doubler plugins

Doubler plugins

Double tracking is more or less standard in modern pop and rock music, and while a true double track will always be more realistic, a doubler plugin could be very useful. Maybe you never recorded a double track or perhaps the singer isn't able to perform a solid double track. Doublers to the rescue.

A double tracking plugin typically works by duplicating the signal and applying subtle pitch shifting and delay. In the early days this could be achieved by setting up two tape machines where varispeed was used to set modulate the delay. The effect is in fact similar to a chorus.

This doesn´t all sounds too complicated, so do you really need more than one doubler? Let´s find out.

Test setup

I simply used a short vocal take and added the various plugins I tested at the end of the effects chain.
Most of the times I started with a basic vocal doubler preset and tweaked until I thought it sounded reasonably realistic. Some of the plugins were capable of going well beyond basic doubling but that wasn't the objective of this test.

That´s it, there´s not much more to say. You´ll find examples at the end as always.

Waves doubler

Waves doubler is the grand daddy of doublers and it´s been around for about 20 years. I've seen a number of high-profile mixers using this in mix classes and no doubt you've heard a record with this plugin on it.

The interface is very intuitive and makes it very easy to understand how the effect works behind the scenes. It doesn't really sound like an entirely realistic double take to me but it does a good job of thickening up a vocal (or whatever you throw at it) regardless.  Doubler is capable of various types of wobble, widening and pitch shifting effects so it´s a great general purpose utility effect.

Soundtoys microshift

Sound toys Microshift and the less expensive Little Microshift is based on the classic Eventide H3000 hardware multi-effects unit. To me it sounds like more like a "sweetener" than a doubler, and it´s a master of making guitars, synths and vocals sound super lush, wide and thick.

It´s not as intuitive as say waves doubler, but is able to produce a wider range of tones. With the delay cranked up it produced a fairly convincing double take effect, but the the highlight of this plugin is that instant ear candy you get when inserting it onto a track. Try it on acoustic guitar.

Izotope Vocal doubler

Izotope vocal doubler is based on the powerful Nectar vocal effects suite, and the reason I wanted to test this plugin was because it´s free! This plugin doesn't have a lot of parameters but was in fact one of the best at simulating a realistic double take. It´s perhaps slightly less less useful for general widening and thickening, but get this plugin if you need a believable double track. Well done Izotope and check out Nectar for more vocal treatment and control.

Waves Abbey Road Reel ADT

Wave´s abbey road series plugins are based on hardware from the famous Abbey Road studio in London, where the Beatles and George Martin was among the first to experiment with automatic double tracking. The Reel ADT user manual provides an in-depth guide of the setup and approach and is an interesting read if you´re into that sort of thing.

Reel ADT is the most colored of the bunch and it thins out the low end slightly. It is possible to create relatively convincing double takes with it, but it can sometimes approach phaser territory. Don´t get me wrong - I love this plugin and it truly gives you that classic vintage doubling effect. It goes beyond the limits of the vintage tape machines and allows to tweak and automate all parameters. Waves ADT is Highly recommended.

Melda Mdoubletracker

Melda has a wide range of creative effects, and have several plugins that target voice doubling and harmonizing such as MUnison and Mharmonizer. The recently released Mdoubletracker
specializes on double tracking though and does a very good job too. The interface isn't as straight forward as some of the others and a graphical representation of what´s going on would have been a nice add-on. A few more presets would have been nice too. It is, however, capable of a wide range of effects and it´s worth experimenting with the parameters.

This plugin produced of one of the most realistic double tracking simulation and I intentionally made it less tight to get that raw and non-edited double take sound.  This is one of the most realistic vocal doubler plugins I´ve heard it´s highly recommended.

Stock doubler

Next up is the stock "Cloner" plugin in from Cubase 9.5. I didn't have expectations on this plugin but was very surprised. It´s in fact capable of very usable results, especially when using 4 voices. It´s well worth checking out your stock plugin, and it may be all you need for basic double tracking.

Greg Wells Voice Centric

Voice centric is part ow Waves´ artist series, and I am especially impressed by the Greg Wells one-knob style plugins as they all sound great from the get-go. The voice centric has one huge dial that progressively adds compression, EQ and saturation to the sound, and in addition to that delay, reverb and a doubler effect.

I turned down the dial and switched off everything but the doubler to find out what is was capable of.
it´s not clear what the effect it is, but to me it sounded very similar to the waves doubler plugin which didn´t surprise me. The value of voice centric is the carefully defined presets and effect chains that have been built into a easy to use plugin and it´s definitely worth checking out if you're looking for a fast and professional pop/rock vocal sound.

Examples