My friend (bandmate) and I have been debating the fact of doubling vocals in the recording of our songs. As the singer, I like the sound of the doubled vocal because it fattens the sound up a bit and allows for the vocals to cut through and not seem small compared to the other loud instruments. I also think my voice sounds better when doubled rather than with just one track.
Is this a silly idea? My friend seems to think the tracks will phase and sound "stupid" but I plan on having one at normal level and the other at half level or so, just to beef up the vocals a bit subtlely, but not overpowering it so it sounds like "two of me" singing together, if that makes any sense.
Comments
Gertok is correct and it is available for ProTools. But back in
Gertok is correct and it is available for ProTools.
But back in the old days.... We would frequently double the lead vocalist. Even if it wasn't intentional, a la' numerous isolated vocal overdubs later combined during the mix. Frequently makes folks that can't stay on pitch sound better.
To prevent that phasing effect, you only need to delay one of the two vocals by about 25 ms.
Some folks rely on a digital audio processor to create double vocals. Generally, these sound horrible with a robotic synthetic quality. I think that technique generally sucks even if randomization is built into the program. It basically pitches up and pitches down while speeding up and delaying tempo. Whereas a real double vocal shows off the vocalists skill i.e. it takes some talent.
I've used the double vocal technique to make otherwise crappy sounding local bands, sound better.
Only one of me
Ms. Remy Ann David
I agree with you Glide. Thanks Remy for all your help. By the
I agree with you Glide.
Thanks Remy for all your help.
By the way--you hit the nail on the head with singers using doubled vocals to make them sound more in pitch (it's kind of what I do because I'm not a very good singer). I hope that's not viewed as "cheating" or cutting corners too much from a professional standpoint, I'm just still a 19 year old newbie. lol.
Happy Holidays everyone!
RemyRAD wrote: But back in the old days.... We would frequently
RemyRAD wrote: But back in the old days.... We would frequently double the lead vocalist. Even if it wasn't intentional,
Ha...I love it.
I was just doing a session where I was doing trumpet quartet overdubs and the quartet had like 20 takes on the same 16 bars. I accidentally hit the unmute in the DAW while tracking and the guys in tracking room came alive! It seems 70 some trumpets punching into their cans while they were trying to play is not desirable....
Oh well, they deserved it - one of them whistled into my Royer SF12 and I heard the ribbon make all sorts of funky sounds..... :x :evil:
i don't consider Vocalign a cheaters tool. It's not creating a f
i don't consider Vocalign a cheaters tool. It's not creating a fake doubler effect like some plugins. Vocalign just helps with lining up the phrasing so that they are better in time with each other. You still have to sing the doubled vocals. Helps me save a TON of time. i just wish i would have checked to see that it was compatible with my new OS.
It's only compatible with ProTools, which is compatible with Win
It's only compatible with ProTools, which is compatible with Windows XP home and pro but not Media Center Edition. In fact, I wouldn't necessarily consider using it when going for those doubled vocal sounds. You need a little of that natural randomness to keep it sounding from being too unison.
Maligned
Ms. Remy Ann David
bent wrote: Personally I prefer to double vox without plugins,
bent wrote:
Personally I prefer to double vox without plugins, as Remy stated.
Once you get good takes to work with, how do you approach mixing/blending the two (panning, EQ, delay, etc.). Obviously the song will dictate, but I'd like to hear some basic examples that perhaps you've done in the past.
ADD a second mic might help.. Yeah doubling the vocals is KEy t
ADD a second mic might help..
Yeah doubling the vocals is KEy to a big sounding vocal. Your singer must be able to match him or herself 99% of the time. All this does is train your singer to be more consistant with their performance. They will love you later when they learn how to sing their song properly =)
Now one thing that I have been doing is tossing in a second mic on the stand ( TAPE IT UP ) SM58 or an AKG. Run this to a second Input so you can mix them 2 seporatly. Put a weeeee bit of Chorus on the second mic. Not a lot just a small bit. This will give you a doubled effect if your singer just cant pull it off. This will also save your singers voice if they are strugling to do the doubles.
I mainy use this for pre production. Saves the voice and we can move a lot faster to hear the sway of the song with vocals on it.
Hopefully by the time you move to your final takes they can pull off the doubleing, If not at least you have two tracks recorded differently at the same time =)
Its a cheet but it does sound 80% of a double.....
hey I am new to this place, thought I would contribute some idea
hey I am new to this place, thought I would contribute some ideas.
If it was a rush job, sometimes I would duplicate the track. Delay it maybe by 15 to 25 mSec depending on what works. Also I use a plugin like Autotune on one track or possibly both pitch correcting with different strengths. It is a quick and dirty trick but it gives two vocal tracks that behave differently due to the fact one is more corrected than the other. Of course you may want to go through and just pitch correct the parts that require it and not do all of it.
I do prefer two separate takes especially when the singer is skilled and fairly consistent.
Also a Chorus on the second track I have done as well.
Kid Rock was on Howard Stern and defended his use of double voca
Kid Rock was on Howard Stern and defended his use of double vocals after the idea of "cheating" was brought up. He said that he was in fact harmonizing and that the vocals were completely different.
Perhaps it is cheating if you are covering something up.
But, since Blues is what people should be singing....I would say to add the second vocal because blues is never the same way twice.
Don't try and emulte the first track, but just repeat a few key words like they do in rap songs.
If you want to be great, then listen to TuPac Shakur and what he does with double vocals.
If they are an octave apart then go for it, or have one vocal track be spoken word like The Doors did.
i hate to say this but i get pretty good results when i am too l
i hate to say this but i get pretty good results when i am too lazy to sing a double vox using waves doubler. i keep the grequency mod (on the 2nd voice) pretty close to zero and duck the gain a bit behind the real one.
i know purists will kill me- but it works okay. if you are an expressive singer and , like me, never seem to sing my double track close to my original without a million takes (in which i lose my patience often)
it helps me to keep the flow of creativity going...
just my 2 cents
when i record my own songs, i tend to improv the vocals each and
when i record my own songs, i tend to improv the vocals each and every take, (i've been to too many counting crows concerts i suppose) but i've found straight copying the vocal take from one track to the next, then chopping it up into several sections, (segments of 10 or so), then time stretching each segment by a ms or 3, and run it through some various (but gentle) processing of sorts, and tuck it (volume wise) under the original by a few db
I think there is a plugin that helps to align doubled tracks. It
I think there is a plugin that helps to align doubled tracks. It is called Vocalign, never used it though.