. Using high quality sample packs is a great way to get around this. Sample packs are often intentionally recorded with professional microphones and often in acoustically treated rooms. 

• Know when to say goodbye: If a sample isn’t working, don’t try and shoehorn it into your production. Looking for great samples and editing them can take a long time, and getting hung up on an idea that isn’t working is a great way to stagnate and get frustrated. Take a break, come back, and see if your idea is still working. If it’s not, then bin it and move onto the next idea. 

Conclusion

Vocal sampling and using vocal samples in your music is a really fun way to add some dimension to your tracks that wasn’t there before. They can be used as Ear Candy, a background part of your song, or they can be the centerpiece of your production. Just remember to use samples with caution, and if you’re unsure, double check before releasing anything. 

About the author

Max McLellan is a composer, songwriter, and audio engineer with credits ranging across film, TV and radio. He provides composition, mixing, and mastering services through his company MKM Audio.