Subtle Ways to Enhance a Vocal

[jmz93]

Hi folks. I'm interested in learning more ways to subtly enhance a vocal. Some I've come across already are:

1. copying the vocal a couple of times, and subtly pit-shifting the copies, and mixing just a tiny bit of them in under the unaffected track.

2. A very slight delay to one side and a slight reverb like a nice mellow plate to the other side, both effects quiet enough that they don't draw attention to themselves.

3. I gave a vocal some life recently by putting a short stereo delay on it, but heavily filtering the delay tail.
You only hear something happening in the highs, which gives the vocal a subtle ambience, a shimmery quality.
https://soundcloud.com/csmart-1

It's not on the verse, just the choruses.

So, have you come across any other ways to subtly process a vocal and give it a little more body or impact??

 

[Steenamaroo]

Have you ever tried recording the part more than once?
Double tracking is a pretty standard technique. You'll hear it on a LOT of records.

 

[GazEcc]

To expand on the double tracking theme, Steenamaroo you could always try dynamically remapping the song from an arrangement point of view, in other words get one take thats constant and then for certain parts ie loud or soft passages, fast or slow lyrical changes recording with a different technique. Like effects are one thing but I find that softer parts need different care, if that makes sense.

Also harmonies never hurt to try for instance, a mix i'm working on atm View attachment 79222 bear in mind its rough, but that involves a bit of it all

if all else fails, vocoder

 

[GazEcc]

Oh and Before I forget, Don't be afraid of Breathing noises, it can be a great way to enhance vocals when used right, example Lenka - The Show

 

[JeffroMixesYou]

Running with you stereo delay idea...tweak the bpm on each side of the delay. If the song is at 80 bpm, get your left side to 78 or so and your right side to 82 or so. Instant width.

Also, effect each side differently. One side a bit darker, one a bit brighter, etc.
Go nuts with it.

3. I gave a vocal some life recently by putting a short stereo delay on it, but heavily filtering the delay tail.

 

[Steenamaroo]

Great ideas coming out here.
I don't usually think of it in terms of the timeline but I think variation can be key in some songs.

By that I mean I don't plan to do it, but I usually end up adding a higher octave for one line, quiet harmony for another,
group choir effect for a build up, lower octave for a certain type of line.

It's the same for 'flirting instruments'. Rather than having a 3:30 part for each instrument, I'll maybe have 10 seconds of violin or three notes of uke. Just little bits here and there that pop up and disappear again.

Depends on the style of music but that kind of variation works for me sometimes.

I love it when someone tries something unusual or different. I can think of two David Bowie examples that really stuck with me.
In 'Diamond Dogs' he has what sounds like a duplicate of the vocal line, but with an LFO modulating volume.
Sounds like a square making it really choppy behind the main line.
He does it on some other backing vocals and harmonies too in that song.

In a newer track 'Something in the air' he has a duplicate of the vocal for a few lines, but with a sweeping filter on it and maybe some distortion or something?
Both strange things to do, but in context I think they sound fantastic.

 

[Jonesey9]

In my opinion, there's only one sure fire way to get natural sounding double tracked vocals and that's to sing the damn thing twice!

This applies to guitars as well. I've tried messing around with cloned tracks in the past, nudging them in time & pitch, adding Fx etc but it always comes out wrong and is SO noticeable it's not worth it.

Just take the time to sing it twice and do your best to match your original performance. Then pan the results and see how it sounds.

I've been playing with this for 20 years and it's the only way I.M.H.O.

 

[mjbphotos]

There are plugins to do similar things (Reaper comes with the 'ozzifier'). It sounds better on heavier electric songs than acoustic tunes.
Song I just recorded I did the lead vocal 5 times, threw out two, picked 1 as the main vocal panned center, took the two others and panned one hard left, the other hard right, and brought their volume down to about 40% of the main. The subtle differences in each track are what do it. Unlike most of my vocal recordings (I tend to use a preamp, EQ, de-ess and use a little compression), the only FX is slight reverb on a separate buss.

 

[Bristol Posse]

I've used:

Double or multiple tracking, whisper tracks, Multiple stage of compression, hitting the tape hard (or tape sim), Very aggressively compressed parallel compression, Wow & flutter, Octaved up double track behind the main vox, etc etc etc

Unfortunately it still sounds like my sh!tty vocals with some tricks

 

[Steenamaroo]

Unfortunately it still sounds like my sh!tty vocals with some tricks

Nice touch!

 

[mjbphotos]

But sh!tty tricksy vocals are all the rage!

 

[grimtraveller]

T
if all else fails, vocoder

If you have to use a vocoder, it's already fail !

 

[grimtraveller]

One thing I sometimes do is to double track the singer but I varispeed each take. So one will be slowed down a semitone and one will be sped up a semitone. Then put them together at the right speed with one of them half the volume of the other. Very tasty.

 

[JG96]

I like to use a pultec sim boosting a narrow band at 16k adds a lot of air without sibilance.

 

[Justsomeguy]

Also harmonies never hurt to try for instance

I'm a big BIG fan of vocal harmonies, even if they're only subtle in the mix. I usually find that a couple of harmony tracks on a chorus really helps to lift the vocals. There's a great track by Iron & Wine (I think the tracks "Passing Afternoon") where he adds a new harmony line every verse and it builds and builds in a really subtle and beautiful way. Tbf, the harmony tracks on all the Iron & Wine stuff is just incredible IMO

I've used:

Double or multiple tracking, whisper tracks, Multiple stage of compression, hitting the tape hard (or tape sim), Very aggressively compressed parallel compression, Wow & flutter, Octaved up double track behind the main vox, etc etc etc

+1 on all of these. I've also used distortion and envelope filters to great effect, but mainly just as an intentional effect vocal track rather than just a main sound.

Also, it came up on another thread a while back, but never underestimate the power of reverse reverb, even if it's just on the start of a line. There's a bit in the Smashing Pumpkins track "Silver F**k" (i think) where there's this awesome break down and then super cool reverse reverb so the vocals swell in. It took me years to figure out how to achieve this effect, but it was worth it

 

[godchuanz]

Hi Justsomeguy,

So how did you set up your reverse reverb?

 

[Justsomeguy]

Hi Justsomeguy,

So how did you set up your reverse reverb?

To swell in? Although i'm sure there's easier ways, the way i usually do it is copy the phrase i want to reverse (usually the start of a verse or section) onto a separate track, put a reverb with a "reverse reverb" setting on the copied track with the mix set to 100% wet and dry to 0%, and move the copied phrase in the arrange window until it's in time with the start of the phrase.

As i said, i'm sure there may be easier/quicker ways but it's always worked for me

 

[grimtraveller]

How it gets there isn't nearly as important as how cool it sounds once it's there !
Hey, that should be someone's sig !

 

[Dirtnaper2323]

vocal distortion is always a go to for me. it doesn't have to be blarring. but even the slightest amout of some 3rd order harmonics being excited does something great ; )