Crowd Singing effect
 

Is there anyone who could tell me if achieving a - crowd singing effect - is possible without recording an actual group of people?

I have used Antares Choir plug-in. I tried it and it just seemed sort of fake. I only recorded one voice and then told it 32 voices..Seems like their is maybe something better.

Anyone have any thoughts? or how to.

Re: Crowd Singing effect
 

I've tried it using Waves Doubler and their ultra pitch without much luck. I put the 4 band members in my big room with a U87 on Omni across the room and had them do the parts(screams) many times, then I used most of them and panned them differently across the stereo field appropriately so they fit in with the instruments....awesome.....sometimes there's nothing quite like the real thing.
Sorry I didn't have the answer you were looking for, but hope this helps;).

Re: Crowd Singing effect
 

In one project to create a choir effect I recorded myself and a couple others several times singing the different parts several times. Then with some panning and a bit of reverb, it came out sounding like a nice little choir. I expect you could try something similar for a crowd effect. But you'll need 4 or 5 unique original voices, I think, to make it work. You could play with applying different EQ's to some to give slightly different tonal effects. You could also copy an audio track to a second track and try making small adjustments in pitch from one to other coupled with slightly different fx to vary timbre.

Good luck.

Re: Crowd Singing effect
 

Visualise in your minds eye, a small choir standing in a semi circle around an omni mic.

Map out those physical positions of the choir members in relation to the mic on a piece of paper.

Let's say for example that you end up with a front row with 3 positions : centre, centre left and centre right, and a back row standing on a raised platform (phone books :-)) with 4 positions : hard left, mid left, mid right and hard right.

Create the seven required tracks and name and pan them accordingly.

Now set up your mono mic and perform the seven passes (for this example) taking care to move yourselves and not the mic around the room in relation to the positions you have mapped out, recording on to the appropriate track.

This will give you a realistic sense of space, depth and colouration.

Hope that inspires you to experiment.

Re: Crowd Singing effect
 

If you are talking about a "crowd" instead of a "choir" then keep in mind that there are always a few people that can't hit the notes or the rhythm and these out of tune/time singers can be heard a bit here and there.. Try detuning a couple takes and mix them in to taste.. Should help add to the casual, non-professional ambiance, at least if that is the effect you are going for.

Re: Crowd Singing effect
 

+1

Add some 'shout' takes if you're after the 'crowd' as opposed to the choir, plus a few exaggerated pronunciations.

Scott

Re: Crowd Singing effect
 

"Whisper" tracks, mixed well, can also work nicely in this situation. Create a track where you whisper the same thing that is being sung, and mix it in to taste.

Re: Crowd Singing effect
 

You can also take a track of crowd and duplicate it. Then on the duplicate track, enable Elastic Audio and stretch it a small amount. This will make it so it does not sound like a fake doubling.

Re: Crowd Singing effect
 

Hi! Take a loot at my page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sergio...nn/55050982059 and listen to the second track, "Diablos Rojos Porra Batucada". If that's the effect you're looking for, a sort of stadium-crowd chant effect, then record yourself singing different harmonies to the same melody and then move each track a LITTLE BIT (to taste) forwards or backwards. Remember, in a stadium people don't start singing at exactly the same time!

Hope that helps!

Re: Crowd Singing effect
 

Shifting the formant of some overdubs, some up, some down a little (no more than 3 semitones) may help, if it's mostly one person overdubbing himself. Then again, I think those monster group vocs on old Def Leppard records are all one guy, and they didn't have formant shift back then! That was done locking two 24 track analog machines together, bouncing huge numbers of vocs down to stereo, and adding more. Insane.