The Lead Vocal: Tricks for the mix part 1. 

In this article I want to look at probably the most crucial element in the mix of a   song: the lead vocal. After all, that is what most people listen to a song to hear.   So if it doesn't sound good, it won't matter how good the instrumentation is,   the song is as good as dead really. So, assuming you have recorded a killer   lead vocal, let's look at ways to get it to sound great in the mix. There are a few   tricks that I use regularly to make a vocal sound fat in the mix. One of these is  cloning. 

Track Cloning 
This is easy in the world of digital, because all you need to do is just copy the   main track to another track. Well, usually two tracks actually. I often like to have   a master track straight down the centre of the mix, a track panned left, and a   track panned right. So what do I do with these cloned tracks? Well, for the track   on the left I might use a small pitch shift of -8 to -12 cents of a semi-tone, and   a short delay of 25 m/s or so, while the opposite track on the right will receive a   pitch shift of +7 to +12 cents of a semitone, and a delay time of 50 m/s. You   will probably want to set the delay so that it is 100% wet, and has no feedback   at all. So, in other words, it is a "once only" very short repeat of the master   track. The fader on the master track is kept up at a good level, and you bring up   the other two faders evenly, until it makes the vocal sound nice and fat. It will   still sound like it is panned to the centre, but with a nice spread to it.   Depending on what else is in the mix, I might have the cloned tracks panned   anywhere from between 10 o'clock on the left, 2o'clock on the right, to hard   left-hard right. There is more processing that can be done to these cloned   tracks which we shall look at in more depth in the next article. 

Doubling

Right, the last section looked at artificial doubling. In this section we will look   at true doubling. While artificial doubling can be left until mix day, true doubling   is best done at the same time as you do the main vocal track. Once you have   recorded the main lead vocal track, you record a double of it. That means you   physically sing the part again, being careful to try and duplicate the timing,   phrasing and notes of the main vocal. Sometimes though, a slightly "loose"   doubled track can add an interesting feel to the vocal sound. The thing to   remember here is, that the more different the parts are , the closer you want to   have them panned together in the stereo field. If they sit underneath each other   or close together it will sound pretty much like one voice, but if the tracks are   spread apart further, you will begin to notice any differences in timing or pitch.   Doubling or even tripling of parts is a very common practice when recording   backing vocals. An interesting variation for utilizing this technique can be to   record a single track of the vocal for the songs's verses, and then double track   the chorus vocals to give them a sense of lift when you want it to somehow   seem more powerful. As an aside doubling techniques can often help to   disguise slightly off-key notes as well.  The next article will focus on equalization, compression, and panning of the   vocal. Until then. . .  © copyright 2004