I'm looking for a certain type of effect with vocals...

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jndietz

The Way It Moves
I have recorded a very subtle vocal part, but I would like it to be prominent during a certain part of the song. The feeling I'm trying to accomplish is when you listen to it, especially on headphones, that it seems like there are voices whispering in your ear, really close and subtle like. As if there are two people on either side of you whispering into both of your ears.

What I've tried was taking the one vocal take on the track and putting a verb plug on it and then using a stereo expander to make it wider but it wasn't exactly doing what I wanted it to.

I guess if you know what I'm talking about, maybe you could give me some tips? I also posted a clip below of what I'm talking about ... something along those lines.

http://www.mediafire.com/?jmjd5zdis9b
 
1) good low voice, not whispering, more like talking quiet
2) hard panned double tracked
3) a little reverb emphasizing s, maybe a bit of delay

and maybe something more
 
jndietz said:
The feeling I'm trying to accomplish is when you listen to it, especially on headphones, that it seems like there are voices whispering in your ear, really close and subtle like. As if there are two people on either side of you whispering into both of your ears.

What I've tried was taking the one vocal take on the track and putting a verb plug on it and then using a stereo expander to make it wider but it wasn't exactly doing what I wanted it to.
Click to expand...
First I'd double the vocal via use two seperate recordings instead of one recording. Hard pan them left and right.

Second, in real life if someone is whispering in your ear real close and subtle, there will be no reverb; it'll be as dry as a bone.

Third, on whispering/low level vocals, compression sometimes equals clarity. High dynamics at low levels often means inaudibility/incomprensibility, forcing you to bring up the levels too high.

So I'd double the vocals, throw them all the way to the sides, keep them dry, compress to taste for clarity purposes (as always, don't overdo it; leaving the voices partly inaudible/incomprensible can add to the spooky feeling), then throw a good quality expander or 3D imager on those results.

G.
 
To get the sound pf the clip, just double track and hard pan. Maybe a bit of compression. If your going for a "whisper" type sound, a LOT of it comes from the vocalist. He has to sing it very breathy (twice), then, compress the bejeezuz out of it, and hard pan each to a side. For even more "etherealness", you can pull the fader all the way down, send the tracks to a nice verb pre fader, and it will be all ghosty sounding. Then if it's too much, you can adjust the level of the fader, and the send to get it just ghosty enough.
 
Throw together a makeshift binaural head:

Take a couple of omnidirectional reference mics, and place each one, pointing outwards, about where your right and left ear would be.

Tape them in place and secure the stand to the ground using duct tape in order to hold them in place.

Wrap a medium-sized towel around them in the center; ball it up and tape it in place with more duct tape. This will serve as your quasi "dummy" head.

Congrats -- you now have a totally ghetto binaural head. Now sing in to each side of the head for your tracks. Or team up with someone else and sing in to each side simultaneously. I guarantee it will create an eerie, uncomfortable effect for the listener with headphones on.
 
If it has to sound like whispers, then record whispers. If you re-track close to the mic be careful of the proximity effect or roll some bass off. Like Glen said, I would use no reverb.

FWIW, I've done similar things and although this might sound "cool" it might get annoying quite fast. I would use it as an effect for a bridge or one specific part of a song but not the whole track.
 
carlosguardia said:
FWIW, I've done similar things and although this might sound "cool" it might get annoying quite fast. I would use it as an effect for a bridge or one specific part of a song but not the whole track.
Click to expand...

:agreed: I always thought this was quite tastefully done in Live's "Lakini's Juice," where they just double up the last half of one vocal line this way...
 
One of the best (IMHO only) uses of the quiet, not-quite-subliminal vocal is on the cut "Lay My Love" by John Cale and Brian Eno (Or is it Brian Eno and John Cale. I can never tell with those two ;) ) Check it out.

It's a little different than what the OP is going for in that it's not a hard pan/in the ear whisper. There is so much going on dynamically in the pan space that I don't think there was room left to do that as hard pan ;)

But it is a *very* effective use of lower-that-normally-should-be vocals, and one from which anybody wanting to use anything from a whisper on up could learn from.

The entire mix/arrangement itself is quite amazing, an incredible amount of talent and planning went into that cut. But here he's using the technique on the harmonizing and doubled backup vocals that start about halfway through the song. Sung more than whispered, but a quiet singing kind of like the way a mother might sing a lullaby to her newborn. The effect is is quite mystic-sounding. And the fact that you can't quite always make out what they are actually singing in that line just draws you into the mix deeper as you try harder to listen, further exposing the incredibly intricate arrangement put together like the gears and springs of a Swiss watch. A whole lot for newbs and old pros alike to learn from that cut.

On the other end of the spectum, IMHO, as far as how NOT to do the whisper, is the bridge in "Goodbye Moon" by Shivaree. Again, a song with a kind of spooky feel to it, but when she whispers the bridge, to me, it just gets lost in the mix completely. Furthermore, it's almost like they knew it was getting lost in the mix and the whispering at times sounds like when someone trys to whisper really loudly; a "shouted whisper", kind of. Just sounds forced and studio produced to me, and I think the song would have done better without it.

Two ends of the spectrum in quality of execution of the quiet/whispered vocal technique, IMHO. Check them out for yourself.

G.
 
why now just do one take and put like a a doppler efffect or some sorta pannerizr effect. and a slite mid tones followings type effect.....start off on one ear and let it pann to the other ear....like a dream sequence or somethin......lol dont mind me im not sure exactly type of whispering scenario you going for but i thought that would sound cool
 
There's an effect I love in a Thinkpol track 'Cinders' where during the bridge section, the 2nd vocalist sings the vocal refrain and it's so low in the mix you really have to strive to hear it; After 4 or 8 cycles the main vocals come in singing full-pelt, really hits you in the face and stops you thinking you're hearing things :rolleyes:
 
two vocal takes... eat the mic... USE A WIND SCREEN and USE A CONDENSER ...compress it so that it's fairly dynamic-less...hard panned.

and yes, this isn't quite whispered... manipulate your vocal cords to sound a little scratchy. try whiskey straight or smoking a big joint or 3 before you record it. It's not really a deep voice..it's more like the type of thing you get if you can't get that low naturally and you slightly fuck your vocal cords (you can do it without anything to help, but it might make it easier, depending on how smooth your voice already is.
 
Vodka.... mmmmm vodka straight is goooooood!!! Vodka makes certain type of effect with vocals sound SOOOOO much better!
 
Thanks a lot for the tips everyone. We're going to give this a shot this weekend when we lay down some more vox tracks.
 
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