Stereo vocals from mono source...

[Xray55]

I need some tips on stereo vocals from a mono source. I'm remixing some material and don't have the option of having the vocalist make a return trip for a second vocal.

So I have run the single vocal to aux, then insert a stereo delay and that is OK. But I'm more interested in the in your face hard pan imaging. I tried a short delay inserted directly on one of the vocal tracks (split the mono source) and that works OK but when I check in mono I get a phasing problem.

Can someone who has perfected this technique offer some delay settings etc that have worked for you?

Much appreciated.

[Bastiaan]

First: why do you route the vocal to an aux-bus? If you apply the delay on the channel itself it will work perfectly. You also get a slider in the delay-plugin to set your dry/wet mix.

Maybe its an idea to experiment with a reverb with some extreme settings? Make sure you use the mono in/stereo out one. Now play with the controls to make it sound less like a reverb....

[Xray55]

Well I was experimenting with two process, one with a single mono track sending to a stereo delay. I would hard pan the delay returns.

The 2nd was splitting the mono track and then adding the delay as an insert on one of the tracks. The latter produced a hard pan effect and doubling but there always seems to be a phasing issue.

I hear this done so much there has got to be a tried and true method, I'm just not hitting it.

[APAULOS]

You know, when you apply Waves Ren Verb it automatically makes your track stereo, and it's the best plug-in reverb available for PTLE at the moment.
I've never tried this with vocals before but I like to put the stereo delay on clean guitars and put the left channel at 100% wet and about 3-4 miliseconds, and the right channel at 20%wet and 11-12 miliseconds...I get a really desirable stereo image after some time of wiggling the delay controls to find the sweet spot.
Of course nothing beats double tracking for BGV's. But Rverb would be my second choice and the stereo delay my third. Hope that helps.

[jamlaw]

I like to also use chorus to widen the image