How do you get a good echo on Rockabilly Vocals?

  • Thread starter Thread starter StagPreston
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StagPreston

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Hi, first time here. I've been doing rockabilly for a long time, and now I'm doing it on Sonar. I get a good sound, I think, but I'm always looking to improve the echoes on those rockabilly vocals. I usually use a 110 to 120 delay on most of the tape delay plugins, with 1 repeat. Still, I was listening to some CCR the other day and I'm just wiped out by the full echoes that John Fogerty used on his vocals. I haven't been able to get that kind of sound yet. Back when I was still recording on tape, I could get a nice SUN echo sound by overdriving my delay unit into distortion and then backing it off a tad. It gave me a nice chunky sounds. But, then last week, I was listening to some early Gene Vincent, and his echo was just unbelievable on tracks like "Blues Stay Away From Me", and all those songs he did on the first album. So, in essence, if any of you are into singing rockabilly, I would appreciate any tips you might have on echo techinques you've used to get that sound you're after. Keep in mind, on occasion, I worked with 3 or 4 echo units. I found in the past, working with a compressor on the vocal allows the loud parts of the vocals to back off, while the echo is not compressed and just soars, which give the vocals the kind of depth I like on the high more powerful notes. I thought John Lennon had a great echo on his version of "Rock and Roll" music, certainly much more exciting than Chuck Berry's. Thanks for sharing any of your secrets. Just trying to make each record more interesting than the previous one.
 
The delay setting that you are using with one repeat is spot on. I always add a good verb (eventide "Dark hall")to it as well but with a very small if any tail as to not really be noticeable unless your really listening for it. this can be done manually or with a gate that I wouldn't advice but you get the picture.
 
I'm pretty sure John Lennon's vocals were recorded twice, one (the main one) dry, the other delayed a bit and 100% wet reverb then brought up in the mix just a bit to add reverb and delay to the dry. Maybe the fact that it was double tracked adds to the effect. I've done variations on this doing a dry sent to a reverb bus, then a delayed track, or any combination of dry/reverb/delay/multiple takes of the same vocals.

bathroom will not give you that sound. Try it, be disappointed, move on.
 
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