VOCALS TRICKS : Share em !

[A Toolish Circle]

hey guys i've been focusing a lot on vocal production lately and i'm interested to know some of the tricks of the trade , one of those i'm most keen to learn is how they have this big swooosh "sounds like reversed" scream trick ( not reverse cymbal ) that u hear alot on metal cds , esp like before breakdowns and stuff . I can hear it on a lot of machine productions like LAmb of god and Every time i die and like on the Roadrunner cd too


i would also hope people contribute some tricks they have learnt :

one of the tricks i've learnt when a vocal was a little out of tune or sounding flat and boring but i didn't want to use autotune was to duplicate the vocal track left and right, put a bit of distortion , reverb and telephone effect to spice it up. Usually very cool to use them on words u want to be emphasised

 

[Torniojaws]

one of those i'm most keen to learn is how they have this big swooosh "sounds like reversed" scream trick ( not reverse cymbal )

If it's the same thing I'm thinking of, it's done like this:

1) Open the vocals you want to have the swoosh on in an audio editor / or edit within your DAW if it has the feature
2) Create a copy of the vocal part (you can close/mute the original now)
3) Reverse the copied vocal
4) Add reverb to it directly to the file, not as an FX plugin (so that it's written into the sound data itself)
[ 5) Bounce the reverbed reverse vocal (if needed) ]
6) Reverse it again and start it where you want to

It's good to mix this with the original dry vocal recording, so the vocals sound clearer.

Have fun

Here's the exact guide for Nuendo/Cubase:

1) Record some vocals
2) Make a new track out of the part you want to effect (Remember to leave plenty of silent space before and after the actual part you want to effect within the sound data)
3) Right-click on the new part and select Process | Reverse
4) Then right-click on it and select Plugins | Reverb | Roomworks (for example, you can use whatever Reverb you have as a plugin) - remember that this will write directly to the file, be careful not to replace your actual vocal recording, in case you need to adjust the reverb
5) Add reverb like normal (ie. try around how much reverb you think is fitting)
6) Then, right-click on the track once more and select Process | Reverse

There you go

It will sound like this:
http://koti.mbnet.fi/juhau/blah.mp3

 

[xmidihcx]

wow awesome dude, that's a very useful trick!!!!!!!!!!

i take it thats how they got that sound in the beginning of stinkfist , and in the middle of a shitttttttttttttload of tool songs?

 

[A Toolish Circle]

CHeers !! torniojaws !

much appreciated

 

[Torniojaws]

Don't overuse it

 

[Suicide_As_Alibi]

Don't overuse it

Unless you're in Maynard James Keenan, and then use it on EVERYTHING you record

If you do it like Torniojaws says, make sure you leave the unaffected track completely dry, because you end with with a really messy sounding vocal if you have reverb running both ways - plus that way you have reverb over the whole thing and then everything stops dead at the end of the track, which sounds really nice.

Steve

 

[STINNETT]

Simple vocal trick?

Record screaming vocals with both a large diaphram condensor and a dynamic mic sitting right beside each other. You get the best of both worlds when mixing.

Another cool vocal trick (for clean vocals mostly)

Make 2 duplicates of a vocal track. Pan one hard left and one hard right. Pitch shift one of them 12 cents down and one of them 12 cents up. Route them both through a delay of 25 ms 100% wet with no feedback.
Bring them up in the mix just enough to hear the effect. It sort of excites the vocal sound if you're subtle with it. it doesn't work for everything but it's a neat sound.

 

[Torniojaws]

If you do it like Torniojaws says, make sure you leave the unaffected track completely dry, because you end with with a really messy sounding vocal if you have reverb running both ways - plus that way you have reverb over the whole thing and then everything stops dead at the end of the track, which sounds really nice.

As I explained in the How-To, there is no reverb plugin running (you just add it directly to the file), so no messing of the sound

 

[Suicide_As_Alibi]

As I explained in the How-To, there is no reverb plugin running (you just add it directly to the file), so no messing of the sound

Yeah I know - you said to copy the track, add the effect to one and use the other to clean it up; I was referring to the track without the reverse effect on it.

A lot of people (in my experience) run their vocals through a bus and have reverb on all of them without even thinking about it, so the track you're using to make the reversed one clearer ends up making it messier - if it has reverb on too, it's effectively reverberating in the opposite direction. It means at any one point you end up with the actual vocal, the reverb from the part directly before it, and the reverb from the part directly after it all playing on top of each other - which sounds awful. So you have to make sure that if you double the track that there's no reverb running on either version, not just the one you're reversing. Sorry if I didn't make that clear last time!

Steve

 

[Torniojaws]

Ah yes. I usually have any vocal recordings with some tricks in them (or any recordings for that matter) in completely separate tracks from the main recording, with their own settings.

 

[SickBoy]

Another cool vocal trick (for clean vocals mostly)

Make 2 duplicates of a vocal track. Pan one hard left and one hard right. Pitch shift one of them 12 cents down and one of them 12 cents up. Route them both through a delay of 25 ms 100% wet with no feedback.
Bring them up in the mix just enough to hear the effect. It sort of excites the vocal sound if you're subtle with it. it doesn't work for everything but it's a neat sound.

I haven't tried this one yet, but from the mere description it will be killer...
Awesome!

 

[KeithRT99]

that reverb trick is really cool, ill have to use that somewhere