How to Craft a Vocal House Classic

 You are either out there on the dance floor or behind the decks and suddenly it happens - the music swells and along with it soars a glorious female vocal, lifting the spirits of everyone at the party and raising the energy level of the night another notch. You've just witnessed the power of a vocal house classic, one of the most enduring genres in house music.

What are the ingredients that set an iconic vocal house track apart from a standard recording? There are several different areas where an elite track can rise up above the rest of the pack. The first is performance. Vocal house music often makes heavy demands on not only the range but the power of the singer who is recording. Clubs are loud and busy places, and its important that a vocalist be able to generate enough energy to connect directly with dancers and listeners. Power must of course be tempered by emotion, so that the vocal doesn't come across as merely loud but also passionate and involved. A perfect example of the prototypical house singer is CeCe Peniston, the voice behind the string of hits tabulated by C + C Music Factory at the beginning of the 90's. Singers in vocal house music often have a jazz or similar performance background that adds an air of drama to their voice, and allows them to tap deeply into the soul of the music.

Production also plays a key role when it comes to vocal house music. The person behind the boards has to make sure that the vocals not only cut through the groove of the backing track, but that they are also supported by the overall arrangement of the piece. The song needs to feel as though it is a single unit, with no one element overpowering the other but instead having all of its pieces work towards a common goal. That means selecting synths that don't bleed onto the same sonic range occupied by the singer, and a finding a bassline that provides a counterpoint to the lead melodic line.

The differences in production between vocal and standard house music can often be seen by contrasting the instrumental mix of a song. It's not unusual for vocal house to be backed with a version of the track that has no lyrics at all, and the difference in terms of instrument voicing and the overall arrangement are often quite instructive. Producers such as David Guetta and Kaskade often release multiple versions of their vocal house tracks, with Kaskade taking the step of occasionally feature a male singer instead of the usual female voice that is so often found in this house music genre.