Vocal doubling trick with ReaTune

Recently I reading an interview with a mix engineer that disliked auto-tune on lead vocals but would often use it in parallel as a doubler along with a stereo flanger or chorus. REAPER includes a realtime pitch correction plugin called ReaTune, and it works pretty well for this trick.

I used this trick on a recent mix where the chorus vocal needed a more ‘pop’ smoothness. Reatune on automatic correction, plus Stilwell’s Oligarc Chorus to make it stereo. Blended a few dB lower than the lead it added thickness and width.

plugin settings

Setup

• Insert new track after your main vocal, name this track “doubler”.
• Send post-fader from main vocal to doubler track.
• Insert ReaTune on doubler track. Activate Automatic Correction with a fast attack time of 50ms.
• Insert a stereo chorus (such as Oligarc Chorus) or flanger. There are many freebies available.
• Adjust the chorus/flanger for a wide stereo spread with no dry signal.
• Adjust doubler track level to taste.

Samples

I bet you want to know how this sounds. Here are some example clips from that mix to demonstrate the technique.

Main vocal soloed

Doubler soloed

Vocal + Doubler soloed

Full mix without doubler

Full mix with doubler