Thickening Vocals....

purple MC77 :-)

or Sonitus Compressor... maybe two instances one slow one fast.

Cool. Thanks fellas, I'll try these tips out tomorrow.

Two words, "Fat Chicks", no here's how I do it, and I'm told my vox are pretty good?

1. Comp it. Many tracks, take phrases, cobble together your best lead vox.

2. Try singing with it, but in almost a wisper?

3. Clone that 1st comped track "several" times...

4. Send them all to a lead vox bus.

5. Send #1 dry, #2 with a send to a verb track, set a hard pan on that verb track?, it's a VERB bus, so lets say you set it to 75 or 80% left?

6. Put another send, 3rd track? To a delay buss? Time the delay so it meets the BPM or doubles your BPM i.e., your BPM for the song is 75? Set the BPM on the delay bus to like 150?

7. Send another clone? 4th track? To a HARD compressor (squash it).

Take all 4 of these tracks + the wisper track? And send all 5 to the lead vox bus? And put a channel strip on the lead vox bus? i.e., Sonar Pro comes with a nice channel strip. Find a preset that works for you? Hard vox? Soft vox with air? etc... Send that combined "lead vox" track to the master...

Also, in places? You may want to "double" for effect? Not all the way through? But you may have a lead2VOX bus, where you sign a separate track, in places? For effect? To double lead 1? you can try some of the same tricks... Send both to the master. Then there's a BGV bus? Same tricks can apply... It adds up. I've done songs with 20 or 30 vocal tracks? And "IT'S FAT".

Also, if Vox1 buss is stero? which it should be? So take track 1 and pan it 6 left, 2, 3 left, 3 to the center, 4 3 right, 5 6 left, etc...

And maybe do the vox verb send like 75 left? And do the vox delay bus 75 right? Do all of this, and "I guarentee you..." You will have a FAT hot vox track with wich you will be "amazed...."

http://www.stillwellaudio.com/?page_id=267

From what I understand, Ozzy doubles each phrase as he sings it.  In other words, he sings a line or a half a line, stops, then doubles it.

Doubling is good "for effect" however, please note, you will get a "doubled sounding song" It's an effect which should be used sparingly IMO... If you double all of your stuff, it won't be good :-(

It's like that radio mic effect? It's cool in places? Or that Chere robot vox effect? It's coold "in places" And the doubled vox? "It's cool in places" However, if you try that "for a full vocal track... Get ready for dissapointment IMO... Your milage may vary...

Here's a little ditty I put together yesterday to test out my new Purple MC77 hardware.

http://www.harmoniccycle....ckory%20Wind%2004a.mp3

It aint easy to sing a song you don't know while watching all those meters and trying to feel groovy.

I think feeling groovy is the most important.

1 take vocals. Royer 121 into John Hardy M1 into Purple MC77.

I rolled a whole bunch of bass off the vocals when I was done singing.

Everything else was one take as well... I think there's still a bit too much low freq energy in the mix.

I put a schmaltz of Pristine Space reverb over the master.

I've never heard doubling that didn't sort of sound like doubling. Maybe I have and didn't know it? :-) I've never done it myself and not known it... no matter how quiet I make the second track.

best regards,
mike

Hey, speaking of documentaries....

Quote from American Songwriter Web site:

On Wednesday, November 25 at 10 p.m. Eastern, the History Channel will air “The Beatles On Record,” a new documentary on the beloved British band.
Featuring over 60 songs, with never-before-heard studio chatter, the doc “charts The Beatles’ extraordinary recording journey from Please Please Me to the epic Abbey Road LP and reveals how they developed as musicians, matured as songwriters and created an enduring body of work that pushed the boundaries of studio recording, changing the course of musical history and popular culture.”
End Quote...

Probably not too in depth considering I believe it to be a single one hour show, but I always enjoy looking at the gear and mic'ing techniques used in their studio sessions.

bitflipper
Bingo. Have you seen the documentary on the making of Dark Side of the Moon? I was surprised to find that just about every vocal (and guitar lead) was doubled. It's just done so expertly that you don't realize it.

I didn't even know the documentary existed.  It's now sitting atop my netflix queue.  Thanks!  Can't wait to watch it.

A lot of great suggestions. Some are tried and true. I have gotten a lot of milage out of the VX64 plug-in. Probably one the best reasons to upgrade to 8.5. Antares makes a lot of plug-ins devoted to vocal processing and thickening. If you're just looking for a quick fix, I think all their products are available with a 15 day free eval. Fully functional. The DUO plug-in works great for this. Suprised no one used this to rant about the lack of varispeed in Sonar :-)

I have also seen, very randomly, singers who can actually sing in such a way that they have a natural thickness to their voice. It's a sort of growl or throat distortion that seems to create a doubling effect. When you encounter one of these singers, it's pure bliss to record them.

In the old days .... They used an aural exciter ....

Robby mentioned whisper tracks, here is Yep's vocal guide where he also discusses whisper tracks.
http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.aspx?&m=830309

My singer is a Japanese girl, and I have record my voice as a whisper track behind her! (don't tell).

word

one thing i forgot to mention... the portico burned up on re entry.  about five minutes after finishing the track.  the teks can't seem to give me a reason for that.... kind of scary.  but man it sounds so good. i actually overlooked it's shortcoming.  so far the new one has been stable. 

i'm old school about these types of things.

nothing sounds as good to me, as hearing something sung twice, exceptionally well, and mixed together.


that is the holy grail of thick vocals.

is it easy?
hell no!


if it was, everybody would have killer thick vocals.