Stereo Vocals.....sort of?

[errr314]

Well crap. I didnt know what forum to post this in but here goes. Does anyone know how to get a very "stereo" vocal sound? A good example is this dude I found. The music is actually decent (kind of) but the vocals have stumped me on how to do it.

http://www.myspace.com/salmoralesmusic

Listen to Sunny Sunday. I want to achieve this vocal sound. Love and Rockets did this stuff on vocals as well. I am a huge fan of Love and Rockets. Yeah I just felt like saying that.

Thanks in advance for your vocal experteeeeessssssss.

[Chris Shaeffer]

You might do that by having a very short delay panned opposite the lead vocal. You could further separate it by putting some light effect on it. Sal is also making good use of the stereo field with his vocal tracks. Interesting.

Its backwards from formulaic pop. His lead vocal is panned to one side, secondary lead phrases come in the other side (along with what might be a mildly affected delayed lead and in some places a doubled lead or harmony) and the harmonies are sometimes "spread" closer to the center. Fun.

[errr314]

Hmm...so do you think its one vocal track or two? With the "doubled" vocal track on a slight delay panned to the right? Yes it is interesting and I want to do that. Actually I am about to go upstairs and try doubling a vocal track with a slight delay/panning. Hmmmm.......interesting point. You may have hit a bullseye. Wooohoo! I'll be back with results.

I always use the free plugin mda Stereo. Look it up. It's easy as putting the effect on a mono track and adjusting the "width" slider. There's other parameters too that you can mess with.

http://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=254591

[Kevin Deschwazi]

By far the best sounding doubling comes from doing it the traditional way, ie. recording exactly the same thing twice, rather than trying to emualte it with short delays. Of course I wouldn't want to discourage you from experimenting but I'd try that too.

The vocal doesnt sound "stereo" to me as such, more, as Chris says, like quite a few vocal tracks which are well spread throughout the stereo field.

Whatever, it's nice stuff.

[errr314]

Thanks for the responses! I am going to try that plugin as well as the traditional method. I thought I was going to get to it last night but I got suckered in to doing other stuff. I will try both suggestions though. Yeah!

The traditional method is the best, but the plugin works great also. I'd suggest trying both methods. I use it on acoustic guitar tracks, and those can take a long time to get just right when the results are pretty similar or better with the plugin.

[Daisy]

Originally Posted by errr314

Listen to Sunny Sunday. I want to achieve this vocal sound.

Just listened to it.

Nice stuff.

To do what he's doing with the main vocal track, you just need to track the lead vocal twice, and then pan each take hard Right and Left.

The plugins these guys are suggesting ... are basically just slap-back delay. But panned. Which basically sounds like crap, unless your name is Elvis Presley. If you want it to sound like the example you posted ... then you have to do two vocal takes and pan them.


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[IronFlippy]

There's no shame in doing the delay thing instead of double tracking. It's a different sound, but both are effective means of spreading an image across the stereo field. Try using a modulating delay, with a delay time of <30 ms. If the delay is causing you to hear one side more than the other, then you can simply bring that fader up (or the other down) to center the image again. Experiment, see what works best for your voice (or your client's voice). Triple tracking even works, or 2 delays, keeping the original center. Try a pre delay by actually copying the track and nudging it back a few ms. Whatever works is the right way to do it for that particular song. And there are many many right ways.

[mixsit]

Originally Posted by Daisy

To do what he's doing with the main vocal track, you just need to track the lead vocal twice, and then pan each take hard Right and Left.

What he said. There's multiple tracks there, panned, sometimes doubling the lead, sometimes doing counterpoint and harmony.
You can get 'wide with dealy and modulation and pitch shift but it's a more static' sound.

[RawDepth]

I believe that was done with a stereo widening effect, maybe on the entire mix. I can notice it on the instrumentation as well.