True Chorusing -Sound Forge - PC - MAGIX Community Forums Archive

Subject:True Chorusing Posted by: MoonicaDeenus Date:6/19/2002 8:02:35 PM To my ear, the highest quality rock / pop vocal recordings have always been chorused. George Martin used the technique quite a bit with The Beatles. Other good examples would be "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" by Elton John, "Synchronicity" by the Police, "Sentimental Lady" by Fleetwood Mac, etc. You know the sound when you hear it, always characterized by dual vocal lines slightly offset; & the quality key is that there's no flattening of the EQ; & no loss of the bottom end. The very best chorused tracks sound almost as if the tape was rewound after a perfect take, for the singer to sing along (with that take) while laying down a live duplicate. My question is: Since Chorus as an effect(even with Sound Forge)seems to flatten the EQ (& kill the bottom end altogether), what's a good technique to use to accomplish that really professional timbre? Can it be done with a high-end effects processor? I've noticed that duplicating & then offsetting a master vocal track (with PC Mutitracking) tends to have the same fidelity loss as the effect (I believe this is because the two waveforms are identical, & thereby marginally out of phase?) Can that sound only be acheived by recording two live vocals side by side, whereby each vocal line has it's own varying characreistics & full EQ, resulting in a true "double" sound? Thanks. mark4man
Subject:RE: True Chorusing Reply by: RiRo Date:6/19/2002 9:34:50 PM The best I ever did was to lift the vocal from a second take and use it to create a chorus effect. The first take was good, and for grins we did a second take. The speed of the second take was just a fraction of a hair faster. I could not just lay one vocal track beside the other, but had to remove a bit of silence between phrases to have it fit. I could never do it exactly like that again, but the end result was truly excellent. A while back I played with a stereo mic trying to record on two tracks and then chorus them... but the mic was a real stinker so I never finished that project. I really think the best results can be had from have the singer re-sing the track. Maybe even a couple of times. RiRo
Subject:RE: True Chorusing Reply by: havlicek Date:6/20/2002 6:38:34 AM Live vocal doubling is a different effect than chorusing. Both are used still and both will yield different results. You can take a vocal track, send to a delay and even a pitch modulator, pan the tracks away from each other and come close to live doubling but the effect is different. Live doubling also works great on instruments (especially guitar) when the player is "on", and again it's a different effect and the two are usually clearly distinguishable. Depending on how much of the second track is mixed with the original the effect is a great way to "fatten" a track up without adding the "swishiness" of chorusing/phasing/flanging.

Subject:True Chorusing

Date:6/19/2002 8:02:35 PM

To my ear, the highest quality rock / pop vocal recordings have always been chorused. George Martin used the technique quite a bit with The Beatles. Other good examples would be "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" by Elton John, "Synchronicity" by the Police, "Sentimental Lady" by Fleetwood Mac, etc.

You know the sound when you hear it, always characterized by dual vocal lines slightly offset; & the quality key is that there's no flattening of the EQ; & no loss of the bottom end. The very best chorused tracks sound almost as if the tape was rewound after a perfect take, for the singer to sing along (with that take) while laying down a live duplicate.

My question is: Since Chorus as an effect(even with Sound Forge)seems to flatten the EQ (& kill the bottom end altogether), what's a good technique to use to accomplish that really professional timbre? Can it be done with a high-end effects processor? I've noticed that duplicating & then offsetting a master vocal track (with PC Mutitracking) tends to have the same fidelity loss as the effect (I believe this is because the two waveforms are identical, & thereby marginally out of phase?) Can that sound only be acheived by recording two live vocals side by side, whereby each vocal line has it's own varying characreistics & full EQ, resulting in a true "double" sound? Thanks.

mark4man

Subject:RE: True Chorusing

Reply by: RiRo

Date:6/19/2002 9:34:50 PM

The best I ever did was to lift the vocal from a second take and use it to create a chorus effect. The first take was good, and for grins we did a second take. The speed of the second take was just a fraction of a hair faster. I could not just lay one vocal track beside the other, but had to remove a bit of silence between phrases to have it fit. I could never do it exactly like that again, but the end result was truly excellent. A while back I played with a stereo mic trying to record on two tracks and then chorus them... but the mic was a real stinker so I never finished that project. I really think the best results can be had from have the singer re-sing the track. Maybe even a couple of times.

RiRo

Subject:RE: True Chorusing

Reply by: havlicek

Date:6/20/2002 6:38:34 AM

Live vocal doubling is a different effect than chorusing. Both are used still and both will yield different results. You can take a vocal track, send to a delay and even a pitch modulator, pan the tracks away from each other and come close to live doubling but the effect is different. Live doubling also works great on instruments (especially guitar) when the player is "on", and again it's a different effect and the two are usually clearly distinguishable. Depending on how much of the second track is mixed with the original the effect is a great way to "fatten" a track up without adding the "swishiness" of chorusing/phasing/flanging.