EQ Magazine - September 2007 - (Page 60)

VOCAL CORDS SETTING PRECISION-TIMED VOCAL DELAYS by Jeff Anderson You’re hearing it everywhere these days — vocal tracks processed with timed (or rhythmic) delays. It’s a great effect, but it must be done right, because if the rhythm is the least bit off, the delay will step all over your mix, and make you sound like a total amateur. But if done right, the echoes can sit in perfect time within the mix, and add a rhythmic element to an otherwise bland vocal track. So how do you do it right? Keep reading. DOING TIME First, determine the tempo in bpm (beats per minute) of the section of the song in which you want to add delay. If you’re not locked in precisely on the tempo, you are really just fumbling in the dark, trying to approximate the right delay-time setting, and, more likely than not, defeating the purpose of adding delay. Many people don’t record to a click track, as they feel it takes away the rhythmic ebb and flow that a “human” rhythm track imparts to a song. However, if you want to add synchronized effects, a click is pretty close to essential. But even if you didn’t record to a click, here are some options. Using Beat Detective in Pro Tools, you can click along on the tap feature to the rhythm of the section, and quantify your tempo. If your DAW software doesn’t have a similar feature, there are pieces of hardware, such as the Behringer BC100 Beatcounter (which you can find for a whopping $7 online) that can help you quantify bpm by manually tapping the pad along to the tempo of your track. Other options include the T.C. Electronic M300 and the Lexicon MP110. Both units come with tap-tempo buttons that help you set the tempo, as well as all the requisite delay settings you’ll need to get your vocal delays sounding great (and occurring in time). PLUG IT IN Now that you know the bpm of the section you want to delay, open your delay plug-in, and assign the effect to your vocal track. The first variable control you should focus on is the input volume to the plug-in. I advise not SOPHISTICATED DELAY TECHNIQUES FOR THE SONICALLY ADVENTUROUS Most people are content to set a delay time and let the delay do its thing. But you’re not most people. You’re an inquisitive EQ reader who wants to expand your existing sonic boundaries, and here are some ways to do just that. Strategic Echoes. You may not want echoes to occur on every part of a vocal — particularly if there are sections where the vocals are extremely dense. For example, you may just want to echo one or two strategically important lyrics at the end of a line, or just the words that occur before a space in the vocals. Here’s the easiest way to accomplish this effect. 1. Clone your vocal track to create a second track with the same levels, send control settings, EQ, pan, and the like. 2. Erase all the vocals from the cloned track. 3. Insert your delay plug-in into the cloned track. 4. Split your vocal at those places where you want to isolate a particular section. For example, if you want to echo a single word, split the vocal before and after just that one word (see Example 1). 5. Drag the split section out of the main vocal track, and into the cloned track. On playback, the straight vocal will play through as normal, but when the word appears that you want echoed, the cloned track will play back through the delay. Beautiful! Echoes à la carte. Most delay devices are dumb. Once set up, they’ll produce echoes at a certain rhythm, and that’s the end of the story. But what if you want overachieving echoes? For example, one that hits an eighth note later than the main vocal, but appears in the left channel only with a “telephone voice” EQ, followed by an echo that hits a measure later in the right channel only with a huge amount of reverb? Time to cut, paste, and copy. Here’s how to do this example. 1. Clone the vocal track you want to delay. 2. Shift the timing of the entire cloned track so that it’s one eighth note later than the original track. 3. Pan this cloned track to the left. Ex. 1:The original vocal (upper track) has had one word cut, and shifted to the cloned track (lower track).This cloned track has a delay plug-in so that only the one word is echoed. 4. Insert an EQ plug-in to give the telephone voice effect. 5. If necessary, cut away those sections of the track you don’t want echoed. 6. Adjust the cloned track’s level so it fits comfortably in the background. 7. Clone the original vocal track again (we’ll call this “Clone 2”). 8. Shift the Clone 2 track a measure later than the original track. 9. Pan Clone 2 to the right. 10. Insert a reverb plug-in into Clone 2, and dial in the desired amount of reverb. 11. As with the first clone, if appropriate, cut away those portions of the track you don’t want to delay, and adjust the level as desired. The only real downside to this approach is that if you want to create the effect of echo feedback, you’ll need to clone the clones, and adjust their levels. For example, if you want the track delayed by an eighth note to hit three successive times, you’ll need to clone the delayed track two more times, shift them as appropriate, and lower the level on successive tracks. However, also note that this approach lends itself to a variety of other cool effects: Echoes that are louder than the original signal, polyrhythmic or nonrhythmic echoes, or even “gapped” echoes (for example, echoes that are delayed by 1, 3, 4, and 7 eighth notes). The sky’s the limit. —Craig Anderton 60 EQ SEPTEMBER 2007 www.eqmag.com http://www.eqmag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of EQ Magazine - September 2007

Contents Talk Box Sounding Board Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly Ben and Vesper Kaiser Chiefs Toolbox Ozma Porcupine Tree Rush The Software Power User Guide Guitar Trax Bass Management Key Issues Drumheads Vocal Cords Mix Bus Cheat Sheet Chameleon Labs TS1 and TS2 Primera Bravo Se Disc Publisher Roland MC-808 Magix Samplitude Professional 9.1 Massey Tape-Head Big Fish Audio Revolucion Reggaeton Sonivox World Beats Sony Pocket Diva Adobe Audition 2.0 Cakewalk Sonar 6 Room with a VU: J Street Recorders, Sacramento, CA

EQ Magazine - September 2007

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