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January 24, 2018

3 Little Known Tips For Nailing That Wide Vocal Sound

Logic Pro X Wide Lead Vocals

Vocals โ€“ the final frontier.

By far the most important aspect of any song.

It’s weird, but we identify with vocals more than anything else. A killer chorus can just wedge its way into your brain and won’t let go. Even when you want it to!

And if you throw on a modern pro mix, the vocals are huge. They command your attention.

How the heck do they do it? How is it that vocals can sound so monstrous and wide in the mix?

Turning Vocals Up to 11

Whale

From fluctuating tonality to huge dynamic shifts โ€“ vocals can be the proverbial white whale to get right.

And even when you’ve carefully tweaked the EQ and compression for the last 4 hours… they still sound puny.

You’re not alone in this! It turns out that EQ and compression aren’t quite enough by modern standards these days.

But there are are plenty of tools in your Logic tool kit to help widen those vocals. You just need to use a healthy dose of bussing.

In fact, my vocal mixes almost always use 3 widening techniques in particular:

  1. Stereo Pitch-Shifting
  2. Stereo 8th Note Delays
  3. Stereo Chorus Effects

Of course there are many ways to add girth to your vocals. So today I want to show you my 3 tips for nailing wide vocals.

1. Stereo Pitch-Shifting

Pitch shifting is like a secret weapon to wider vocals. It’s sooo not obvious a trick, yet it makes a huge difference!

For each of these tips, you’ll need to create a Send for your vocal track. Click on an empty Send and choose an unused Bus:

Logic Pro X Create Bus

Make sure the bus is in Stereo. Let’s name this bus “Shift,” and load the Pitch Shifter plugin onto it.

Next you’ll want to set Pitch Shifter to Dual Mono. You can do this by clicking on the Pitch Shifter label on the Bus channel. then choose Dual Mono from the drop down menu:

Logic Pro X Dual Mono

What is Dual Mono?

Introduced in Logic 10.3, Dual Mono is freaking awesome.

Dual Mono let’s you take a track and split it into two mono signals. But without you having to create two mono tracks!

So now we have this Dual Mono Pitch Shifter. When you open up the plugin, you’ll some added controls:

Logic Pro X Pitch Shifter Dual Mono

Take note of the L for Left, and R for Right.

Set the Mix for each Left and Right side to 100%. This will ensure we’re only hearing the effected sound.

Also Enable Latency Compensation. This compensates for any sort of delay the plugin introduces.

Now for the Left side of the plugin, set:

  • Semi Tones to 0, and
  • Cents to -12

For the right side, set:

  • Semi Tones to 0, and
  • Cents to +12

Semi Tones are half steps in an octave. While Cents are tiny tonal steps โ€“ 100 Cents for every Semi Tone.

So what we’ve done here is Set the Pitch Shifter to be just a tiny bit off from the vocal pitch in both directions. The result is a widening effect.

From here just adjust your Send volume until the vocals widen up nicely in the mix!

2. Stereo 8th Note Delays

Logic Pro X Stereo Delay plugin

Delays are awesome for a lot of reasons. And in this case, they work great for widening vocals (or any other instrument).

I tend to use the same delay times again and again. And I always lump them in the same categories:

  • 16th Note Delay = Room Sound
  • 8th Note Delay = Widening Effect
  • Quarter Note Delay = Special Effect

So when I pull up an 8th Note Delay, my brain immediately thinks “widening.”

16th Note Delays are so quick, that it almost sounds like a room reverb. While Quarter Note Delays aren’t as fast, so they feel good when you’re looking for a spacey effect.

Click another empty Send on your vocal track. Now choose the next available Bus.

Let’s name this Bus “8TH” and load up the Stereo Delay plugin on it.

I always like my delays to Sync to the tempo of my project. That way the delay is always right on beat, and isn’t mucking up the feel of your mix.

Then go ahead and choose 8th under the Note drop-down menu for each Left and Right side.

