Simulating mass of people

[Antomnus]

I'm considering attempting to include what sounds like a mass/mob of people responding to vocals in a song. The reply would only be a few words long. Has anyone tried this with any sort of positive result?

I was considering attempting it this way:

1) Record the mob "reply" about five different times vocally, attempting to make my voice sound somewhat different on each take (pitch, slight accent change).

2) Drag the tracks into their own project. Vary the EQ a bit on each voice to add a bit more difference.

3) Duplicate each track five times, keeping track of which is a duplicate of which. For each duplicate, slightly adjust the EQ, throw in a bit of pitch adjustment, change the level by a couple dB, and slightly alter the start by a fraction of a second and stretch/shrink the timescale by a few percent.

4) Export this as one .wav file and import that into its own track in the main project.

I don't know if this is a good idea or not. If it is, do you know of any resource on the internet which may provide some tips in attempting this? I haven't been very lucky searching around.

Thanks!

 

[Seafroggys]

For the amount of time you spend doing that, just record yourself in different voices 20 times, and there you have it. Even more authentic.

 

[Antomnus]

Gotcha. My main worry is that I won't be able to vary my voice enough to keep it from sounding like it's just me without some manipulation inside the DAW.

 

[Bristol Posse]

For the amount of time you spend doing that, just record yourself in different voices 20 times, and there you have it. Even more authentic.

Problem with that is you get what sounds like a clone army. I'd suggest you invite a few friends round (better still if you have a mix of guys and girls) and ask them to be your mob and introduce them to the exciting worlld of home audio recording.
Record them 2 or 3 times with different mic positions and maybe even different mics
Mix and Pan into a stereo wav and use in your project

 

[Daveg62]

I've just done this as a matter of fact. We just got a group of people together (maybe 10-12) and I put a condenser across the room. Didn't really give me the effect until I found a good reverb/echo effect that worked with it and pushed the vocals to the back a bit. You just have to experiment.

 

[Micter]

Mic distance variation will be your friend in this case.

 

[The Cancers]

Greg L has a song in the mp3 mixing clinic right now called "Nobody likes you" (or maybe it's "No One") where he has the sort of thing you're describing. Give it a listen. If it's what you want, he talks about how he did it by himself in the thread, and I'm pretty sure it was simpler than the number of steps you want to take.

 

[DrewPeterson7]

Problem with that is you get what sounds like a clone army. I'd suggest you invite a few friends round (better still if you have a mix of guys and girls) and ask them to be your mob and introduce them to the exciting worlld of home audio recording.
Record them 2 or 3 times with different mic positions and maybe even different mics
Mix and Pan into a stereo wav and use in your project

Bingo. I've done something similar in the past, a handclap percussion track with cheering and applauding at the end of the song, sort of going for that bar singalong vibee. Three people, four or five tracks, recorded with a stereo set of mics in one position and the group of people moving around in the room a bit.

It sounded pretty anemic with just the first take, and even still a little weak after the second, but by the third it was beginning to fill out and after five or six or so it sounded fairly convincingly like a small but rowdy audience in a small club.

 

[Antomnus]

Gotcha. Thanks for the replies! Sounds like I'll have to end up grabbing some friends to get the variation I need.

 

[jbonil1]

ok once I downloaded a wave of a crowd cheering, and put it on cubase and started jaming with my gtr, showed it to my cousin who told me the crowd was constantly cheering and on concerts there'd be ups and downs, so went over the song again, and used vol automation, kept the vol low and when the gtr and drums enters the crowd vol goes up, and when the solo comes vol up, etc, sounded really cool, control the placement of the band and with pan and vol mix and put a large hall reverb on the master fader,instead of using it as a send, so it sounds as everything is in that hall. mix the cheer with the crowd you recorded and you should get better results. I'm telling ya, I just used the cheers wave and in some point at the end of the song it sounds like the crowd is going he he he, he he he, automating the vol in quarter notes. hope this helps. I haven't finished the song tho, but I could send you an example.