Warren's Vocal Thickening Trick

[Fernando FrancoParticipant]

Hey guys wanted to share a Reaper tutorial for replicating Warren's vocal thickening trick. I'm new at this Vlog/Tutorial stuff I hope I was clear enough and it helps you out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hsf7F87zI1U

[Mark WarnerParticipant]

Nice one Tachi. I have been doing this in Reaper for a few months now with great effect but I don't have time to make videos. I sometimes find it can be a little phasey so I also use TC Helicon's vocal thichener as well. Between the two it gets the job done. Thanks for making a Reaper video. More people need to know about the dark side 😉

[Mark WarnerParticipant]

Additional - Tachi a couple of points.
1. The section you where describe and play the effect it is only coming out of the left channel so someone watching the video cannot hear the effect?

2. Your description is missing the delay element which is a key part of Warren's process.

The way I do it follows Warren's method so my settings are like this

1 create 8 Tracks labelled like this L 10ms -3, R24ms +3, L 24ms +6, R 10ms -6.....
2 On each track I add both ReaDelay and ReaPitch plugins (delay first in the chain)
3 I add upto 8 sends on the vocal track panning each one alternately Left and Right to each of the thickening tracks
4 In each of the 8 tracks I do one of the following
LHS
10ms delay -3 cents Pitch
24ms Dleay +6 cents Pitch
10ms Dleay -9 cents Pitch
24ms Delay +12 cents Pitch
RHS
24ms delay +3 cents Pitch
10ms delay -6 cents Pitch
24ms delay +9 cents pitch
10ms delay -12 cents Pitch
It is vital not only to altenate the +/- pitch shift left and right but to also alternate the 10ms and 24ms delay left and right. Also the the delay must have no feedback (-120db?) and be 100% wet.

This, I think you will find will give you a much closer Thickening effect to Warren's. I now have this in my Basic Mix Template to be used in any mix and I can either call in 1, 2, 3 or 4 pairs as the mix dictates. My setup also means I can individually control the amount of each element going into the mixand by having the 8 processes in a folder I can control all of the as well. I will post a screenshot of my version.

Cheers - Mark

• This reply was modified 7 years ago by Mark Warner.

[Mark WarnerParticipant]

Here are some screen shots of what I am describing. There are probably easier ways to do this but I went for versitility. I can include/exclude certain bands if I want and I can individually adjust the levels of each as well as the overall level of the thickening effect.

I hope you done't mind my sharing this information with you. Cheers - Mark

[Fernando FrancoParticipant]

Hi Mark,

I appreciate you sharing this. I went back to watch the video and you are right. My voice was recorded to the left (mono only) but the vocal and the effect are stereo. I also went back to watch Warren's vocal thickening video and you are right the pitch shifting is alternating:
-3L +3R +6L -6R -9L +9R +12L -12R (I'll correct this in the video for accuracy)

I am not too sure about the delay though. I didn't see Warren do that in the video and I think the delay would cause phase issues making the vocal thinner would't it? I'll have to try this

Warren's video for reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwIZ35CAA5Y

[Mark WarnerParticipant]

Hi Tachi,

No worries, I picked up Warren's Thickening method by watching him do in a number of videos not just this one. If you look at the screen shot below you will see that the plugin he uses defaults to 9.4ms delay Left and 23.7ms delay right. I have circled it as its not very clear.

Hope this helps

Cheers - Mark

[Mark WarnerParticipant]

Additional ......
Ok Tachi, I found the video from which the values I mentioned come from, it's this one.

https://youtu.be/U8N0LlJkzQg?list=PLnLOmVwRMCqSeD_YmSp9-BRR9QJHEycDK

See attached screenshot

ATB - Mark

[Fernando FrancoParticipant]

Interesting!! Thanks Mark ! I'll try it with and without and compare?

[Mark WarnerParticipant]

That's a good idea. Try both. I seem to remember in one of Warren's videos (it could have been a Pro Mix Academy video) Warren did it as I described but I think that was to also to emulate the Eventide H3000 sound. You are right that in the video you have referenced he does not seem to alternate the delay. However the delay you see in the plugin by default will widen the stereo effect for sure. It tricks the brain into thinking that the sound is coming from further away due the difference in times the sound arrives at each ear caused by the different delay lengths.

I see you checked out the Wave Rider emulation in Reaper, did you check out the Dolby A trick? That one is hardly known about and very little is on the internet. That also does great things for vocals.

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