Thickening Vocals....

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Lord Zed
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2009/11/16 20:06:21 (permalink)

Thickening Vocals....

How can I thicken vocals without it sounding like multiple voices? I just want one strong, present, clear voice.
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    M.G.
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    Re:Thickening Vocals.... 2009/11/16 21:20:18 (permalink)
    There are different ways.  I'm not an expert, but I've had success with copying the lead vocals to another track, panning it 5-10 degrees away from the original track, and eq'ing it differently (or using different effects on it).  You can even delay the copied track by 12-40 ms, this has a cool thickening effect too.
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    papa2005
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    Re:Thickening Vocals.... 2009/11/18 06:59:14 (permalink)
    Lord Zed


    How can I thicken vocals without it sounding like multiple voices? I just want one strong, present, clear voice.

     
    What do you mean when you say "thicken vocals" & "one strong, present, clear voice"?
     
    That all starts with a) the timbre of the vocalist, the microphone used, proper mic technique, and proper recording. You can fatten some vocal tracks by applying EQ and/or different amounts of compression, etc., but you can't take a crappy sounding vocal quality (I don't mean a bad singer, I mean a "thin" sounding voice quality) and make it sound like a basso profundo. Your choice of mic(s) is also critical. You can't make an SM57 sound like a U47 (even with Antares' MicModeler).
     
    The key to getting "one strong, present, clear voice" is to start with a singer that has a "strong, present, clear voice" and record it properly.
     
    That's about all I can help you with since you didn't list any specifics (mics, preamps, sound card, music genre, etc.,)...

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    Papa

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    rbecker
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    Re:Thickening Vocals.... 2009/11/18 14:30:09 (permalink)
    There are multiple threads on the HS and Sonar forums dealing with this.  Many use a delay of some sort or taking a copy of a vocal track and applying various effects to it so that when played back with the 'main' vocal track will give a thickening of sound. I would say search out those threads, use those techniques but only to the point where you feel you have a thicker but single-voiced vocal.
     
    I use three vocal tracks. 1. My main vocal. 2. A copy of the main vocal with slightly different effects and a miniscule delay. 3. A good old-fashioned resinging of the lead line, matching as close as I can sing it.
     
    I keep tracks 2 and 3 WAY low in the mix.
     
    On the other hand, maybe all you need is a single track with some EQing and reverb added in.

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    daveny5
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    Re:Thickening Vocals.... 2009/11/18 18:52:40 (permalink)
    Lord Zed


    How can I thicken vocals without it sounding like multiple voices? I just want one strong, present, clear voice.


    One way is to clone the track and put a slight delay, like 3ms, on one of the tracks.
    post edited by daveny5 - 2009/11/18 18:53:42

    Dave
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