This month we are going to look at a range of techniques you can try to help you produce a better vocal sound for your project.
One approach to vocal comping is to have each take
on a separate track, with an extra track (top) for the chosen parts. All
these tracks are then routed to an Aux track (bottom) with the
necessary compression, EQ and so on.
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In a vocal session you would normally record a
number of takes and/or do drop-ins to patch up an otherwise good take.
In this month's Pro Tools Notes we are going to look at how we deal with
these raw takes to turn them into a polished vocal line.
Vocal compositing or 'comping' for short is usually
the first stage in producing a good vocal line. To comp a performance,
we take the best elements from the various raw takes and edit them into a
master vocal track. There are two basic ways of achieving this.
The first is to use multiple Pro Tools
tracks with the same processing applied to each. For this approach, the
various takes are laid out in the Edit window with each take on its own
track, and an additional track serving as a destination for our chosen
parts. All the 'take tracks' and the 'comp track' are then routed via
busses to a common Aux track, on which the necessary processing is
applied using insert plug-ins. You then listen to each track, one phrase
at a time, and compare the various takes. Once you have identified the
best take of a phrase, edit and drag it onto your comp track. When you
take out these sections, it is best to leave the gaps in the take tracks
intact, as they give you a visual indication of which phrase the take
came from. There are a number of variations of this technique; some
people edit all the tracks into separate phrases and make their
selections by muting and unmuting regions.
The other approach is to use Pro Tools's
Playlists feature. This allows you to have multiple takes on a single
track, with each take having its own Playlist within the track, and has
the advantage that you can do comping without continually having to add
new tracks and fill up your Edit window. Before the singer sings the
first take, name the track something like 'Vox T1'. When they finish,
create a new Playlist on the same track and call it 'Vox T2'. Carry on
doing this until you feel everything is covered in there somewhere.
Next, create a new Playlist (again on the same track) called 'Vox Comp'
and listen to each take, copy the best element from the source Playlist,
switch to the Vox Comp Playlist and paste it in. If the Playlists are
named sequentially, the region name created in Pro Tools will show you which take it came from.
If you go for the second approach, it is usually
easier to create a new Playlist as you record each new take, but it is
possible to create a set of Playlists afterwards by spotting each take
from the region list into a new Playlist on a Vox Comp track.
Once you have comped your master vocal track, there
are other tricks you can apply to improve the vocal sound further. Most
of these techniques depend on creating multiple layers and making each
of them different from the original. The trick is to make sure the
difference is very subtle, or it becomes too obvious that you are
listening to multiple versions of the same thing. Here are some ideas to
set you going:
  
An alternative approach is to use multiple
Playlists within a single track, which takes up less space in the Edit
window and means your processing can be kept on the track itself, rather
than an Aux. Pro Tools automatically names the regions to show
which take they have come from — in this case, the selected region has
been copied from take two (centre) and pasted into the Vocal Comp
Playlist (bottom).
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Try
small amounts of 'good' distortion by using a valve sound plug-in or a
tape-simulation plug-in. You could even use a real tape machine to run
the vocal sound through and then slip the resulting track back to
compensate for the tape delay.Send
to a subtle chorus from the main vocal track and pan the return to the
left. Then repeat it and pan that to the right, but invert the phase of
the second one. This gives the vocal a nice wide effect in stereo, but
the effect completely disappears in mono. Watch you don't use too much
of this effect, though, as the vocal might be too low when the mix is
collapsed to mono.Use
small amounts of doubling via a very tight delay. Try using a stereo
delay with left and right settings somewhere around 35ms, but slightly
different from each other, and bring it up just enough until you hear
the vocal spread. Alternatively, try using a stereo delay plug-in and
starting with 15ms delay on the left side and 30ms on the right. You get
a nice wide vocal that doesn't cancel out in mono. Mix in the original
and the delayed track to taste but not too wide, or too close to the
centre either.Doubling
the vocal by recording it a second time usually sounds like... doubling
the vocal by recording it a second time. However, if you keep the
double low enough in the mix, it can sound a little bigger without the
double becoming too obvious. If you plan to use this technique then
whilst you are comping, make a 'double' track using the 'second best'
elements. Note that for this double track, timing accuracy with the
master vocal track is more important than tuning. An
alternative doubling technique is to get the vocalist to sing the
'double' differently. If the main voice is sung with some smile and
energy, try to do the double with almost no projection, adding a lot of
whisper and breath. Alternatively you can also try to do a 'double'
track with more energy, but be aware that this does not always fit every
style of music. If that doesn't work, try getting the vocalist to
record an extra 'accent' track by hitting the on-the-beat phrases very
hard and singing the rest very quietly. Then combine this track with the
main vocal track to give it more energy. You can also try using this
'accent' track instead of the main vocal track to drive your vocal
reverb.You
could try the so-called 'Ricky Martin' technique. You leave the main
vocal track panned centre, and you take two copies. Pan one hard left
and pitch-shift by minus four cents, pan the other hard right and
pitch-shift by plus four cents. Try different amounts of pitch
adjustment — you can usually use larger amounts of pitch adjustment on
backing vocals.
Waves' C1 side-chain compressor, with the appropriate settings for the final vocal brightening trick described in the main text.
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The next two tricks are a bit too severe for an exposed lead vocal, but great for fattening out backing vocals...
Route to a Waves PS22
stereo width expander plug-in via an Aux, spread the stereo image to
taste and mix it back into the backing vocal subgroup. It can make them
sound nice, big and wide. Try using a real-time pitch-shifter such as Digidesign's DPP1
set to slightly flatten and sharpen — say by around minus four and plus
three cents — and have it return on a stereo Aux input. The important
part of this trick is to have the dry, un-pitch-shifted version panned
slightly to one side and the pitched version panned fully over to the
opposite side (ie. pan the Aux send to the opposite direction compared
to its source, and wider). Do this with every vocal in the backing vocal
group individually, taking whatever panning you have on each element
and making it opposite and more for the pitched version. It's like
adding more performances on the other side of the stereo sound field.
With all these vocal fattening tricks, make sure you
check how it sounds in mono, especially when using an effect which
involves time delay, as the mono could sound muddy or phasy.
If
you find sibilance from the vocal track is hitting the reverb and
making it splash, rather than 'pre-EQing' the feed to the reverb to roll
off the high frequencies, try using a de-esser in the send path to the
reverb. This will give you a 'splash-free' reverb sound while
maintaining the clarity of the vocal line.Another
reverb-related trick is to insert a compressor on your send track
before the reverb. Set the compressor to compress the loud vocals but to
leave the quieter, more intimate sections uncompressed. The loud
sections will then be dryer and the soft sections wetter — tweak the
compressor setting to taste.Finally,
here's a trick that can brighten a vocal without resorting to
conventional EQ. Make a duplicate of the main vocal track, route both
vocal tracks through an Aux track, and move any plug-ins that were on
the main vocal track to the Aux track. Then remove the plug-ins on the
duplicate track and replace them by a compressor with a built-in
side-chain such as Waves' C1. Set it to run as a side-chain
compressor, and to listen to only the side-chain. Set the side-chain
frequency around 8 to 12 kHz, and compress it very hard. Gently mix the
duplicate track in with the original vocal, and tune the frequency to
suit the vocalist's sound (see screenshot below). 
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