Ableton Live Tips #7: Vocal Effect Techniques (Radiohead, Nosaj Thing)

[Hbardhye89]

Where'd you find the radiohead vocal stem?

[jmotter92]

definitely trying side chained gating in my next track. thanks for the helpful info! :)

[christiantorelli]

You guys should make a video, not on how to do something specific, but about the program itself. I can easily replicate what you do in your videos, but without my own understanding of the program i cannot recreate it in my own style. Could you please do that, it would be super awesome to actually learn this program instead of selective tools or VST's!! Regardless, awesome tuts, awesome tips, and awesome instructors. THANKS! :)

[MainstreamAMERICA]

dude i would do anything to be your student

[ssiegert12]

why don't i have the option to choose the reverb return track for the input as shown in 1:46 ?

[BadTomorrow]

Always great good stuff. Finally getting to the point where with some vids, you just mention what you're going to do, and I can figure it mostly out, without watching the rest of the vid. Wouldn't have got this far without Dubspot tutorials.

[jazzismyreligion]

bad ass thank u

[lukaka16]

great tip, thanks much!

[RaheemdaplayaO4]

How come when I drag 'Reverb' it wont let me, but if I click one of the options in the reverb section it does?

[funkatram]

how does one normally go about obtaining vocal tracks and the like?

[mcsg27]

@funkatram you can try acapellas4u

[spaghettipopsicle]

@funkatram w w w . acapellas4u . co . uk/

[Saaaataan]

Actually, scrap that, i've found out exactly whats happened, it was in my view menu under the IN/OUT! Now i can get started on this tutorial, stupid me!

[Saaaataan]

Hey guys, i have Ableton Live 8 but i dont have the AUDIO TO/AUDIO FROM and Monitor bar in my Live. Anyone know why? Have i accidentally disabled it some time ago? Any help would be appreciated because it's pretty important and i've 'lost' it! :|

[vStylerJohnG]

very well presented in an understandable way, and.. good 'radio voice'

Thumbed.

[blindside7]

Does anyone know if this can be done live, on stage? As in using it as a vocal effects processor.

[whinchacha]

You forgot to activate High-Q in the clip property to prevent loosing quality.

[willmattwood]

@whinchacha If you activate High-Q you will actually introduce slight distortion. Only use this if you're planning on warping or altering the pitch of the file... you can prove this by dropping in a commercially mastered track that peaks at -0.01, and if you activate the High-Q the track will begin to peak over 0.00.

[checkoutniandra]

i love this tip on thom yorke's vocals, though i always have to watch how to do it again... because it is just like twisting your mind doing it... i didnt get the logic yet behind it :D with all that reversing

[andersonjayson]

Thx alot Dubspot!! Never understood side chaining.. Really appreciate the tut!!

[snalepa]

@andersonjayson You are welcome! Glad it was helpful



[jpupo]

that's the Poltergeist effect.. cool :)

[theforbiddentape]

the acapella isn't even free wtf?

[hotnovel]

Sounds like AAAAAAAAAH SHIIIIIIIIIIIT

[groundub]

The last u can do easyier with Simpler

[bclaus0]

@groundub no

[groundub]

@bclaus0 ok sorry, u cant and i can :D

[bclaus0]

@groundub how?

[groundub]

@bclaus0 I think u can see it here: Ableton Live-Summer-Acapella-RemiX (Refrain) 2011 (Spot) Part.3 Vocal Edit ^^

[bclaus0]

@groundub it's not the same, you just retrigger the sample.

[groundub]

@bclaus0 Yes, put a Gate on this u have the same effekt on Vocals+u can do it in all Notes+u can play it from ur Midicontroler. :D

[bclaus0]

@groundub yeah well that's more complex and still not the same unless you use two midi controllers, one for the gate and one for the sample pitching. Nevertheless both effects are still easily doable and cool.

[groundub]

@bclaus0 No,but i have make *special for u* a Tutorial (in 10 minutes its up) :D

Hope it helps ^^

Its not complex and u need No Controller for it,but u can do it with (Live Set,etc..).

[snalepa]

@groundub ok. Same difference really, but a lot of people like to sidechain to kick drums which is why I showed the Impulse.

[spiderrichard]

your tutorials kick ass keep them coming :)

[snalepa]

@spiderrichard Thanks. Took a hiatus because of building our online school, but we are about to start releasing them on the regular again. Thanks for your patience

[soulgoodmusictube]

Wow,

This was the best tutorial on this technique!......thx

[snalepa]

@soulgoodmusictube Thank you. Glad you found it helpful

[ChompTrax]

nice tip on the reverse vocal effect!! thanx!!!

[DubSpot]

@ChompTrax thanks! Check back every week for new tutorials from Steve! He's also part of our online school team and has been designing our Ableton Live online curriculum.

[snalepa]

@ChompTrax Word up. New tutorials coming soon!

[GetRealOnline]

DAYUM! impressive good sir! hmm i might need to give ableton another try. Seems like it's a lot easier to do things like this than it is in cubase.

[snalepa]

@GetRealOnline Thanks!

[damienlosa1]

can you post a link to get those vocals stems?

[snalepa]

@damienlosa1 Those Radiohead stems were for sale for a while, google around I'm sure they are out there.

[yoshimitsu0408]

I tried the second tip and am having a little trouble. I've followed your steps exactly and have had no change. Im using a preset impulse drum called backbeat and using the female vocals from Fort Minor's Where'd You Go. Tips? Otherwise fantastic

[TheVillainDubstep]

fucking sick!!!

[snalepa]

@TheVillainDubstep Thanks!

[veverzay]

hole do this a lot

[dmiles01]

Thank u D-Spot!

[Jungleritter]

Nice and helpful, thanks a lot :-)

[snalepa]

@Jungleritter Thanks!

