Looking for vocal effects advice

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pescidavid
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Looking for vocal effects advice

Post by pescidavid »

Hey, I've been recording music for around a year now and although I've gotten some results that I think are pretty good I'm still looking for some guidance from anyone who can help. I'm looking for a way to achieve the vocal "doubling" effect that a lot of bands use including sum 41.
I've tried just recording the vocals twice and although this works fairly well I feel certain when listening to acapella versions of some of these artists that this isn't their main strategy of achieving this. Their vocal effect sounds a lot tighter and has less of that tinty echo sound to it that I get with some vst's I've tried like Doubler X 2.0. (I know they have access to much more than most of us do.)
But is there a good vst for this? What do any of you do to get this sound? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Derycks vocals the whole way through this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tp0D38CzWNc

And Jared Letos around 1:50 Are what I'm looking for
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsVerDQ ... SVZQsDJ6Ow

Thank you so much!
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HugoDisasters
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Post by HugoDisasters »

I don't think you should look for a VST for stuff like this.
It's basically just good EQing with simple panning (as far as I can hear, I'm not an expert).
It can also help if you put a bit of Chorus effect to make the tone more apparent

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pescidavid
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Post by pescidavid »

so what you are saying is copy my vocal track and just pan it differently and eq it differently?

I also am not expert but it seemed there was more to the effect. I'll try that though

Thank you
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Tyler.
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Post by Tyler. »

They probably do sing twice, but they are really good so it sounds tight lol. They would also use something like Melodyne so that the vocals are really well in tune, if you aren't in tune on both it'll sound shitty. I have tried doing that, and since I'm not a great singer it comes out bad, but it is a really common technique for good musicians

You can copy the same track then nudge is a tiny bit, like 1/64th note or less forwards (or put 100% wet delay on it for a tiny millisecond amount) Play with stuff like copying it twice and nudging the copies, then panning them to the side for a chorus or yells, so you have the main down the middle.

For background vocals, you can add more reverb and EQ out a bit more of the body so they are there but not dominating the main vocal part, but that's different to just straight double tracking for a main part.

I'd say just try the copying and delaying the copy technique, and practice your singing until you can do a normal double track. Also get something like Melodyne can help a lot because you can alter pitch and timing without totally destroying the sound (unless you're way outta tune :devious: )

edit: oh and also get the compression going, you don't want one take ducking down while the other take is louder, but again, it's much easier when the singer is good enough to do multiple perfect takes
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