Vocal Doubling

[A Fak]

Ok my typical vocal verse is like this:

Main [(main verse) up the middle]
Back up [(emphasis on certain words) pannedd 70%-80% left and right]
Adlibs [(like Uh, yeah in the background) different location for every song]

I don’t do too much doubling on the verses. My question how do you pan the double track? Do you pitch it up, eq it different . . . etc

I am recording this new artist and he is sick lyrically, but his voice is a little soft so I figure doubling it is a good way to thicken it up. I know different songs call for different things and there is no one way to do it, but I want some options to get me going.

[Offender]

Originally Posted by A Fak

Ok my typical vocal verse is like this:

Main [(main verse) up the middle]
Back up [(emphasis on certain words) pannedd 70%-80% left and right]
Adlibs [(like Uh, yeah in the background) different location for every song]

I don’t do too much doubling on the verses. My question how do you pan the double track? Do you pitch it up, eq it different . . . etc

I am recording this new artist and he is sick lyrically, but his voice is a little soft so I figure doubling it is a good way to thicken it up. I know different songs call for different things and there is no one way to do it, but I want some options to get me going.

Well..make sure he records a fresh double track. Don't just do a copy/paste of the orginal. I wouldn't say you needed to pan the double track. Keep it centre...and Pan your adlibs and back up words Left and Right.

By the way, that sounds like alot of work for a verse. I'd probably do that for a chorus or something. Be careful about the volume of the double track. Have it really really quiet. It could end up taking the over all punch out of the back-up words.

[PhonoquO]

The less you screw around with the sound of your vocals the better i think. Ur looking for the most solid performance always, don't put yourself in a situation where u have to fool people with tons of effects. I'd say keep your main verse center, pan your emphasis words left and right 45 degrees (ie, do 2 takes of these and pan them out). Throw your other vocals tidbits further left and right, even as far as hard panned. As far as effects treatments on the main vocal go, create 5 aux buses.

Aux 1. A compressor that is working very hard (almost to extremes) on the vocal, way more than the compressor insert would be for leveling). Adjust the aux from your vocal group to blend the heavily compressed with the original. Works magic

Aux 2. Reverb: almost always use reverb on the vocs. blend in the mix such that you don't really hear the reverb tail unless u are looking for that big space effect

Aux 3. Delay: (optional) Stereo delay: left and right settings somewhere around 35 milleseconds, but slightly different from each other. Blend so you can just begin to hear the vocal spread

Aux 4. Chorus 1: subtle chorus, panned fully left

Aux 5. Chorus 2: subtle chorus, panned fully right, and put out of phase

-Blend in these choruses until you can begin to hear the effect, or adjust to taste. Because chorus 2 is out of phase, the effect will dissapear in mono which is handy.

Another option might be to create an aux with a distortion or valve plugin, or bus out to hardware that can add harmonic distortion, and blend that in a little

The way you treat your backups could be different, but the idea is to have some sonic variety, so maybe compress them differently.

Hope this helps

Peace

[Methlab]

damn, thats a lot of effects on a rap vocal..i compress heavily as an insert and bus in a light bit of reverb..then EQ and pan.


for adlibs in the back, i may get a litt more creative sometimes.

[PhonoquO]

If u want your hooks to sound big, u got to use some effects, or really tight doubles or triples. The key is to use them very sparingly.

[rickrock305]

Originally Posted by PhonoquO

If u want your hooks to sound big, u got to use really tight doubles or triples. The key is to use them very sparingly.

If your gonna be doubling and tripling stuff, make sure they are TIGHT.

[Methlab]

If u want your hooks to sound big, u got to use some effects, or really tight doubles or triples. The key is to use them very sparingly.

actually, big hooks nowadays come from stacked vocals that are more then tripled. the main effect is compression. then you EQ and bus in a little verb and mix.

there is another thread on this in here.

[PhonoquO]

try the chorus trick though, u won't be dissapointed. Just make sure you mix in them choruses super low, so u can just begin to hear the spread.

peace

[musiq]

PhonoquO: hey that sounds cool. but how are you making ch2 out of phase

[PhonoquO]

i use cubase sx, and there are phase switches on each channel. i don't know if these exist in PT. There might be a plugin that does this. I use the trick on the verses sometimes, but rely more on stacking for hooks.

Peace

[jonnyclueless]

I'm not big on doubling for rap, but just got done on a Chingy album, and hes kind of the kin of stacking to me.

4 main tracks, 2 up the center (one higher than all other tracks), 2 panned to the sides. Then 2 more at a different pictch (sometimes higher, sometimes lower) panned to the sides. 2 adlibs panned to the sides, then 2 different adibs to the sides.

Depending on the song, it may vary, but this seems to be the general model.

[A Fak]

thanks for the ideas

[con?one]

you gotta play with it... some people make doubles work on thier own, and you don't have to do shit. some people (nate dogg), wanna record 10,000 tracks of the same shit and you gotta make as much work as possible