Mixing Doubled Vocals

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vvv
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Re: Mixing Doubled Vocals

Post by vvv » Sun Dec 09, 2018 6:50 am

Soooooooo, ...

... why did they need drugs?

:twisted:


(Note to yo: try not be the top post on the second page where yer weirdness <and why "e" before "i" in "weird"?> is that much more ... weird.)
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Re: Mixing Doubled Vocals

Post by floid » Sun Dec 09, 2018 8:22 am

It's been a while since I read about the ADT thing, but I believe one machine was running at double speed of the other, and by coincidence the distance from record to playback heads was double as well - which was the original inspiration for developing the technique. So for instance,
30 ips machine w/ 1" head spacing
15 ips machine w/ .5" head spacing
Add in some variance in running speeds and voila, two copies of vocal arriving near simultaneously but rarely perfectly in time. I've never tried, but in DAW land I'd imagine you could do one or more sends to a tape machine, tape echo style, and then line them back up.

As for modern methods, I've done quite a bit of this:
kslight wrote:
Fri Dec 07, 2018 7:21 am
Generally I’ll pick a lead track and do normal lead vocal processing with that, then guide the double to that (editing wise), often attenuating or removing breaths and t’s and s’s completely, and shortening the tails of phrases so you don’t get that annoying moment where they don’t line up at the end of every line. I also may band pass that double, not a lot of low or high end, and maybe throw a teeny amount of drive on it.
As vvv mentioned, I'll sometimes drop words or phrases via chops or fades to add some impact.
I'll often do a bit of mangling to the double, make a polite little scooped spot in the main track for it to sit, then bus them together and add whatever final processing.

I've also engaged in some psychological trickery, in which I tell the singer, "that'll be great for the double, now let's go for the lead take." Depending on their temperament and the cue mix, it can make for a better take, no double necessary.
Last edited by floid on Sun Dec 09, 2018 2:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Mixing Doubled Vocals

Post by vvv » Sun Dec 09, 2018 8:43 am

Another thing I sometimes do - hope it's not too obvious - but in contrast to bussing them together I quite often use a bigger verb on the second track to sit it back, and also slightly (say, 12:30) pan it off center, even back-n-forth pan (11:30 then 12:30 then back, etc.).

I'm usually digging when tails go longer, but I often edit "ss" sounds and "pp" sounds to either align, or I even de-ess or even de-gain or outright delete such sounds if they are intrusive.

I have not been able to get dynamic EQ to work for me on my DAW, but I bet it could be cool, also.
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Re: Mixing Doubled Vocals

Post by losthighway » Sun Dec 09, 2018 12:13 pm

Yeah, of all of these helpful suggestions, the idea of cleaning up and editing down the double is the most novel to my work. It makes perfect sense. I've directed background singers to drop, or de-emphasize consonants, the same philosophy could clean up the double on the doubled lead vocals.

You guys are full of ideas, I'm glad I asked.

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Re: Mixing Doubled Vocals

Post by vvv » Sun Dec 09, 2018 3:47 pm

Makes me wonder, whatever happened to the $47 guy?

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Re: Mixing Doubled Vocals

Post by Recycled_Brains » Mon Dec 10, 2018 12:04 pm

A lot of hardcore, metal, etc. singers like to do this to make a particular vocal have more impact. I used to pan them apart a lot. These days I'm not so into that way of mixing them though. If it's a true double, my usual starting point is to treat them exactly the same (eq, compression, etc.), then assuming they're the same volume, I'll automate the main vocal down 2-3db, then match that level with the double. Basically it gets a little bit louder, but not so much that it throws off the balance. What it does is thicken it and give it more depth and impact. Then it makes the listener bedroom mosh real fuckin' hard.

If it's not an exact double, then I will probably distort it more, add more echo, etc... maybe pan it out in no man's land or something. Typically whatever sounds cool and kinda sets it backwards in the sound stage a little.
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Re: Mixing Doubled Vocals

Post by drumsound » Mon Dec 10, 2018 4:01 pm

vvv wrote:
Sun Dec 09, 2018 3:47 pm
Makes me wonder, whatever happened to the $47 guy?

Image
$35

He gone.

----

The 2 songs tracked this weekend both have doubled vocal (and I believe the songs added later may very well have doubles) so I'll need to come back to this thread once mixing has commenced.

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Re: Mixing Doubled Vocals

Post by vvv » Tue Dec 11, 2018 7:14 pm

$47, $35 ...


... the larfs are cheap at that price.
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