How to produce dark, atmospheric vocals in the style of BurialBurial is a master of atmosphere. Full of sound effects like rain and street noise, his tracks powerfully conjure a feeling of urban dread and alienation. One of his signature production tricks is how he uses vocals — more precisely, found vocal samples. By taking random vocal parts out of context and dropping them into new environments, he elicits moving emotions while adhering to the song’s harmonic and rhythmic structure.
In this tutorial, we show you how to turn random voice samples into Burial-style ghostly vocals, like this:

Sourcing samples
What vocal samples are appropriate? Aim for something that expresses longing or heartbreak. When taken out of context these can be exceptionally emotional. The samples can be sourced from 90s and 2000s R&B songs, like Burial has done, from random YouTube videos or even ready-made sample packs, as in the example below.
To get isolated vocals, either look for acapellas or use a stem separation application. The artefacts and noise from low-quality YouTube rips and stem separation algorithms may add to the vibe. Be sure to follow legal practices of sample clearance when planning to release copyrighted material.
Here’s our starting sample, ‘115_Am_CanYouStayALil’Longer_01_TL’, from the Touch Loops sample pack, Soul Voices. It has the emotional content we’re looking for.

Warp the sample to fit the tempo and vibe
Once you have chosen your sample, import it into the project as an audio file. Now you’ll want to use your DAW’s built-in warping functions to get the found vocal sample inline with not only the tempo of your track but the rhythm and flow.
In this example, the source sample is 115 BPM while the track itself is 132 BPM. You could just let the DAW automatically apply warp markers and leave it at that, but remember that you’re trying to create something with an uncanny atmosphere. Manually add warp markers at promising points in the sample, such as the beginnings of words, and push and pull it around the beat until you have a phrasing that both works rhythmically and accentuates the strangeness of it.

Create a new vocal melody
Now that the vocal sample has a phrasing that matches the rhythm of the track, let’s alter the melodic content as well with pitch correction software. We’re using Melodyne Essential but any pitch correction that can change notes on an individual basis will work.
Drop an instance of the software onto the vocal track and let the plugin analyze the audio. You should see a graphic representation of the notes and pitch appear as the sample plays.
Drag individual notes up and down the musical scale and create new melodies as you see fit. Future garage like the kind that Burial makes particularly favors very high and low notes as these sound artificial and strange so try raising or lowering the notes an octave or more.
The notes in the example below have been changed from the original sample’s A minor to the target G minor of the track. However, inharmonic notes can create tension so experiment with different types of melodies.

Unusual vocal effect processing
The vocal is starting to take on a creepy life of its own but there’s more you can do to make it even more unsettling, such as using a voice effect processor like Mutator from Antares.
Mutator lets you alter parameters like Throat Length and Throat Width, which can give a vocal sample a suitably strange quality. The Mutator section roughens up the signal with ring modulation.
Note that there are any number of ways to affect a vocal sample in this way. Try experimenting with stock DAW effects like pitch, ring and frequency modulation for a similar vibe. If the effect is too strong, move the plugin chain to a send channel and adjust the send amount to taste.

Dial in the reverb — a LOT of reverb
Burial absolutely soaks his sounds in reverb. This creates a massive sense of space, which in turn makes the listener feel as if they’re alone in an open environment. Beautiful and alienating at the same time.
For a huge reverb, place a plugin with a very long tail such as Valhalla’s Vintage Verb on a send channel. Set the Mix to 100% and then use the send amount on the DAW’s mixer to control how much of the sample piped to the plugin.
Next, dial in a very long reverb. The actual length will depend on the content of your track but in this example we’ve gone for close to 15 seconds, which is very long indeed. Be sure and use the EQ on the reverb plugin to remove any bass frequencies that may be muddying up the mix. With such a long reverb tail, this is imperative. Properly EQing the sample itself will also have an affect on this. Finally, open up the highs as you see fit. Modern productions favour bright reverbs but there’s something spooky about an old-school dark reverb as well.

Ducking the reverb for clarity
With such a long reverb tail, you’re going to want to duck the reverb out of the way when the sample is playing, otherwise it’ll get swamped. If the plugin has a ducking control, use that. If not, as with Vintage Verb, you’ll need to employ a sidechain compressor instead.
Set up a compressor after the reverb and set the sidechain input to the vocal sample. Lower the threshold until you hear the reverb move out of the way when the sample plays. Use the attack and release dials to change the rhythm of the sidechain action.

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