Using Technology Creatively For Better Vocals - Page 3

A different kind of doubling is obtained with a chorus effect, which is available as a plug-in module in numerous digital music programs. Chorus effects have long been popular on electric guitars, as they allow a six-string instrument to simulate the jangly sound of a 12-string. But they can also work well on vocals, simultaneously thickening a voice, and masking minor pitch irregularities. It's possible to use the editing tool almost like a compressor, and seamlessly cut the beginning and end of a loud note or two, then use Sonar's "Lower By 3db" function under the "Process" function on that section. Or raise or lower the gain of individual clips via Sonar's envelope function. The results should be undetectable.

While it can be used an obvious effect (pioneered on Cher's hit single, "Believe"), the Antares Auto Tune or its competitor, RBC Audio's Voice Tweaker Pro plug-in (which has some pretty nifty patches beyond pitch-correction), can be great for correcting one or two words that are out of pitch in line, or even raising or lowering a phrase to add more melody to a vocal that's too one-dimensional.

For correcting intonation problems in singers, plug-ins such as Auto-Tune are a useful addition to a digital arsenal. However, as Tom Brier of Cakewalk says, "if you didn't want to spend the money for one of those plug-ins, you could use the Groove Clips feature in Sonar to actually fix pitches. So you could make a Groove Clip [Cakewalk's version of Sonic Foundry's Acid Loops] out of one phrase, or one note for that matter, and then tune it," by raising or lowering it the appropriate degree. Simply click on Sonar's scissors icon to edit, then cut before and after the offending the word, and then right click on the section that needs adjusting, and then click on "Stretch to Project Tempo", and then adjust the pitch up or down a semitone or two.

Finally, while it was designed originally as a mastering program, Izotope's Ozone plug-in has several patches that can sound great on lead vocals. They take a fair amount of processing horsepower, and may require some sliding around of the vocal's time to compensate for the microscopic delay they induce, but they're can an impressive "suite" of multiple effects to a single track.

Creating Lush Harmonies

It's long been known that lots and lots of harmony vocals, carefully mixed down to a stereo track, can sound wonderfully lush. With hard disk-based recording systems, and the right singers, it's easy to build up a large bank of background vocal tracks, and then mix them down for space purposes, if necessary.

Article Author: Ed Driscoll

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