What's Your Trick For Creating Thick Lead Vocals?

[wagtunes]

Title says it all. Please share. It's my next project.

[Watchful]

Doubling.

Want to go really thick?

1. Do a lead vocal track
2. Do a "kermit" track under it (double the track with slightly de-emphasized consonants and palatal vowels, otherwise your consonants will clash), raising the output level to where you just barely hear it
3. Do a whisper track under that
4. Do a double track an octave higher or lower and pan left
5. Do a double track an octave higher or lower and pan right
6. Create a vox send to some reverb, lowering the volume until you just barely hear it
7. Create another vox send to some delay, again lowering the volume.

In the 1980s, you'll recall there were some groups who would have 14-16 vocal tracks to really fatten them up. I think that's overkill, but the above should be more than enough.

Just be careful that these are really good doubled tracks--if you don't line up the vocals exactly, you'll hear stutters from the subtracks ("kiss" sounds like "k-k-kiss-sss-sss"). It'll take some effort.

[Ciderwell]

Reverse the vocal track and rerecord with reverb. Then flip the vocal track forward again and listen to the thick vocal result. An old trick but still very effective.

[Watchful]

That's just going to produce reverse reverb. Not sure that's what he was going for.

[Ciderwell]

That's just going to produce reverse reverb. Not sure that's what he was going for.

Give it a try, you'll be surprised at what happens. It's more like delay than reverb. I sometimes use this trick with lead guitar.

[Watchful]

Very familiar with the technique. I suspect it's not going to do what he needs. Its effect on vocals should be used sparingly.

[EyeCloud]

There’s no trick to it - there are time-tested methods to achieve it.

Close-miking is one way, but you need a good pop filter to avoid the plosives. However, it’s possible to clean up plosives to some extent with software.

Double tracking a unison vocal is another technique. There’s a lot of software available to process a single track of vocals, so you don’t need to record two takes. Often this kind of software can also give you an octave down doubling, but it can sound fake if you overdo it.

I’d also suggest not going overboard on the pitch correction. Some level of not being pitched perfectly helps to give a vocal a full sound rather than it blend in with perfectly matching frequencies and sound flat and lifeless.

Then there’s picking the right key for the timbre of your voice. Keeping to chest voice as much as possible will certainly give you a fuller sound.

Also, use your ears to EQ rather than trust software. Make the right space in your mix so you can high and low cut the vocal (and do some surgical notching) to sit comfortably in the mix without losing any fullness.

[eLawnMust]

Lower the pitch till the words are unintelligible then apply low-pass & flanging... In this fashion you can get away with any offensive speech...

[ghettosynth]

Red beans and rice.

[digitalboytn]

That's easy...

Bring in a thick singer

[Ciderwell]

I’d also suggest not going overboard on the pitch correction. Some level of not being pitched perfectly helps to give a vocal a full sound rather than it blend in with perfectly matching frequencies and sound flat and lifeless.

I was just reading about the Cher song "Believe" and it's use of Auto Tune software, that was at the time new technology.

"Believe" is an upbeat dance-pop and electropop song. It featured a pioneering use of the audio processing software Auto-Tune to distort her vocals, which was widely imitated and became known as the "Cher effect"

She used it heavily on the verses then cut the effect for the chorus'.

[ghettosynth]

That's easy...

Bring in a thick singer

Extra thickkk

[LoopMastering]

First I’d decide whether “thick” means more body or more width, because they need different fixes. For body, keep the lead mono and try a quiet parallel copy with heavier compression and a little saturation, then filter it so it fills the low mids without adding mud. For width, use a real double or two short, slightly different delays panned left and right, with the center lead left clear. Level-match as you build it, because louder nearly always sounds thicker. Most importantly, automate the layers. A vocal that is huge all the way through stops feeling huge when the chorus arrives.

[TheMaestro]

Buy every plugin available, use AI, use tips, and f**k it up anyway. You're welcome.

[whyterabbyt]

use a thick lead vocalist.