Avox DUO Evo: Getting the most out of your vocals

Doubling

Doubling is the method of taking two nearly identical vocal tracks and pairing them together to achieve a very cool and powerful stereo effect. This can be achieved by having a vocalist sing two takes of the same track or by using an effects plug-in such as Antares DUO Evo.

DUO Evo doesn't simply copy the main vocal with random timing variations, but provides the ability to make the doubled vocal sound like an actual new take. How does it do this? Well, there are four factors; timing, pitch, vibrato and formant control.

Timing, pitch, and vibrato depth operate on a constantly changing scale, meaning that they vary constantly over time, allowing the doubled vocal to have natural variations that you would hear if you had actually recorded a second take. Since you have individual control of each of these variable parameters, you can always customize the overall effect to fit the specific song and style you are working in. Each parameter can also be controlled by automation within your host, so changing the degree of variation between the original vocal and the doubled vocal is entirely in your hands.

In addition to timing, pitch, and vibrato, DUO Evo offers a unique Vocal Timbre control that uses the same throat modeling technology found in Auto-TuneTM Evo. Without changing the Vocal Timbre in DUO Evo, you can achieve the more traditional doubling effect you get when an artist records his or her own double track. Adjusting the Vocal Timbre up or down (which essentially models differing vocal tracts) gives the effect of a different artist singing the second track, while including all the other natural variation effects mentioned above.

DUO Evo is just as powerful, if not more powerful, than recording a second take of the artist since it allows total control over the doubled vocal and gives the flexibility of adding doubled vocals quickly, without using valuable studio time.

Applying DUO Evo: Achieving professional sounding vocals using the Antares DUO Evo plug-in.

To achieve traditional doubling, simply instantiating DUO Evo as an insert effect on your vocal track and adjust the effects mentioned above to find the sweet spot for the session.

For even more control over your vocals, try adding the plug-in in an auxiliary effect channel and sending your main vocal channel to that auxiliary effect.

To do this, create an auxiliary effect channel (sometimes called an AUX Send) within your host and add DUO Evo to the inserts or plug-in chain. Next, route your vocal track to the AUX Send and route the Return back to your main mix.

This method gives you level and stereo placement control of three different vocals outputs at once; the main vocal, the DUO Evo original output, and the DUO Evo doubled output.

Having three different outputs directed to different areas in the stereo field will give your vocals a powerful stereo sound with total control over the levels and placement of each output.

Here are before and after examples using these setting:

Original: antarestech.com/downloads/duo_demo/original.aif

Original with DUO Evo: antarestech.com/downloads/duo_demo/original_with_DUO.aif

Experiment with the settings within DUO Evo and your host to achieve complex and effective sounds that allow your vocals to stand out; encouraging artists to come back again and again for your signature sound.