Vocal tricks & techniques.

[iceHouse Project]

Being a vocalsit i guess i've learned to pick up a few tricks over the years.

Once, to save time on an electronic track instead of Double tracking my vocal we just copied the audio files to a new track underneath and it produced a really synthetic phazing effect.
Pan the vocal at '10 to 2' in the stereo field and then any harmonies and backing vocals can be panned at 'quarter to 3' or '20 to 4' etc to get a really massive sound.
Any ad libs were given their own space either slightly left or right of centre.

[Dave Boulden]

A similar trick I've used for "quick and dirty" doubling vocals after the vocalist has gone home is to duplicate the track and then run the second track through Melodyne (or something similar) to quantize the timing and correct any minor pitching mistakes... it can quite convincingly give the effect of a real second vocal take once balanced to the original track (also good if you're using it on your own vocals when you're as "adequate" a singer as I am ).

[iceHouse Project]

Originally Posted by Dave Boulden

A similar trick I've used for "quick and dirty" doubling vocals after the vocalist has gone home is to duplicate the track and then run the second track through Melodyne (or something similar) to quantize the timing and correct any minor pitching mistakes... it can quite convincingly give the effect of a real second vocal take once balanced to the original track (also good if you're using it on your own vocals when you're as "adequate" a singer as I am ).

Yaay forgot that bit.

Effecting one side of the vocal only gives a great feel because the natural un-effected track pushes and pulls agains the frequencies of the 'effected' track.

The possibilites of different combinations of technique are endless.

[TrevCircleStudios]

My hot tip for huge vocals (this will work insanely well on some songs - listen to the choruses of "what's the deal" currently up on myspace - and not so well on others. You always need to experiment with settings to see if it will work in any given song):

Lead vocal: straight up the middle processed to perfection (whatever that takes for that particular vocalist for that particular song)

vocal 2. The second best take (matched timing-wise as closely as possible to the lead) tucked in right behind the first but pretty heavily compressed and at a lower volume (whatever it takes to sound 'right')

Often this is where I'll leave it for the verses.

For the choruses vocal 3 and 4 panned half left and half right

and/or

5 and 6 panned hard left/right

for 3/4 I might detune one by a cent and uptune the other by another cent and/or add a soft chorus

for 5/6 if I don't add chorus to 3/4 I might insert a dimension D on each side - this really fills out the chorus and adds 'that' shimmer that you occasionally hear.