Recording beautiful vocals is fantastic, but where I have a lot of fun is being creative with effects to spice the vocals up. I just wrote an article on Processing Vocals in Ableton Live where I talk about the basics of getting a good starting vocal. In this article I am going to take you down the rabbit hole of Vocal Effects, like chorusing, reverse reverb, and other tricks I have learned along the way.

For the past 2 weeks I have been working with Heather Christie, aka Cheraki, in the studio recording. We used a Miktek c5 microphone and were able to get some gorgeous recordings. I then processed the vocals to even out levels and clean it up. From there a whole world of possible effects opens up. In this article I am going to be using some of her vocal takes as an example of what is possible. You’ll also get a sneak peak at some new music.

Complex Pro:

To start I want to show off some Ableton Nerdery. A while ago I did some videos on creatively using warp modes. This is a great example of using Complex Pro Mode in a creative way to give a unique character. The reason I would use this effect is to give a deeper, and strange thickness to the vocal. If you are looking for a very intimate and realistic effect, then this is not for you.

I start off by duplicating the vocal track. I then transpose the track by -3, -5, -7, or -12. That way it is pretty safe harmonically. I usually go with -12.

After you lower the pitch you can set the Warp Mode to Complex Pro. The advantage here is you can change the settings to get a unique quality out of the vocals that you can not get in Complex Mode, or the other Warp Modes.