Spoken poetry in music

[jordanrooben]

I took a look on google and nothing came up, so I thought I'd come here; I'm sure I can find good advice from you guys.

Anyone have any tips/advice/guidelines for having spoken word/poetry inside of a song?

For reference, I'm currently working on a piece in which I want to have a dark, creepy little poem during the interlude.

[Magnetic Ether]

I don't really have any answers, but could you elaborate on what kind of issues you're having?

Like is it the music during the spoken word part that you're wondering about, or the timing of the words, or something else?

[AngelsDen]

In Germany we had Christopher von Deylen alias Schiller who used poems in electronic Music. http://de.musicplayon.com/play?v=260471

Maybe it will help you find an answer

[Safety]

It all depends on how you want it implemented. Ask yourself a few questions:

Is the song based around the poetry or is the poetry an addition to the song?

Do I want to use all of the poem/piece?

What does it bring to the song?

I'd say tread carefully and remember to cut it up. Don't slap it in there on top of what you've made. Listen to the piece of spoken word you want and see where it fits in your song. Figure out what grabs you in the piece and use those parts as a refrain or a hook.

I'd say it's very subjective. But I think first you have to figure out if the spoken word piece is a sample you want to bring in to spice things up, or if you're song has sprung out of that particular spoken word piece.

EDIT: Listened to the link under mine. OP, listen to that and notice how Schiller strips away almost everything but the bass track while the vocals run. This puts the poem in center stage. Obviously he wants us to listen to it. So that's a good example of where the music is more based around the poem rather than using the poem as a sample.

[Rozovian]

Treat it like any vocals - good writing, good performance, good mixing. Words that don't fit well, in length, stress, whatever become problematic. Overacting is as bad as underacting. Place the voice at the appropriate distance from the listener.

[Legion303]

I just used some spoken word in a song (from a LibriVox audiobook, highly recommended for your sample needs). You'll want to slap some effects on it, reverb at a minimum. I used EQ, Waves Ultrapitch, ping-pong delay and reverb. If the meter of the sample is too different from your music, you'll need to do some precise wave editing to shorten or lengthen the spaces between words as needed.

[dannthr]

It's called Rap.

It's just that Rap has fallen into such disrepute that we all forgot it was supposed to be poetry.