JPF Home Page Forums Musician Gear and Techniques Recording Studio and Gear Forum Doubling Vocals

There probably isn't a commercially recorded song that doesnt have some doubled vocals going on in it.

Being a perfectionist, I find this very tedius and painstaking.

I find that in passages that rely on a vocal with no vibrato, I have an easier time with it, but I have vibrato in my voice, and the vocal gets boring without it.

But to get a really close match of the original take, I find it difficult to do so when singing vibrato because the vibrato tends to just come out different each time, alebit, very subtle differences, but sometimes that one phrase that comes out is THE take, and to try and double it could take all day if it happens at all.

Kind of like catching lightning in the bottle and then trying to catch it again 5 minutes later

Sometimes the spontaneous vocal is the best one, so how do u double spontaneity?

Any others have this problem?

it's not about singing technique

The harmony part has always seemed to be what has made or has broken a song, despite the skill level of the musician.
I should have myself have sung to karaoke samples if I wanted just the professional approach. At least according to proclaimed professionals on the net. Even though I don't have a natural singing voice. I would rather bomb out trying other things instrumentally. Vocalists are also very instrumental.
It may be a matter of finding the right environment for that other then what you find to be your misgivings.
But I say that wanting other vocals and harmonies in my posted recordings other then my own.
Everyone has their own definition of good in their expression with that though

Hi Bugsey

One trick you could try is to apply a very short delay (5 to 15ms) to your vocal track, that will give a doubling effect. You can also pan the source and the delay hard left and right respectively, that will also give your vocal a thicker sound and give it more presence in the mix. There are other things you can do to the original vocal to ‘thicken’ it e.g. add a slight pitch-shifting.

Give it a go and let us know how you get on

Nige

One way to get that effect is to duplicate the track and then slide the copy back in time a few milliseconds. Pan the copy away from the main track a bit and lower the volume of the copy.

Ok guys, thanks for the ideas, will give it a try

I have tried to do the doubled vocal thing a few times, but was only sort of successful once. It is a hard thing to do. But it is a learned skill. Keep at it and you will get better. I have done the copy and do the slight offset thing,too. It is not the same, though!

What makes it special is the human inability to do the same thing twice. The imperfections make it real and meaningful. Keep doing the takes until you capture the magic. No gadget is capable of replicating that.......

Actually singing the track twice is my favorite method because it sounds so different from the delay tricks that were previously mentioned.

But if you come to a certain passage or phrase that just doesn't double well because of your vibrato, you could simply add delay to that particular passage only. Wherever there is an offensive part, mute the second vocal track and add in a track of very tight delay. Should work pretty seamlessly.

Yeah, that is what I hear too, but it can be hard to get it perfect. I know its not supposed to be, but it still needs to be really close otherwise it clutters