What is this vocal effect called? 5 Years Time - Noah & the Whale

thecolourbox

Hi guys

Hoping this is a simple question - what's the vocal effect on this song? This singer uses it a lot and I hear it on other stuff as well, songs by the Strokes I think I've heard it on, few other trendy types:



Is it just tight doubling, panned left and right?

Danny1969

It sounds like around 4 or 5 multiple takes stacked up for thickness, possibly one low monotone one as well .. hard to tell listening on a laptop. If you heavily compress the stacked vocal it kinda sounds like that. The Strokes sound like more harmonic distortion than stacked and compressed.  

thecolourbox

Thanks. Did wonder if it was several takes stacked but it seems very uniform which would be difficult if it was performed that many times? So wondered if it was just like the same part doubled, detuned a bit maybe?

Re the Strokes yes the typical effect they use is distortion but there are some songs with a similar effect to the above. I'll see if I can find the ones I mean.

I think this one on the verses, if I hear any others I'll link them too


EDIT: perhaps in the Strokes case is it just a blend of clean and dirty panned either side

It's an effect I'd quite like to be able to use so would be cool to learn how to do it. If I'm lazy, presumably it could just be done by doubling and panning left and right a bit?

Danny1969

Your be amazed how consistently a lot of singers do sing ... it does tend to be the same every time but a professional vocal is generally recorded quite a few times into new takes put into a playlist.... then a comped vocal is taken from sections of the vocal tracks in the playlist ... first verse  line from Take 1, 2nd verse line from take 5 etc. Then you got one good verse and then you stack more vocals to match that take paying attention to phrasing and stop and start point .. There's a bit of latitude on end words as they can be chopped and faded plus there's plugins like Vocal align which do some of the work for you. 

I generally record 4 good takes of a lead vocal which are then used stacked as one, then harmonies are stacked and panned. There's loads of things you can do and no rules as long as it sounds cool. 

Nerine

Yeah. That’s basically a triple/quad tracked lead vocal. 

Nothing too fancy. It’s possible some processing has helped with the effect, but it doesn’t sound like any obvious processing to me. No Waves Doubler type effects or anything. It gets phasey in places and as has been mentioned, consistent singers can sound like that when stacked. 

WiresDreamDisasters

Wouldn't surprise me if it's been VocAlign'd.

thecolourbox

Cheers chaps, helpful stuff. I'm not a consistent singer do it looks like the Waves Doubler style approach might be the best for me. The Doubling effect on my vocal multi effects thing sounds awful so I think doing it by applying a separate effect might be the best approach as I'll have more control I guess.

I say that like it won't just be the "fiddle with it until it sounds alright" approach...

poopot

@thecolourbox try something like this if you only have the one vocal take.

pic shows how to set up a pitch shifter for 2 extra voices and 4 extra voices... you can set up as many, dick around with delay times, panning etc...



Results are below:

https://soundcloud.com/thefretboard/vocs

thecolourbox

Cheers for that, I'll have a little play when I next record something - I've something in mind specifically but would like to work out how to do it first. Seems subtlety is key though, the examples in your audio link still sound quite swooshy whereas the Noah & the Whale track seems less so somehow but I suppose that's just something to fiddle about with until you hit the sweet spot with the backing music as well.

The Youtube sound qaulity is awful as well isn't it, sounds much better even just on Spotify

I have Eventide Octavox, presumably I could use that for this as it's normally a harmony/delay thing but that's essnetially what it is but on a miniscule level I guess. Weird overtones though when i've used it for normal harmony (only used it once and didn't like it) but hopefully that's less with small adjustments