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4. Retro rave vocals with sampling

1 Vocal sampling in old-school rave and techno tracks was usually rough and ready. Forget everything you know about fancy, slick sampling, and instead, chop your vocal samples sloppily and don’t worry too much about getting them perfectly in time or in tune. Just go by feel.

2 The high-pitched ‘chipmunk’ vocals found on classic rave tracks were a byproduct of needing to match samples to fit the tempo. Now that we have timestretching we can avoid that, but we don’t have to. Pitching up until the voice sounds cartoonish adds lots of character.

3 When it comes to effects on ravey vocals, more is more. Harsh EQing, characterful compression and just about anything else goes. Try less obvious effects like flangers, long stereo delays and distortion to put a unique, distinctive twist on your vocals.