Recently I was reading an interview with a mix engineer that disliked auto-tune on lead vocals, but would often use it in parallel as a doubler along with a stereo flanger or chorus. REAPER includes a realtime pitch correction plugin called ReaTune, and it works pretty well for this trick.

I used this trick on a recent mix where the chorus vocal needed a more ‘pop’ smoothness. ReaTune on automatic correction, plus Stillwell’s Oligarc Chorus to make it stereo. Blend a few dB lower than the lead to add thickness and width.

Samples

I bet you want to know how this sounds. Here are some example clips from that mix to demonstrate the technique.

Main vocal soloed

http://reaperblog.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/lead-solo.mp3

Doubler soloed

http://reaperblog.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/doubler_solo.mp3

Vocal + Doubler soloed

http://reaperblog.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/combined_solo.mp3

Full mix without doubler

http://reaperblog.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/full-without.mp3

Full mix with doubler

http://reaperblog.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/full-double.mp3

Setup

Insert new track after your main vocal, name this track “doubler”.

Send post-fader from main vocal to doubler track.

Insert ReaTune on doubler track. Activate Automatic Correction with a fast attack time of 50ms.

Insert a stereo chorus or flanger.

Adjust the chorus/flanger for a wide stereo spread with no dry signal.

Adjust doubler track level to taste.

Share this: Twitter

Facebook

Reddit

Email