Logic Pro X Stereo Delay note values

Much like our Pitch Shifter plugin, we’re going to adjust each side’s Deviation a tiny bit.

Try setting the Left side’s Deviation to -8%, and the Right side to +8%.

With the Send level at 0 dB, the effect is going to be startling. The delay seems to drag in an ugly way. But as you reduce the Send level, the Delay will seem to lock into place.

Once again, adjust to taste ๐Ÿ™‚

3. Stereo Chorus Effect

Logic Pro X Chorus plugin

You have a couple options to choose from when it comes to Stereo Chorus Effects:

  • the Chorus plugin, or
  • the Ensemble plugin

While the Chorus plugin is straight-forward modulation, Ensemble can add serious depth.

Select another empty Send field, and select another empty Bus. We’ll name this Bus ‘CHORUS.’

Load up the Chorus plugin. Now you could do something fancy like Dual Mono. But let’s keep it simple. Instead, go to the presets and select the Vocal Backups preset.

The Chorus plugin will now be set to:

  • Rate: 0.733 hz
  • Intensity: 37%
  • Mix: 100%

Take note of how small the Rate is. You don’t need to go crazy with Rate! In fact, the smaller the number, the less distracting the effect will be. But it’ll blend nicely.

The Intensity is also set to a conservative 37%.

When it comes to Intensity, Think of the letter ‘V’:

V or v

A big ‘V’ has a deeper dip in it than a small ‘v’.

So the Intensity is how deep of a modulation you want the Chorus effect to have. While Rate is how fast or slow you want the Chorus to modulate.

And Mix is how much of the effect we’re hearing:

  • 0% means no effect, while
  • 100% means we only hear the effect

100% is what we often want to set Bus effects to. Since the effect isn’t on the vocal track itself, we already have a completely dry signal. So the Bus has a Mix of 100% so we can blend the effect underneath.

Conclusion

Huge vocals are the norm in modern music. Vocals that are up front and wide command our attention and don’t let go!

You’ve got great tools ready for you in your Logic tool belt right now:

  • Stereo Pitch Shifting
  • Stereo 8th Note Delays
  • Stereo Chorus

So go ahead and grab your listener where it counts ๐Ÿ˜‰

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Filed Under: Mixing

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Comments

  1. Steve says

    August 11, 2018 at 5:52 am

    You are awesome Chris! Thank you so much!!

    Reply
    • chris.vandeviver says

      August 11, 2018 at 3:18 pm

      You bet Steve!

      Reply
  2. Andreas says

    January 30, 2019 at 10:56 pm

    Awesome guide!

    But what if you don’t have Dual Mono?
    Could it be used in Stereo?

    Reply
    • chris.vandeviver says

      February 5, 2019 at 2:03 am

      Thanks Andreas! If you don’t have Dual Mono, you can always create 2 Aux Channels and place the Pitch Shifter on each Aux. One Pitch Shifter -12 cents, and the other +12 cents.

      Reply
  3. Roman Che says

    March 26, 2019 at 3:16 pm

    So interesting blog! Thank you very much! Really useful tips!

    Reply
  4. Scott says

    April 20, 2019 at 9:23 am

    Thanks very much for this.
    May I ask, how does one rename a bus?
    Some research suggested to go to the Mix menu > I/O Labels.
    Tried that without any luck?

    Reply
    • chris.vandeviver says

      April 25, 2019 at 8:50 pm

      Hey Scott, the I/O Labels are the way to go. you select the “User” radio button for each bus, and can give each bus a Long or Short Name. Once you do, dig into a Send field on any track. Your Bus’ name should be there in parentheses.

      Reply
      • Scott says

        April 25, 2019 at 8:54 pm

        Thanks very much, Chris… much appreciated.
        I’ll give that a whirl.

        Reply
  5. Linn says

    July 11, 2019 at 11:01 pm

    Thank you very much. I am new to Logic and trying to learn what I want to achieve. Luckily I found this.

