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

Read more: http://bit.ly/hwXuQo In this week's Ableton Live tutorial, Professor Nalepa demonstrates three (3) effect techniques for spicing up your vocals. Inspired by the field trip his Advanced Tech class took this week to Low End Theory to catch a secret DJ set by Thom Yorke, he uses the lead vocal of Radiohead 'Reckoner' to demonstrate the first technique: reversing it, routing it out through reverb, resampling the reverb, reversing the resampled reverb and laying that back underneath the original forward vocal to get a haunting, ghostly premonition-style effect used in a lot of popular dance tracks. He also deconstructs tracks from his friend Nosaj Thing and former students It's Not Over Quebec, showing how they utilized sidechain compression and sidechain gating to achieve impressive results. Nosaj Thing released his debut album Drift and the follow up Drift Remixes on Alpha Pup Records. He is currently putting the finishing toucheson his second album and will be playing an audiovisual set at Coachella on Friday (April 15th) this year. Here is a free download of "Coat of Arms", the song used in this example.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• ableton
• ableton live
• ableton tutorials
• ableton live tutorials
• ableton tips
• ableton vocals
• radiohead
• nosaj thing
• nalepa
• professor nalepa
• side chaining
• vocals
• production tips
• tips and tricks
• it's not over quebec
• vocal effects
• low end theory
• thom yorke
• radio head
• vocal tips
• ableton lessons

[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.

[funkatram]

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

[Adeptmind]

@funkatram A lot of schoolsl get them from friends of friends of friends who know somebody who worked at a studio. Also acapella sites.. if you search free acapella on google you'll find a bunch

[bridog6996]

A further step to your first example (with the Radiohead vocal) is that you can then throw a compressor on the reverse reverb track and sidechain it back to the original. The compressor will duck the reverb according to the original vocal, and that way the reverse effect will only poke through in the little spaces between the vocal lines (if that makes sense). Helpful if you want that backwards echo effect but also want more clarity in the vocals.

[spaghettipopsicle]

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

[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