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stereo effect on lead vocals


greg54

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You'll need to listen through headphones.  In this song by John Lennon, you can hear the lead vocals coming out of both speakers like a stereo effect, as if he's singing it twice, one panned R and the other L, but he's not.  I'm curious as to what technique he's using to get the vocals to sound that way.   Does anyone have any ideas?

 

 

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"artificial" or "automatic" "double tracking" ADR was invented by an Abbey Road engineer (Ken Townsend) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_double_tracking) because John was always complaining about having to do double takes on vocals. lol. Waves has a plugin (which i use often on background vocals, not so much lead vocals) which simulates that effect. https://assets.wavescdn.com/pdf/plugins/reel-adt.pdf

the double tracking technique is more than just shifting the timing but doing small (or large) variations whilst it is running to create differences which make it appear more lifelike. so in addition to shifting the time, some modulation on one or both tracks can add more realistic double tracking (or cool effects).

before i got the Waves plugin i would do as mettelus suggested as well as use the Sonitus modulation plugin on each track. or on a separate use the Sonitus (or other split delay effect) with the modulation to create a stereo split using the delay timing + modulations and then center the lead vocal. the delay + modulation was mainly for background vocals.

 

Edited by Glenn Stanton
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On 10/13/2023 at 8:36 AM, greg54 said:

Thanks, Glenn.  I don't use Waves plugins anymore because I don't want to lease plugins.   But I will find an alternative.  Thanks for your help!

Check out the free Vocal Doubler from Izotope (now part of Native Instruments).

https://www.izotope.com/en/learn/vocal-doubler-and-tips-for-mixing-vocals.html

You may need to set up an Izotope or Native Instruments account, to get it.

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On 10/13/2023 at 8:36 AM, greg54 said:

Thanks, Glenn.  I don't use Waves plugins anymore because I don't want to lease plugins.   But I will find an alternative.  Thanks for your help!

i bought my waves plugins.

i own them.

no lease at all.

i'll use them for a thousand years.

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3 hours ago, bats brew said:

i bought my waves plugins.

i own them.

no lease at all.

i'll use them for a thousand years.

same here. i only have the Slate subscription because there are some plugins and synths i use a lot. otherwise i'm avoiding subscriptions and trying to wean off the Slate.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 3 weeks later...

The Cooper Time Cube has a 14ms left channel delay and 16ms right channel delay. This gives a well balanced stereo effect. Welcome to plastic tube delay technology! This is what Greg Lake used often on his voice and guitar. Note the 10k roll-off.

The Cooper Time Cube is easily emulated in the Sonitus Delay.

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Edited by Terry Kelley
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  • 2 weeks later...

In addition to the chorus/ADT effect, it sounds like he's also employing some slap echo.

Slap echo (or slapback) is a delay of 40-100mS, sometimes slightly panned opposite the original signal.

Listen to "Instant Karma" for a more extreme example of slapback.

Back when it was first used, it was created by using the delay caused by the distance between a tape recorder's recording and playback heads. In record mode, if you took the signal live from the play head, it would be delayed by about 70mS (depending on the design of the deck and tape speed). If you then fed that back into the sound that was being recorded, it would produce an echo.

The first dedicated echo effect units were specially-built tape machines with heads that could be moved to change the delay time, and included built-in mixing circuits to provide feedback.

Elvis Presley's early recordings famously employed it. Stan Freberg made a parody of "Heartbreak Hotel" that revolved specifically around (over)use of the effect:

 

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