[snalepa]

@Jungleritter Right on, thank you for tuning in

[asrah55]

Wow. Absolutely amazing!!

[AddHigga]

i gotta give a personal thanks on this one! been wondering how to make that effect since Hazy Shade of Winter

[snalepa]

@AddHigga Nice! Glad you like it. Hazy Shade of Winter!

[KWANTlZE]

NICE

[snalepa]

@KWANTlZE thanks

[PharaohJonesy]

And this is what's taught at Dubspot Online? I'm completely sold.

[snalepa]

@PharaohJonesy Been busy creating the online course, about to dive into these tutorials again. Ton of great knowledge in our online school, plus great teachers who are also talented producers

[thossii]

Thom Yorke is a DJ o-O?

[aroc11]

dude..Im not hating, but i dont see why people use reason outside of saving a lil cpu memory. Ableton is amazing, and having the ability to emulate most popular plugins..WELL is just great. Tuts are awesome too!!

[snalepa]

@aroc11 Reason is a powerful tool as well. There's some great sounds and creative possibilities in Reason. I love Ableton, but I believe you can make a killer jam with whatever app you are working with. I use Ableton for everything, maybe make some sounds in Reason, but if I only had access to Garage Band or Fruity Loops, I'd go deep and make something ill with it. Anyway, glad you like the tutorials.

[Tr0ll321]

THIS IS SO AWESOME THANKS DUBSPOT

[snalepa]

@Tr0ll321 Thanks for tuning in, new tutorials on their way...

[lonelywolfy]

sweet. that first one was kinda new to me. i mean ive done techniques similar but hadnt thought of it exactly as you showed. thats pretty dope.

[snalepa]

@lonelywolfy Word up, thanks

[blueandmax]

great video, but why do you send the original audio through a return track? Couldn't you just add a reverb to the original audio channel?

[lonelywolfy]

@blueandmax to get the full affect you have to push the wet/dry to 100%. if you do that with the reverb on the track itself you wont hear the original vocal clearly enough. plus to demonstrate this for us it was a lot easier for him to use the return track instead, especially since he showed multiple techniques and used different audio track to show us. it was a lot easier for him to just use the sends.

[snalepa]

@blueandmax Yes. Sometimes it is nice to have an effect on a send so that you can have the original dry vocal available independent of it. There's definitely different ways to accomplish the same result in Ableton.

[pandasecksi]

"bar9"...heh

[Leon3th]

i enjoy your tutorial on youtube and thankyou god bless and keep up the good work

[snalepa]

@Leon3th thanks!

[archebeats]

im starting as a dj, and dub spot has helped me to keep the music flowing, but, I've always wonder, where you get the vocal tracks? you know the accapellas or those things.

[snalepa]

@archebeats Google around for whatever you are looking for, stuff is out there you just have to figure out how to find it. There are also sites where you can purchase acapellas and instrumentals.

[chuckles1252]

i dont understand. how is the second audio track playing the audio forward, and the reverse reverb at the same time?

[lonelywolfy]

@chuckles1252 its not really playing it reverse exactly let me see if i can explain. because theres a decay tail on the reverb it elongates the vocal, and so when you reverse it back the parts of the vocal that were sang at one point on the original now start playing slightly before on the recorded reverb. so even thought its not playing backwards it kind of creates the effect that it is. its pretty ingenious. id always wondered how that kind of effect was produced, im so glad i know now!

[snalepa]

@lonelywolfy Thanks for helping out with the explanations. Cheers

[mariano26788]

Great Tutorial... but i think is old school production

[snalepa]

@mariano26788 Sure, it is an oldie but a goodie. I mean, the reality is that The Beatles invented pretty much everything anyway

[blabla12331]

@MrHeigA i'm sorry but i've never used Logic, so i have no idea, that one was the only thing i found that i thought it may be useful. hope someone can help you. Cheers!

[JimmyGr90]

Great video! "Let's just use the 'oohs' we have here" haha!

I just want to ask a couple of things:

On the Radiohead song, did you extract Thom York's original vocals from the song with some phase cancellation trick (if that's possible) or you already had the sample from before?

Also on the second tip when you sidechained the vocals, did you mean to raise the knee or the ratio on the compressor?

Thanks!

[snalepa]

@JimmyGr90 I used a vocal stem from the remix stems. On the compressor, you can adjust the knee to round out the curve so it is a smoother release, you can also adjust the ratio to make it duck harder, and you can adjust the release time to impact how long it takes for the compressor to let the audio come back up. By dialing in these elements along with the Threshold, you can ideally get your sidechain compression to happen in time in a musically appealing way.

[dodge70chargerrt]

Sidechain note: Make sure you change the ratio (harder the ratio the harder it ducks), as well as the release (this is a big one). This vocal sidechain sounded (to me) compressed too long, needed a shorter release. Also in ableton try the different compressor types (adds slight variance).

[blabla12331]

@MrHeigA if you're trying to make something like in the SHM-One video, try looking at the beginning of this tutorial :) watch?v=HPWkaMz6K7U

[blabla12331]

i really love dubspot tutorials. but i'm still trying to figure out how the song that starts at 11:55 is called... Some help? Anyone?

[adehaan11]

that last effect is awesome

[drgonz1]

Professor Nalepa! You are a gentleman and a scholar!! Love the tips!

[OMGlvl86turtlepilot]

why do i always watch these when imhi and then just fail at remembering and dupliocating

[jallstars]

i love this series.. so many good ideas. Thanks again.

[nn8nn]

thanks!

[staticxerciser]

nice, Thanks!

[telkmx]

Yew Low end rulz

[akpiano27]

wait... Thom Yorke DJed?

[iAmFractalSky]

thats fuckin awesome! once again, thanks D-Spot!