    Reply
    • chris.vandeviver says

      July 15, 2019 at 3:20 pm

      You bet Linn! Welcome to Logic Pro X ๐Ÿ™‚ Be sure to leave a comment if you’re needing help!

      Reply
  6. monk says

    July 30, 2019 at 7:06 pm

    Reaaaally interesting article. An eye-opener actually, I was blind to everything “dual-mono”. But it makes sense. Like, so much more sense now. Here’s my question: for the past years, while mixing in the box, I would always put my widening-effects plugins in stereo-mode, even when routing them to mono tracks. Which has always felt counter-intuitive to me. Say, I’m putting a delay to a mono cymbal, it’d transform it into a fake stereo which although annoying, doesn’t “feel” too bad. It’s only delay after all, and that too can be panned; it just sit right with my logical mind. Now this dual-mono setting you wrote about looks more appealing to my logical side. But what’s actually correct? Have I been muddying and destroying my tracks for the past few years without realising it โ€” since I’m the one doing it โ€”, by transforming my mono tracks into fake stereo (I’d only do it when adding delay, modulation and whatnot, always sparingly tho!) and has dual-mono always been the road to go when adding stereo effects to mono tracks or is it something else, a matter of taste and philosophy of life?
    Thanks in advance for you reply ๐Ÿ™‚

    Reply
    • monk says

      July 30, 2019 at 7:07 pm

      *your reply

      Reply
  7. Royar says

    November 12, 2019 at 11:59 pm

    Very helpful tips, thank you so much!

    Reply
    • chris.vandeviver says

      November 13, 2019 at 3:17 pm

      You bet Royar!

      Reply
  8. rohit aggarwal says

    November 26, 2019 at 7:36 am

    thanks for the information

    Reply
  9. Pierre Vaillancourt says

    March 9, 2020 at 7:06 pm

    This stereo pitch-shifting approach is really, really interesting.. I’d like to try it, but… how can I open a stereo bus on a mono track ? I can’t figure it out, I’m in my first steps in Logic Pro X.

    If I push the idea a little bit further, would it be interesting to do this stereo pitch shifting on saxophones, on some audio instruments and even software instruments ? How about having the pitch shifter on a bus and sending to it a few , or many different instruments ?

    This brings to me another question : when a bus is used to add reverb to many tracks, in order to save some CPU power, does it give the same quality to the reverb than if we’d have the plugin on each track ?

    Thanks in advance to whomever will help me.

    Reply
  10. Faraaz Khan says

    March 23, 2020 at 5:10 pm

    Thanks man, great help! Be blessed!

    Reply
  11. Doug says

    March 24, 2020 at 9:10 am

    Great tips for a beginner, thank you !
    I wish you were my neighbor : )

    Reply
  12. Peter says

    April 10, 2020 at 10:39 pm

    I am going to try my luck and see if it works for me.

    Reply
  13. Mike says

    April 24, 2020 at 7:17 am

    Very cool! Thanks!

    Reply
  14. Cj says

    July 24, 2020 at 3:20 am

    I didnt understand bussing prior to this! Thanks for enlightening.
    -Cj

    Reply
  15. John Smith says

    September 3, 2020 at 11:30 am

    Awesome. For Stereo 8th note delays, when you say ‘But as you reduce the Send level, the Delay will seem to lock into place.’ can you explain what you mean, where is the send level that you refer to?

    As it is, I am hearing the ugly sound you mention but I can already hear the professional sound it gives the vocal so just need to move this level you refer to from 0db downwards but not sure where that is?

    Reply
  16. DannyRebel says

    October 19, 2021 at 4:40 pm

    First I set up a new audio track but this was in an existing project that already had audio tracks.I did everything you said it was able to set up the auxiliary affect and yet when I Copy and paste an existing audio track, And or if I recorded my voice onto that new audio track there was no affect. The auxiliary track had the volume all the way down and I would slide that all the way to Upstill had no effect. What am I doing wrong?

    Reply

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