easier way to double vocals?

  • Thread starter Thread starter ralf
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ralf

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i haven't tried this myself but am wondering if anyone has done vocals by recording one track from normal distance and set another mic up 1-3 feet away? the distance would give you 1 to 3 ms of delay right? and would also fatten up the vocal, does anybody think this would be better than actually recording 2 vocal tracks?
-ralf
 
Try it.

Yes, according to my calculations you add about one millisecond of delay for every 7 or 8 inches of space, but I'm no scientist. (Audible sounds at sea level travel around 648 MPS?)

If your room has good acoustics you like might the results better than a fancy reverb. I'd be interested to hear the results.

-Shaz
 
Your idea might work, but you could end up with some phasing problems. By recording a second vocal take, you end up with an almost similar, but not exact copy of the first vocal take. The subtle nuance differences between the two takes is what will make the track thick and big sounding. You could always copy the first vocal track in your software, and position it in another track a few MS behind the first track.
 
Well, copying and just changing a posisitions track in time isnt exactly what you are trying to achieve, I think.
If you use a second mic a few feet away, you'll end up with one mic sounding very intimate and up close, the other... well.. a few feet away. The farther mic will have more room ambiance (good OR Bad) and you might even want to use different mics. Compress the dog shit out of the farther mic and maybe bring it up behind the vocal some. Experiment, you may hate it or love it. Try lining them up in a daw though so you dont have phase issues.
Another popular techinique is to mult the vocals, and leaving the 1st vocal relatively untouched, lightly compressed, then compress the living hell out of the second one and eq it pretty dramatically, make it thick thick thick, maybe even pitch alter it a few little nuggets, and then bring it up BEHIND the main vocal, just enough to thicken up tha main vocal. This leaves the main vocal with its natural sounding dynamics, and the multed vocal to kind of add some thickness and excitement to it.
Experiment. Have fun.
 
I have gotten good results on driving rock vocals with a 58 about 2 inches away, and an NT1 approx. 30 inches. Good attack. A few days ago I used the NT1 close mic'd with a pop filter, and a Behr. ECM8000 above the singer 30 inches, and off axis about 15 degrees and about 12 inches in front of the singer. I was amazed at the fullness of sound. Not quite audibly doubled, but very full and thick. YMMV.

Pete
 
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