Narrow, mono-y vocals got you down?  Ruining your mix?  Chin up, buddy…there’s hope for you yet!

Today’s Mixing Tip:

Tune your vocal slightly up in one channel and down in the other to make it super wide!

Wait, what? Stick with me, it’s simple.  Many plugins will allow you to adjust the tuning of a track up or down by a handful of cents.  My favorite is the Waves Doubler (definitely not an advertisement for them. Do your homework on the “Waves Update Plan” before you spend a single dollar with this company. They make great plugins, but their business ethics are questionable.). Though most DAW’s will have some sort of plugin that allows you to do this.

Here’s what you do.  Send your vocal to an Aux Bus.  On that Aux Bus, place your stereo tuning plugin.  Tune one side up 5-10 cents, one side down 5-10 cents.  Mix this Aux Bus back into the mix to taste.  Instant width!

Notice the “direct” signal is turned off so you’re only hearing the tuned up/down version.

Here’s a vocal clip from the amazing band Dry Dry River showing just how kickass this effect can be:

Width in the vocal with hardly any effort.  Just how I like it!

Listen to this effect in action and enjoy the song in all its bone crushing glory!: