Question about vocal effects while recording

[DavidW]

I'm looking how to get a certain effect to my vocals when recording, the Beatles did it a lot, specifically Lennon. I think he made a second copy of the track and then added echo or reverb on the second track and played them together...am I right? I don't really know how to explain the effect and they used it very frequently so can anybody steer me in the right direction?

thanks

David

[Scastles]

The Beatles used automatic double tracking. It was a twin-track-to twin-track overdubbing.

[DavidW]

uhhh... I'm sorry I really am new to recording and hav eno idea what that means Sorry If I seem like an idiot, but could you explain further?

[teb]

The Beatles did all kinds of interesting little vocal mods when recording. What you discribed is basically a form of voice multiplication. Voice-mults have been used for a long time as a means of making vocals in certain sections of songs sound fuller or stronger, both with solo sections and also multi-part harmony sections. These days there are machines that can do it pretty well, but up until about the mid '70's it was almost always done by singing and recording your part and then doing it again, but this time recording it on an additional track. The idea was generally to try to sing it exactly the same both times - which in reality is just about impossible. The very slight differences between the two versions thicken-up the sound when you play them back together, without really sounding like two people singing. It would certainly be possible to add echo or other effects to one track and mix it in with a plain version on another track., though I don't know if the Beatles did it. In any case, when you are recording and find a section where the vocal just doesn't seem to have quite enough punch, it's worth trying a mult and you can then play with the individual effects if desired, to see what happens.

[DavidW]

Thanks again Todd! Boy your really helping me out today I'm going to experiment with re recording it twice, doubling the track and adding reverb to one, and re recording it twice and changing the acoustics of the room so that the second has more echo and see what I think gives the best sound.

[lcjones]

...just to add a little side note from horsing around ....I love double tracking vocals. Usually when I do a double track, the difference in vocal timing between the first take and the second take creates a cool natural reverb.

[doctorwho]

David, here is a brief example of my double-tracking vocals:

http://www.geocities.com/glclauson/Soun ... THYLA3.MP3

I started this on a Tascam 4-track Portastudio, transferred the tracks to my Korg D16 muntitrack, and overdubbed it.

[lyle_from_minneapolis]

It can be really effective to selectively double-track vocals...try doing just the chorus that way, for example. It adds a nice boost.

I like to sing twice when I do it because, like Todd said, there is a certain cool effect that the slight differences give the sound. But you can also duplicate a track, copy&paste-style, and then pan them to different spots on the stereo spectrum. From here you can apply different EQ or effects or volume to each of them to fatten things up...you can even slightly adjust the position of one of the tracks to create a touch of delay.

[kiramdear]

Here's an example of triple-track vocals during the verse, and three or four during the chorus and middle 8. The vocal recording itself was flawed but I hope I can live with the results. Computer clipping is dreadful so next time I use tape.

In the verses, one loud vocal down the middle and two quiter ones on either side.

http://www.filefactory.com/file/a4535d/ ... sic_11_mp3

[beatlefreak]

You can get a decent approximation of a double tracked vocal sound by using a digital delay. Set the delay for a single echo repeat, set the output for the delay to be as loud as the straight vocal, then adjust the delay time until you get the effect you want (somewhere between 30-150 ms).

[RonLovesRic12strings]

I've discovered a cool way to double-track a vocal (or guitar for that matter). What I am about to describe can be done on any digital recorder.

Record your vocal track. Now "copy" this track digitally onto an empty track, and just delay the start time on the second track anywhere from 30 to 150 milliseconds( you can experiment with different delay times). Then when you play back both tracks, you'll get a very realistic double-track sound, and you've only had to actually sing the vocal one time! This technique avoids the difficult task of singing the vocal two times. This technique is essentially ADT (Automatic Double Tracking). After recording the 2 tracks, you can play with the Pan control to get the desired stereo field that sounds good to your ears. I prefer track one panned full left and track two panned full right.

Hope this helps...Ron

[dogload]

As far as replicating twin-tracked vocals (or anything else for that matter) the best way is still the OLD way, lol. The slight timing and tuning discrepancies are what gives the double-tracked vocal (or anything else etc.) THAT sound. Acoustic and clean electric guitars benefit from this kind of thing too, giving them a richness that chorus cannot match.
Although having said that I'm sure I read that George Martin or Geoff Emerick would record Lennon's vocals on two machines and bounce them to a third creating a slight delay and tuning difference by manually slowing one of the tape reels, which Lennon referred to as 'flanging'. This however may be studio urban myth...

[lyle_from_minneapolis]

No myth, according to sources like Martin, Emerick, Lewisohn and McCartney. Martin claims he made up the word flanging because he was tired of Lennon's questions about it, and Lennon fell for it...and I guess the whole world eventually did too.

Yes, they did a lot of ADT, but they also did a lot of singing twice. Geoff Emerick commented in his book about how good Lennon was at matching his prior vocal. He said that Lennon normally nailed these doubled vocals in the first go-round, and would be annoyed if things like this took too long.

Funny, I just tried to "fix" and fatten up a vocal track by copying it, panning both and slightly delaying one...and realize I'm not digging it as much as the idea of singing it once again for the doubled track. Dogload speaks the truth. Using the same track twice is a nice effect, but it sounds more "effecty" and "pedal-y" than the organic way, which sounds more natural but still nice and fat.