chorus during pop songs

[onmoris]

Here's something I've been thinking about.

Have you noticed how in lots of pop recordings it sounds like one track of the singer panned center during the verses and then during the chorus, the sound expands? The sound will be doubled or more and spread over the stereo image. Do people do this by overdubbing more than one vocal and then panning or by taking one vocal and delaying either the L or R channel? Any thoughts?

[tone_aot]

They do it both ways, but think they overdub mostly. It might be a combination of both methods.

[sssaudio]

Without overdubbing another way to do it is by making a couple of copies of the vocal track, pan them each hard left and right (delaying each of them by a couple of ms can be cool although is not necessary for the chorusing effect). Then Pitch shift one of those copies up by 2 or 3 cents and pitch shift the other down by 2 or 3 cents.
This works pretty nicely for guitar also. Creates a nice slammin chorus effect.

[rayc]

With good performers & good recording practice it's done by recording the extra tracks. The results are much better.
With the time/money overly aware , poorer or less technical performerss, or where a certain phrase can't be reproduced closely enough, it's cloning with effects added.
You do what you do for the reasons known to you.

[cephus]

I usually record 3 or 4 takes of lead vocals anyway, one right after the other. Computer recording with virtually unlimited tracks makes this easy and quick. Since you can start at the beginning and record a track in like 10 seconds, the mic placement and tone don't change much and you can get better results than recording additional tracks later.

Not only do you have the chance to replace a clanger on the best track, but you can also blend them in to do just what you are suggesting.

I do the same thing with guitar tracks, too.

[hobbestheprince]

Originally Posted by onmoris

Do people do this by overdubbing more than one vocal and then panning or by taking one vocal and delaying either the L or R channel? Any thoughts?

For the most part, everything is practically doubled. I'm no pro by any means, but I notice this is done often. It may be tedious recording the same vocal line a couple of times as well as guitar, but the overall sound will be "pushed up" more sonically speaking. A chorus is a fairly short part of the song, but often the most important, so make the effort when recording overdubs and make them really tight. You'll notice the difference.

Eric