Anyone Use A Phaser On Vocals ?

Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 9:21 pm

Hi,

I have a Female R&B vocalist in the studio, that say's she
went to a studio that used an effect on her voice. She said
it gave her voice a real dreamy effect. I haven't been able to
hear anything she did but, she said she asked the studio
and they said they used a phaser.
I used a Phase shifter but never used it on vocals.

Has anyone used a this type of effect on vocals?
or is there a different type phaser used for vocals?

Any info would be appreciated......

Thanks
Tom

Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 9:35 pm

Yes, I've used just about anything you can think of on vocals.

For a better effect on her vox I suggest chorus.

Posted: Tue Apr 01, 2008 6:44 am

When in doubt, try it, see how it sounds, but just don't overwrite the recording Smile

Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 8:53 pm

Chrous is no good.
For reference you may check out "Killer Queen" by Queen which uses a similar vocal effect on the line "just like a laser beam".
Or, try Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Gimme Two Steps" which sounds like what you describe.

Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 7:45 am

Well, in R&B it is probably a chorus maybe with some 'spacial' effects added- a delay and some slight 'detuning.'

Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 8:01 am

filmmusic2008 wrote:

Or, try Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Gimme Two Steps" which sounds like what you describe.

Is that the shortened version of the song? Laughing

Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 5:29 pm

Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 5:52 pm

TomF wrote:

I haven't been able to hear anything she did...

What, she doesn't have a tape, CD or MP3 of anything that was recorded at that other studio? Rolling Eyes

Phaser is cool, but it REALLY depends on the phaser. They've all got a different sound quality. I've got an old guitar pedal that I like on some things but it sounds completely different from the basic phaser plug in on my DAW.

How are you applying the phaser? Are you just running the main vocal track through a phaser? What sort of mix (dry/wet) are you setting it to?

Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 7:25 am

100% wet, and running through 2 chained together. Just to give it that phased phaser pheel.

On an insert as well, who needs the original signal anyway?

Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 6:19 am

mwacoustic wrote:

filmmusic2008 wrote:

Or, try Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Gimme Two Steps" which sounds like what you describe.

Is that the shortened version of the song? Laughing

I think it's been compressed! with a 2:3 ratio:lol:

Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 3:31 pm

filmmusic2008: "Chrous is no good"

No, indeed it's not. Frankly it's useless. Chorus isn't too bad though.

Posted: Sun May 18, 2008 12:45 am

HEY! Guys, let's cut filmmusic a little slack here...
"Gimme TWO Steps" is Skynyrds' DANCE version of that song Thumbs Up

And the effect on the Queen song is FLANGING, which is technically ( and sonically) slightly different than phasing and chorusing. "Phasing" is the result of modulating a filter-some use a bandpass, others an allpass- to achieve the comb-filtering effect. "Flanging" (as well as chorusing) uses actual time delays that are modulated. And we all know about how that got it's name,now, don't we...?

Posted: Sun May 18, 2008 1:43 pm

Someone was ringing a very odd bell, but couldn't use the C button on his typewriter?

Posted: Fri May 23, 2008 5:38 pm

Codemonkey wrote:

When in doubt, try it, see how it sounds, but just don't overwrite the recording Smile

That is so true!
I've tried it before and I've found that its more pleasing to the ears when it is more suddle of an effect. OR you could make her pull a Freddy Mercury and over dub the same vocal parts a few times to get a nice natural phase sound. That way, it sounds cool, and your musician gets a ton more credit for being able to pull it off.

Posted: Sat Aug 02, 2008 8:32 am

I did this on a female singer once and it sounded pretty cool. I think I had doubled her vocal, and ran one with some eq and comp, and the other I put a different eq on and a phaser. Then I used mainly the "clean" vocal, but pulled up the phaser track in places to gives certain lines a little spacey feel.

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