doubling voices..

  • Thread starter Thread starter InfiniteMH
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InfiniteMH

New member
i'm one of the newer guys in this BBS..

well, here goes..

i started recording somewhile ago,

and wanted to try that doubling vocal effect..

i recorded once to one track on my cool edit pro2,

and the exact same melody to track 2..

but when i listened to it.. it was terrible!

while it was satisfying with just one track,

the result with two was kind of scary..

and VERY annoying when you listen to it..

made me think about my singing skills..

am i doing something wrong?

or am i not doing something i'm supposed to do?

like tweaking a little here and there..?

cuz i don't think it's supposed to sound this bad..

well.. please help me..

i'll be waiting for your replies-!
 
Practice Practice Practice!

Practice singing along with your first (or best) take until you can mimic every nuance of it, THEN record it.

Then:

Edit Edit Edit!
Edit anything that sticks out.


Or cut and paste the first track to a new track and set it slightly out of time (behind) the first one. Then Try panning the two tracks Hard L-R and/or anywhere in between!

-Dave

:D
 
thanks

so.. is it my singing skills that need work?..

arg...........

oh and how do i edit something that sticks out?..

and when you say sticks out, how do you tell..?

cuz when i listen, it's not that it sticks out, but it sounds really irritating. . .. . ..... . . ... . . .. . . . . ...

i'm not sure how to describe it..

the pitch isn't the same, but it's the irritating feeling you get when you listen to steve erkle(remember him?..) or an ambulance..

................................................???
 
Yeah I've tried doubling to make my vocals stronger but never could get it to sound better than the original weak track... Oh well...

If the two parts are out of tune I can imagine the "erkle" thing..

It's cool though. I've developed a scientific term for it...

Snowflake vocals: I can never get the same vocal delivery twice.

Rock On!
Pat (NOT a singer)
 
cheat code 101:

record it 3 times. set the best down the middle, then delay and autotune the other two tracks and pan them hard L/R, then lower the volume on the other two tracks.

hey, i never thought to delay the 2 ghost tracks by different time.

do the L 1/16 and the right 1/8. i'm going to try that tomorrow and tell you how it goes.
 
How are you monitoring the original track?Can you hear the original track loud enough while you are singing along laying your second vocal?You MUST hear your first vocal track as you are laying the second one so you'll know whether or not you are singing the exact same vocal note for note.

I pan the first vocal hard left in my headphones and give it enough volume to bring it above the music tracks,then I pan the second vocal track hard right as I start to record it..this eneables you to "seperate" the 2 in your head and you will catch every little note that is sung differently.Or just pull the one side of the headphone off and just sing along as you listen to the first vocal in the other side of the phones......whichever way you can get yourself to hear the original track AND yourself as you sing along to it.

You need to play with the volumes of the playback vocal and the one you are overdubbing to eneble yourself to hear well enough to know when you sing "off key/pitch" from the first vocal......if you catch yourself off just stop the recorder and start over...if you have finished a verse or so just stop and manually punch in and take up where you left off right before the out of key note.(preferably a section of silence before the vocal line comes back in)

You can check out a few of my songs with this effect on them."Imaginary Lover" is probably the best reference I have of using this effect.
click here.

Hope this helps.
 
Hey!

I double my voice alot, I love the slight courusing effect that
results from that. what I do is, set the volume of your main vocal
track and have your doubling track volume a little lower and pan
a little left or right. sometimes I find some singers create alot of
sibilance and when doubling a track gives even more sibilance
so eq the two tracks to fit together you shouldnt need to eq too
much, just a tadd thats all.

check out my vocals on this song, there all doubled

http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/?aid=2710/singles
 
I used to think doubling up vocals sounded awful until I watched a show on TV about the production of Rumours by Fleetwood Mac. On that album they doubled nearly all the vocals with great results. After listening to the album and what the producers said, I tried again and it came out alright after a little tweaking.

Listen to rumours - should give you a bit of inspiration in what to do.

Hope its helped.

Neil
 
Neil Ogilvie said:
I used to think doubling up vocals sounded awful until I watched a show on TV about the production of Rumours by Fleetwood Mac. On that album they doubled nearly all the vocals with great results. After listening to the album and what the producers said, I tried again and it came out alright after a little tweaking.

Listen to rumours - should give you a bit of inspiration in what to do.

Hope its helped.

Neil
Click to expand...

Almost every pop/rock album for the last 30 years has doubled and sometimes quadrupled vocals on them.LOL.
 
Here's what works for me.

Step one - Sing the lead vocal to three different tracks, muting each take before singing the next. Concentrate on your performance, not the recording process, but do keep the same distance from the mic and try to be consistant in how you sing the song.

Step two - Comp the lead vox track. What you want is the best combination of pitch and timing correctness vs feel and emotion. Assemble a 4th track from the best parts of the 3 takes, then mute the original three takes or delete them. Edit the comp track till you're happy with the timing and volume consistancy of the track, and maybe go ahead and do some preliminary EQ and compression on it. It should sound pretty good in the rough mix before you proceed.

Step three - turn the lead vocal way up in the mix, then set punch points for the 1st verse. Loop it a few times while singing along under the cans. Once you have the timing and inflection down pat, record it. Repeat the process for each verse and chorus. You may want to do it on two or three tracks.

Step four - Once you've sung it as close as you can get it, go in and slice and dice any parts where your timing slipped. Edit each word if you have to, but get it lined up.

Last step is in mixing. After EQ and compression, mix the dub vox in WAY quieter than the lead vox. Just right is when you almost can't tell it's there anymore, till you mute it and the lead vox suddenly thins out and loses dimension. Unmute the dub track and hear it fatten up and add that extra something to the track. that's the spot. You can try panning them out, but that often makes them distinguishable, so be carefull with that.

Lastly, in some parts of the song it may be desirable to bring the dub vox up for effect. Chorus is a good place for this, and on certain phrases in verses.

Hope that helps, RD
 
Thanks Robert D!

That helped a lot!

thanks to all the other people who spent their valuable time to help out a newbie..

i'm gonna try what you said as soon as my family goes out for dinner..

(i REALLY wish i had a soundproof place..)

i'll try to post my song when i'm done with it..

thanks people-!
 
maestro_dmc said:

Or cut and paste the first track to a new track and set it slightly out of time (behind) the first one. Then Try panning the two tracks Hard L-R and/or anywhere in between!


:D
Click to expand...


And when played in mono this will screw up the sound because of the phase shifting. This is defenitly not a good way to double vocals. In stereo it makes the sound seem harder on the channel that is ahead of the other. Making it sound in the middle will result in adding gain to the track that's lying behind, and thus creating a false volume setting.

Only way to use this it so make a fake stereo-image on a monotrack when no other options are available.
The whole idea behind doubling is that there are slight variations (inevitable) between the two tracks. This provides the stereo perception. Actually it's a real random chorus.
 
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