Logic Pro: Air Balloon trick (audio clip included)

[Lagerfeldt]

I think this trick has been discussed before and there are many variations including not using exactly that preset.

The Air Balloon trick can make the lead vocal (or other tracks) "sit" in the mix and will add a bit of fullness and width without collapsing in mono playback.

It's basically a de-essed, equalized and M/S spreaded short reverb. It should be used in combination with your regular vocal reverb and/or delay.

Lead Vocal Stereo Effect (Air Balloon) Trick
1) Open a send from your already processed lead vocal to an available bus.

2) Insert a Space Designer reverb with the Small Spaces > Indoor Spaces > 0.08 ms Air Balloon preset. You need to insert this as the 2nd insert on the bus, leaving the first slot empty for now.

3) Set an appropriate amount of send from the vocal channel to the bus. Once set you should not change the send amount again but control the amount of the effect via the bus volume fader.

4) Insert a channel EQ with a 6dB/Oct HPF after the Space Designer. Roll off some low end, somewhere between 250 Hz and 1kHz. I often go for 500 - 750 Hz.

5) On the first slot you now insert a good de-esser plug-in. Or use the Logic Compressor with this de-esser preset: Using the Logic Pro Compressor as a De-Esser

This will de-ess the input of the reverb but leaving the original vocal untouched of course. Adjust until you hear no sibilance in the reverb.

For a more dramatic stereo effect add this next step as the last step on the bus:

6) Insert a M/S spreader plug-in and spread to the max. Do not use a "fake" stereo spreader such as the Logic Stereo Spread plug-in. Instead use the Direction Mixer plug-in.

You can skip most of these instructions if you simply download and install the Bus Channel Strip below.

Audio Clips
In the mix
http://www.popmusic.dk/download/logi...ir-balloon.wav

Dry
http://www.popmusic.dk/download/logi...alloon/dry.wav

Processed with Air Balloon trick
http://www.popmusic.dk/download/logi.../processed.wav

The speak is 1 single mono track with the above effect on.

Bus Channel Strip Download
Links | Audio Articles, Technical Tips, Download Presets

Download, unzip and place here:
Mac HD > Users > YourUserName > Library > Application Support > Logic > Channel Strip Settings > Bus > Balloon Vocal.cst

It will only show up on a bus, not on a normal audio or instrument channel.

[SPUMD]

Nice!

[rockstheparty]

Originally Posted by SPUMD

Nice!

+10

Great howto!

[DonCho]

Sweet!

[orjankarlsson]

Wonderful!!! Any more tricks like this?? Any other Space designer IR:s that are suitable?

[Lagerfeldt]

Basically any very short IR can do the trick.

Someone suggested I do a before & after clip, and I'm thinking of adding a channel strip download for the really lazy. ;-)

[orjankarlsson]

Originally Posted by Lagerfeldt

Basically any very short IR can do the trick.

Someone suggested I do a before & after clip, and I'm thinking of adding a channel strip download for the really lazy. ;-)

A channelstrip preset would be great! Or release it as a plugin!
"The überfeldter".

[Firechild]

Very good levels on the audioclip. Nice to hear Robert Miles is back

[antonbuys]

Thanks, lagerfeldt!

I love a day when I can walk away from gearslutz with some new trick or tip I can use in the studio. I second that a before/after sample would be great!

Anton

[zebastian21]

Originally Posted by Lagerfeldt

Basically any very short IR can do the trick.

Someone suggested I do a before & after clip, and I'm thinking of adding a channel strip download for the really lazy. ;-)

YAAAYYYY

[quincyg]

nice tip

[esteso]

Thanks L> (PS I'm lazy)

[felipeabel]

Very Nice! Thankss

[Lagerfeldt]

Dry + Processed audio clips added to the original post.

Bus Channel Strip download added to the original post. Only using stock Logic plug-ins.

I also did a small update to the instructions:

It's best to set the initial amount of send from the vocal channel and then not touch the send amount later.

Adjusting the send later will affect the amount of de-essing, which means you would need to re-adjust the threshold each time. This can be avoided by simply adjusting the amount of effect being applied by using the bus volume fader.

[musiq]

Thanks Lagerfeldt! your post are always extremely helpful thumbsup

[preben]

Skidegodt..!!

Thanks a lot.

[symplectiq]

Lagerfeldt is the man! He helped me with this trick some time ago.

p.s. love that croc's voice thumbsup

[Lagerfeldt]

That's Josh Mahler @ www.vocalvoodoo.com who's also here on Gearslutz.