Not at all, the reason I posted that is because I don't find it one of these subtle things like when someone doesn't think an an amp sim sounds like an amp - it just doesn't sound the same as a double, it's its own sound and more like a chorus. Good for you! I, myself, did some tests, where (in the final mix) I just couldn't tell the "real" and the "fake" apart. Wow, that's quite a difference then! You must be extremely skilled. They almost all have a doubler section which is essentially a throwback to the eventide H3000 - the box that started it all. Just take a look at any of the Waves all-in-one vocal plugins. Its SUPER common on background vocals and even in conjunction with actual doubling on leads. This is usually dialed WAY back unless your name is Ozzy Osborne. They are then vocaligned to near perfection making the effect much slicker than in previous decades where the natural timing differences made it more obvious.ĭoubler plugins really get used more as stereo chorus effect adding width and motion. Many pop/rock/country chorus vocals are physically doubled almost by default. I do have some widening techniques to spread the lead vocal across the middle 30-45 degrees of the stereo field but that is usually unrelated to doubling.īoth techniques are wildly popular. Real doubling is far more common than most realize and I agree it typically sounds better if that is what one is wanting to create. I'd just urge you though, if you do prefer real double, is 3 minutes of boredom really insufferable to get a better sound? Not that you'd necessarily prefer real doubles to the Beatles style sound, it's all personal preference. I'd imagine the modern digital methods would get infinitely closer. The waves one does get that Beatles sound big time but do you really think it sounds like a real double? I don't think it does at all. Yeah Lennon, like me, only liked hearing his own voice when doubled. Well, because it bores the freaking hell out of me!Īnd funny enough, that’s what John Lennon expressed to his engineer at the time, who then came up with the original Reel ADT Abbey Road I sometimes get questions like: “Why don’t you just sing it twice?” Not the real thing, but carefully configured to a certain type of voce it will be convincingly enough in the final mix, and it will save time. But then I found Waves Reel ADT which as far as I am concerned is the closest you can get. After all, it’s all basically about pitch, timing and accentuation. It bothered me for years that I couldn’t save time by letting some plugin do the job.
Backing vocals, always at least two times (each). I've seen a number of high-profile mixers using this in mix classes and no doubt you've heard a record with this plugin on it.As far as the iZotope demonstration video goes, it sound pretty promising, I must say!Īs a strict routine, I have always doubled vocal/voices, even if I wouldn’t necessarily use it all in the final mix. Waves doubler Waves doubler is the grand daddy of doublers and it´s been around for about 20 years. You´ll find examples at the end as always. Some of the plugins were capable of going well beyond basic doubling but that wasn't the objective of this test. Most of the times I started with a basic vocal doubler preset and tweaked until I thought it sounded reasonably realistic. I simply used a short vocal take and added the various plugins I tested at the end of the effects chain. This doesn´t all sounds too complicated, so do you really need more than one doubler? Let´s find out. The effect is in fact similar to a chorus. In the early days this could be achieved by setting up two tape machines where varispeed was used to set modulate the delay. Doublers to the rescue.Ī double tracking plugin typically works by duplicating the signal and applying subtle pitch shifting and delay.
Maybe you never recorded a double track or perhaps the singer isn't able to perform a solid double track. Double tracking is more or less standard in modern pop and rock music, and while a true double track will always be more realistic, a doubler plugin could be very useful.