Vocal Thickening Trick in Cubase

[Derek WhitakerParticipant]

I was wondering how other Cubase users approach Warren's vocal thickening trick since there doesn't seem to be a way to drag two mono tracks into a stereo one. Are people going outside Cubase to create stereo tracks and import them back in? Or is anyone duplicating the mono vocal tracks and assigning each to a separate stereo bus and putting the doubler on the bus?

[simonbestParticipant]

Not a cubase user here, but can't you just pan them L/R and then Print to a stereo track? The bus solution should work too, just remember to pan them hard on the way to the bus.

[Derek WhitakerParticipant]

Hmm, even though they are a stereo track are both channels are at center and being panned L/R by the doubler plugin? Or does the doubler plugin act on whatever is in the far L/R stereo field as long as you deactivate the center channel on the plugin? Maybe I'm overthinking this 🙂

• This reply was modified 8 years ago by Derek Whitaker.
• This reply was modified 8 years ago by Derek Whitaker.
• This reply was modified 8 years ago by Derek Whitaker.
• This reply was modified 8 years ago by Derek Whitaker.

[Nick D.Participant]

yes the doubler plugin works as you described as long as deactivate the center. or you can try the sound toys microshift, its pretty close to the H3000 sound by itself.

In Cubase just send the mono track to stereo auxes with the doubler plugin inserted. Copying a mono track and panning them both to go to a stereo track will still result in a mono track (or at least a dual mono track), you have to use some sort of mono to stereo plugin on a stereo aux or group channel to make a mono source become stereo. if you have a spectrum analyzer that has Mid/Side mode you can see what im talking about. A mono or dual mono track will not have any side information (stereo) unless the dual mono track has some sort of phase difference (so delay, eq, etc.)

• This reply was modified 8 years ago by Nick D..

[Jeff MacdonaldModerator]

Here's a work-around I have been using in Cubase.

1) Set up a stereo output under your VST connections. Don't assign it to anything - it should be called Stereo Out 2.

2) Add a stereo audio track to your project and select Stereo Out 2 as an input.

3) Change the output on your vocal track to Stereo Out 2

4) Arm the new stereo track and record the vocal parts you wish to transfer into stereo (for the Doubler trick).

5) Set you lead vox track back to it's normal routing.

It's a bit more time consuming than pro-tools but this should get the job done for you.

Cheers,

Jeff

[Derek WhitakerParticipant]

Thanks for the tips everyone. I hope Cubase makes this a little easier in the future.

[Anonymous]

I don't see why inserting a stereo instance of Doubler on a mono vocal track couldn't work. When you feed a mono signal into a stereo plugin (in Cubase in particular), the signal is split into a stereo signal in the input stage, then the plugin processes it as a regular stereo signal.

[Derek WhitakerParticipant]

That's not what I'm finding Rosti. When I put a stereo plugin on a mono track insert in Cubase I'm hearing the plugin in mono.

[Arthur LabusModerator]

Same here Derek ! Stereo Insert plugin on single channel mono track don't work. I've always use Audacity to make in fact mono track with two channels (L+R).
Seems logic, because your stereo pluging have no "space" on single channel track for stereo output.
But it works fine with one channel mono track and plugin as send effect, if you set effect channel as stereo.

[DariodeJaneiroParticipant]

hey... i have a 4x stereo bus setup
Bus1 Doubler: +3 -3
Bus2 Doubler: -6 +6
Bus3 Doubler: +9 -9
Bus4 Doubler: -12 +12

and 4x sends from my vokal track...
cheers

[Anonymous]

Will have to try what you're suggesting, @DariodeJaneiro.

I still have Cubase and plan to produce my EP with it so it's interesting to find out if this method would work.

Lately I've been kind of lazy, and instead of doing vocal thickening the Warren way, I just dial in a tiny bit of micro pitch shift on Eventide Ultra Channel (my go to plugin for lead vocals). I will try it in Cubase on a mono lead vocal track and tell you guys how it works.

-Rosti

[Derek WhitakerParticipant]

I think Warren layers both. I've seen him use both the Waves doubler and the H3000 on a mix.

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