Vocals are not only the voice of a song - they are an instrument. Creative processing can highlight key moments, create hooks, and give a record a sound of its own. Use these tricks to accent moments, not to cover the whole vocal.
Telephone and lo-fi EQ
Remove the lows and highs and boost the mids, and a vocal sounds like it is coming through a phone or an old radio. A steep high-pass around 400-500 Hz, a steep low-pass around 3-4 kHz, and a boost around 1.5-2 kHz is a starting point.
Use it to set a section apart - a breakdown, an intro, a bridge - and then return to the full vocal for impact.
Octaves and pitch shifting
- Octave doubles - a copy an octave down, very quiet, adds weight and darkness; an octave up adds brightness and urgency.
- Extreme shifts - a vocal pitched well up or down becomes a character or a texture. Pitched-up vocal samples are a signature of UK garage, future garage and much electronic music.
- Pitch-shift a vocal phrase into a riff - set to a new melody, a vocal fragment becomes an instrumental hook.
Formant shifting
Formant shifting changes the character of a voice without changing its pitch - making it sound larger, smaller, more masculine or more feminine. Combined with pitch shifting, it gives you full control: higher pitch without chipmunk effects, or a completely different-sounding voice.
Vocal chops
Slice a vocal into syllables or short fragments, load them into a sampler, and play them as an instrument. Vocal chops are central to modern pop and electronic music - often as the post-chorus hook.
- Chop on clean syllables with clear starts.
- Play them in a new rhythm and melody.
- Process heavily - filters, reverb, delay - to make them part of the track's texture.
Vocoders and talk boxes
- Vocoders analyse the spectrum of a voice and impose it on a synthesiser, so the synth "speaks". The robotic voice of electro, Daft Punk and countless synth-pop records.
- Talk boxes send an instrument's sound through a tube into the performer's mouth, shaping it with their mouth - the sound of Roger Troutman and much West Coast funk and hip-hop.
Distortion
- Parallel distortion - a distorted copy mixed very low under the clean vocal adds harmonics and aggression without obvious distortion. It helps vocals cut through dense, loud tracks.
- Obvious distortion - an amp simulator or bit crusher on a vocal for a raw, aggressive sound, often used on a single line or section.
Reverse reverb and swells
Reverse a vocal phrase, add reverb, record the reverb, and reverse it back: the reverb swells up into the word. A dramatic, ghostly entrance - great at the start of a chorus or after a breakdown.
Delay throws
Send the last word of a phrase to a long delay, so it echoes into the space after it. A classic dub and pop technique for adding drama without clutter. Automate the send so only chosen words get the throw.
Stutters and edits
Repeat or chop syllables rhythmically - "to-to-to-tonight" - for a hook or a build. Gate effects and glitch plug-ins can create these automatically; manual editing gives more control.
Do this now
- Apply a telephone EQ to the first line of a chorus, then return to the full vocal on the second line.
- Add an octave-down double at very low level to a chorus.
- Chop one vocal phrase into syllables and play a new four-bar hook with them in a sampler.
- Automate a delay throw on the last word of every chorus line.