Recording - June 2018 - 48

Plug-In Outlet

Sonnox Toolbox
VoxDoubler
plug-in
Review by Paul Vnuk Jr.
Sonnox is known for its finely adjustable highend plug-ins, but this month we're introducing
the new Toolbox Range, which will highlight
easy-to-use, musical, and affordable task-specific
plug-ins. The first Toolbox plug-in is VoxDoubler,
a suite of two effects for artificial vocal doubling.
VoxDoubler reduces the history of doubling, from tape reels
to analog chips to pitch-shifted digital delays, to a pair of
compact plug-ins with six simple controls.

Thick and wide

The two plug-ins, Thicken and Widen, are visually identical.
Five of their six controls are identical, too: Mix (complete with
a fully wet Aux mode switch), a pair of Timing and Pitch
controls that make up the Humanize section, and Depth and
Tone controls. The sixth control is different for each.
Thicken creates a stereo double of the original signal and
allows you to collapse the stereo double to mono, narrow it,
or even flip the stereo image by swapping the left and right
channels, with its Stereo Spread control.
Widen takes a vocal track, creates two new identical voices,
and then pans them to the left and right of the original. You
can collapse the new voices to mono, pan them subtly around
the original, or set them hard left/right using the Width knob.

Humanization, depth and tone

When your double is panned and mixed to taste with the
original, you can the alter the Timing and Pitch to make the
voices sound more real and less robotic. The Humanize controls,
which offer a controlled randomness, can get a little squirrelly
Delivery: Web download
Format: Windows 7+/macOS 10.7+, AAX/AU/VST/VST3
Copy Protection: PACE iLok
License: iLok2/3 USB key and/or disk authorization, two per user
Documentation: inline manual
Price: £69 (about $99 at press time)
More from: Sonnox, www.sonnox.com

RECORDING June 2018

and obvious when pushed, but their ranges don't let you send
them totally off the rails.
Depth isn't like a chorus' depth; it moves the new voices
back in their perceived space. In conjunction with Timing, you
can get a slapback echo when needed, and at gentle settings
it helps the illusion of extra singer(s) by seating them subtly
in the mix, behind the main voice. Tone is a simple EQ that
gently rounds the highs or makes dull sources pop.
If all that sounds a little too easy, that is exactly the point of
these plug-ins. Yes, there are doubler plug-ins on the market
with more parameters to tweak, but here all of those deep-level
tweaks are grouped together under macro controls with the
goal of yielding great results effortlessly.

In use

I used both VoxDoublers on solo lead and backing vocals,
as well as on group backing vocals. (They're also fun on
strings, lead guitar solos, and mono synth lines!) There are
two ways to set up and use the plug-ins for the best results.
Because the whole point of VoxDoubler is panning, if you plan to
use VoxDoubler on an insert, your vocal's DAW track must be stereo
even though the vocal is mono. In this application, the Mix knob only
controls the amount of the doubles-the dry vocal stays at 100%.
You can also send your vocals into VoxDoubler on an effects
send. When Aux mode is enabled, the plug-in is 100% wet;
you blend wet and dry by controlling the return level. The main
advantage of using VoxDoubler on an Aux send is the ability to
process the doubles differently from the original.
Widen gives the illusion of extra voices alongside the original,
and the Humanize parameters do a great job of furthering the
illusion. It's great for backing vocal parts, to make a group
sound bigger and fuller.

http://www.sonnox.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - June 2018